AISI youth alliance from Telavi, Georgia was represented at our project by five members that were very unique in terms of personality and talents. They have helped us to discover how the national Georgian dances started and their evolution during the years.

The Georgian team started by explaining that the dances first emerged in villages and were strongly connected with agriculture and earth. They contain pagan elements together with traditions, rules, and customs from the Georgian culture. Participants were immersed in the history of the Georgian dances that transcended the centuries and, at the end, they learned a few dancing steps that were useful in the next session.

Participants liked that they were given some insights about the Georgian culture and history. They enjoyed the lyricality of the Georgian songs.

Perkjuli magic ritual in Georgia

The Georgian team has helped us to re-create rituals from the past and learn about their ancestor’s lives and spiritual ideals. As most of the Georgian rituals include dances, participants used the moves learned in the previous session to recreate these rituals. They learned some simple incantations and chants and simulated an important ritual dedicated to the Sun called Perkhulis. The Georgian team did a great job by transporting the participants with the power of their minds on a fairy place somewhere in the Georgian mountains, waiting for the first rays of the morning. They started the ritual and the dances and they showed how light will always win over the darkness.

Participants felt as if they were in a fairy-tale and they were very thankful they could try this ritual in their life, some of them said they would like to introduce it in their meditation techniques. It was a wonderful and powerful spiritual experience and everybody was sad when they returned to the reality. But they realised their reality is this project and they continued happily with another interesting session.

The project Passport to Culture is coordinated by Sunrise Project France in collaboration with Youth Dream Algeria, Armenian Progressive Youth, The Change is in You Bulgaria, AISI Youth Alliance Georgia, Cilento Youth Union Italy, People of Delta Romania and We Youth Tunisia. The project is funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.