Cjss second Issue: cjss second Issue qxd

the consecrated  wine vessel implied the participation of a definite group of
people (definite social unit - community, kin village, family), who offered a
sacrificial animal, broke bread, prayed and made their communion., which
actually was the Eucharistic Feast at Easter).  Marani was considered to be
the most sacred and beloved place for the performance of the ritual partaken
by community, village, kin, family.  In this respect, according to its functions
(establishing contacts between messmates, and between them and the God,
as well) it reminds the kenacullum of the first Christians. The clay vial, used
in the ritual performed over the wine vessel could be compared with and de-
fined as a Eucharistic symbol, the well known mythologized symbol of which
is Grail or bowl (vial) in which according to the legend the blood of the Savoir
had been gathered by Josef from Arimathaea during the Deposition from the
Cross. The bread broken between the participants is called ganatekhi (broken
bread) (widely used in Racha and Lechkumi (regions in the west Georgia)
even nowadays), and the common meal - “puris gantexva” (i.e. “breaking of
bread”), which is in full accordance with the New Testament common meal
(comp. Luke 24. pp. 30, 35; Acts: 20.7, 11). According to some suppositions,
the phrase “breaking of bread” directly connotes the Lord’s Last Supper (Acts
2.42).   Thus according to our investigations, in marani (the Wine House),
which had the functions of kenakulum, by means of performed ritual the be-
lievers (participants) related themselves with the first liturgy i.e. with the last
Supper of the Lord, when a new sacrament had been established by the Savoir
which meant by means of bread and wine, communion with the blood and
flash of the Christ. It must specially marked, that every Christian tradition
had and has its main cult, by which it is distinguished from the other Christian
traditions. For example, in Eastern Europe and in particular, in Russia to such
cults belong the worship of the Lord’s Grave (together with pilgrimages which
accompany this cult), as for Georgia the most important cult for it was “the
Last Supperof the Lord”. In this paper a special accent has been made on the
fact that the above described and analyzed ritual performed in the wine store-
house  among other things also pointed to the ethnic belonging. The people
resettled (and migrated) from foreign countries as a rule did not perform the
local customs, did not observe and follow the rules and rituals. Though with
some exceptions there were migrants who wanted to become full members
(or at least nominal members) of the local culture and those who were per-
suaded to fulfill local customs because of the committed sin or some accident.                               
The Abkhazian ethnographic data is a vivid illustration of this thesis. Ac-
cording to the widespread beliefs, lies before the icon (and in particular be-
fore St George’ icon) and some other kind of faults were strictly and severely
punished by the saint. That’s why the sinner as soon as he fell ill or met some
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other kind of disaster admitted his guilt before the icon and in an effort to es-
cape the crisis performed the so called “purifying sacrifice” or “rites of pas-
sage” over the consecrated wine vessel according to the local rules. After that
he performed the ancestral custom annually together with the rest of the pop-
ulation. Consequently the newcomer (novice) was converted into “Abkhazian”
what in fact meant to become “Georgian” while he/she (the newcomer) by
means of this ritual communicated and shared with Georgian Christian tradi-
tion.
Finally it must be emphasized that in Abkhazia the trace of Christianity
might be found not only in the number of old churches and monasteries, but
also in the old  ancestral cultic actions, which point to the early Christian ritual
practice  and is the main practice for Georgians. The described custom, de-
spite the later confusion of confessions (conversion into Mohammedanism)
remained the stable custom and this part of Georgia together with the  other
parts of it over the centuries had been constructing one whole culture or bet-
ter to say the  spiritual configuration of Christian culture. 
And the last question is that: what sort of symbols can share identity?
These ritual symbols might be the communal meal presided over the sacred
wine vessel by the Pater familias as patron  at a banquet, the ritual of breaking
of bread,  the  cup of wine over which a blessing is spoken. And at last the
whole ritual might be seen as rite of passage during which new individuals
were incorporated into the new identity. Thus the above analyzed ritual ex-
pressing the central values and goals of the society might provide us with
clues to the identity, culture and self-understanding of age-old Georgian so-
ciety.
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