Village Pride
Shukhuti is a village where everyone knows everyone else, where cows stroll unchaperoned along the dirt roads, where traditions dictate daily life.
The night before this year’s game, more than a dozen men representing both sides of the village gathered for a supra — a Georgian feast, an endurance challenge in its own right — at the home of Malkhaz Oragvelidze, who has been responsible for crafting the Lelo Burti ball since 2011. The guests’ ages ranged from 17 to 74.
“We grew up watching our fathers, our uncles, play,” said Lasha Azaladze, 29, who would represent Lower Shukhuti. “It fits the character of a Georgian man, always ready for a battle.”
The men ate boundless quantities of meat, drank wine and chacha, the Georgian grape liquor, and raised toasts every few minutes: to Georgia and its occupied regions, to the deceased, to the sick, to the country’s women, to the next generation, to the past players of Lelo Burti and those who keep it alive today.
They toasted the memories of Vitaly Torotadze, who had died in 2017 at age 49 and was being honored by Upper Shukhuti this year, and to Aleko Dolidze, an engineer, who would receive the ball if Lower Shukhuti won the game.
Halfway through the night, the ball was tossed to Gia Imnaishvili, the tamada, or toastmaster, of the feast. In the morning, it would be filled with dirt to the weight of 16 kilograms (about 35 pounds) and blessed with wine by Father Saba, the local priest. For now it sat empty, so the men curved the stiff leather into a chalice and filled it with wine.
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