Shukhuti and Lelo Burti

Once a year, on Orthodox Easter, two Gurian villages fight for a ball — and this is not a performance for visitors. Zemo and Kvemo Shukhuti sit side by side in Lanchkhuti municipality, separated by a small river. That river is the goal at both ends. Lelo burti is a mass wrestle with no positions, no pitch and almost no rules. The ball is sewn by hand from leather, packed with sawdust and earth, and weighs up to fifty kilograms. The village priest blesses it and throws it into the middle. After that two teams — every man of each village who is standing — try to carry it to their own river. There is nothing else: no time limit, no fixed number of players, no boundaries. The game runs three to five hours and moves through streets, over fences and through gardens. The winning ball is then laid for the year on the grave of a villager who died recently. That is the most important part of the whole thing, and what moves it out of sport and into ritual. Nobody knows exactly how old the tradition is; it is usually connected to medieval military training. Since 2014 lelo burti has been listed as intangible cultural heritage of Georgia. On the other 364 days Shukhuti is an ordinary Gurian village: tea bushes, hazelnut orchards, wooden balconies. Worth passing through if you are on the road — but if you want the game, there is one date, and it is Orthodox Easter.

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