Georgian New Year Table: Traditional Dishes and Customs of Akhali Tseli
28October2026
Cuisines Guide Team
Cuisines Guide is a small team from Georgia sharing home-style recipes from around the world – from khinkali and khachapuri to Turkish, Polish, Moroccan and Portuguese classics – explained step by step for home cooks.
👉 In Georgia, New Year’s Eve (Akhali Tseli) is the biggest family celebration of the year – bigger, for many families, than Christmas, which Georgians celebrate on January 7th. The table is set for hours, fireworks fill the sky over Tbilisi at midnight, and every home prepares the same beloved dishes that Georgians have eaten on this night for generations. Here is what goes on a traditional Georgian New Year table, what each dish means, and how to make them at home.
A Georgian New Year table: gozinaki, churchkhela, satsivi, khachapuri and pomegranates
🦃 1. Satsivi – The Star of the Table
No Georgian New Year is complete without satsivi: turkey or chicken served cold in a creamy sauce of ground walnuts, garlic and spices like blue fenugreek, coriander and dried marigold. Families start making it a day or two ahead, because satsivi tastes best after resting in the fridge. 👉 Our chicken satsivi recipe
🍯 2. Gozinaki – Honey and Walnut Candy
Gozinaki is the sweet symbol of the Georgian New Year: walnuts cooked in hot honey, spread out and cut into diamonds. Honey stands for a sweet year ahead and walnuts for abundance. Many grandmothers still make it at home on December 31st, and the smell of warm honey fills the whole house. 👉 Make gozinaki
Gozinaki – walnuts set in honey, the sweet symbol of the Georgian New Year
🍇 3. Churchkhela – “Georgian Snickers”
Strings of walnuts dipped in thickened grape juice and dried until chewy. Churchkhela is made in autumn after the grape harvest and saved for the winter holidays, when it hangs above the table or sits in bundles next to the fruit. 👉 Churchkhela recipe
Cold appetizers made with walnut paste are everywhere: colourful balls of spinach or beet pkhali topped with pomegranate seeds, and badrijani nigvzit – fried eggplant rolled around walnut filling.
🐖 6. Roast Piglet or Mtsvadi
In many regions a whole roast piglet (gochi) is the centrepiece, crisp-skinned and served with tkemali plum sauce. Other families grill pork mtsvadi or serve chicken tabaka.
🍞 7. Basila and New Year Breads
In western Georgia, especially Guria, women bake a round ritual bread called basila, decorated with dough figures and sometimes a boiled egg. It is a wish for fertility and a rich harvest in the new year.
🍎 8. Pomegranates, Mandarins and Walnuts
Bowls of fruit and nuts are part of the decoration and the meaning: pomegranates for many children and prosperity, mandarins from Adjara and Guria for sunshine in winter, and walnuts for abundance. Some families crack a pomegranate on the doorstep for good luck.
🌲 The Chichilaki and the Mekvle
Chichilaki – a small tree made of hazelnut or walnut wood shaved into soft, curly white strands, said to look like the beard of Saint Basil. It is decorated with fruit and sweets, and on Epiphany (January 19th) it is burned to send away the troubles of the old year.
Mekvle – the first person to enter the house after midnight. A kind, lucky person is chosen on purpose; they bring sweets, fruit or churchkhela and are believed to set the luck of the whole year.
Bedoba – January 2nd is the “day of fortune”: people try to be happy and generous, because the way you spend Bedoba is believed to shape the rest of the year.
Old New Year – many Georgians celebrate a second, smaller New Year on the night of January 13th–14th, following the old Julian calendar.
🍷 A Supra for New Year
The New Year meal is a full supra, led by a toastmaster (tamada) who raises toasts to the new year, to family, to those who are gone and to Georgia. Georgian wine – white Rkatsiteli or red Saperavi – is shared all night. 👉 Read more about the Georgian supra.
❓ FAQ
What do Georgians eat on New Year’s Eve? Satsivi (turkey or chicken in walnut sauce) and gozinaki (walnut and honey candy) are the two must-have dishes, with churchkhela, khachapuri, pkhali, roast pork or piglet, fruit and wine.
What is a chichilaki? A traditional Georgian New Year tree made from a hazelnut branch shaved into curly white wood strands and decorated with dried fruit.
Who is the mekvle? The first guest who crosses the threshold after midnight. Georgians believe this person brings the household its luck for the new year.
When is Christmas in Georgia? The Georgian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7th, so New Year comes first and is the main family feast.
