Alaverdoba ( ka, ალავერდობა) is a religious and folk celebration in the eastern

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

province of Kakheti, with its roots in a

harvest festival A harvest festival is an annual celebration that occurs around the time of the main harvest of a given region. Given the differences in climate and crops around the world, harvest festivals can be found at various times at different places. ...

. It focuses on Alaverdi Cathedral from which it derives its name, with the suffix –''oba'' designating attribution. The festival lasts for several days, climaxing on 28 September, the feast day of St. Joseph of Alaverdi of the

Thirteen Assyrian Fathers The Thirteen Assyrian Fathers ( ka, ათცამმეტი ასურელი მამანი, tr) were, according to Georgian church tradition, a group of monastic missionaries who arrived from Mesopotamia to Georgia to strengthen Chri ...

, the 6th-century founder of the cathedral. Historically Alaverdoba lasted for three weeks in a three-step cycle, reflecting pre-Christian cults related to

the Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

. In the 19th century, a tradition of agricultural fair was added to the festival. It has been a subject of several contemporary ethnological accounts and travelogues as well as the focus of Giorgi Shengelaya’s 1962 semi-documentary '' Alaverdoba''. Alaverdoba survived the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

era and is still widely celebrated in Kakheti, attended by locals as well as visitors from the neighboring communities such as the

Kists The Kists ( ka, ქისტები ''kist'ebi'', ce, Kistoj, Kisti, Nokhcho, Nakhcho) are a Chechen subethnos in Georgia. They primarily live in the Pankisi Gorge, in the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti, where there are approximately 9,0 ...

from the

Pankisi Gorge Pankisi ( ka, პანკისი) or the Pankisi Gorge (, ''Pankisis Kheoba'') is a valley region in Georgia, in the upper reaches of River Alazani just south of Georgia’s historic region of Tusheti between Mt Borbalo and the ruined 17th ...

.Kurtsikidze, Shorena & Chikovani, Vakhtang (2002)
Georgia's Pankisi Gorge: An Ethnographic Survey
, p. 26. ''Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Working Paper Series''

References

{{Reflist Christian festivals in Europe Festivals in Georgia (country) September observances Autumn events in Georgia (country)