The Georgian people are known for for their wines, their singing and their great dinners where the former are combined in great quantity. A dinner (nearly any dinner from what I can gather) is assigned a master of ceremonies who is given the responsibility to see that everyone has a good time, drinks plenty of wine and sings every song he or she knows. There are elaborate ceremonial vessels from which toasts are made long into the night. The Georgian people do not take having a good time lightly.

They have a legend that relates how, shorly after God's act of creation, God called all the earth's peoples together to parcel out the land between them. The people of Georgia were enganged in a great celebration feast with singing and toasting and totally missed the distribution of lands. When at last they came to the Throne of God, all the earth's lands had been assigned. They begged God's forgiveness and explained that they had been engaged in singing a toasting the Glory of God and could not bear to leave that activity. When God had listened to their explanation, he was so touched that he gave them the one piece of the earth He'd been saving for himself.

Incidently, according to legend, Georgia is where Jason sailed to steal the golden fleece. It also is one of the world's oldest continuous cultures preserving traditions unbroken by the vagaries of time and conflict.

      - Mark