Tijroba

Tijroba is an Eastern Christian Orthodox holiday celebrated by Georgian and Ossetian communities in the Gremiskhevi Valley, located on the administrative boundary line separating proper Georgia from its separatist republic of South Ossetia. While an ancient holiday, it has largely decreased in popularity following the 2008 Russia-Georgia War that resulted in Russian troops placing barbed wires to divide the valley, thus separating Ossetian and Georgian families that would originally celebrate the holiday together.
Celebration
Tijroba is a traditional holiday celebrated by members of the Georgian Orthodox Church living in the Gremiskhevi Valley, a small valley bordering the Dusheti and Akhalgori districts of central Georgia. Although ethnic Ossetian and Georgian families have traditionally celebrated the holiday together, they have been unable to do so since the Second South Ossetia War of August 2008 and since the placement of barbed wires by Russian troops, dividing the valley in two.
An ancient shrine dedicated to Tijroba on top of one of the valley's hills exists on the South Ossetian side of the Administrative Boundary Line, where participants of the holiday would traditionally go to on the Monday following the Eastern Pentecost. However, since the division of the valley, a smaller shrine has been set up on the Georgia-administered side of the conflict line, less than two kilometers from the de facto border, allowing Georgians from the nearby village of Gremiskhevi to pray.
The holiday is often accompanied by family gatherings and feasts.
History
Tijroba is an ancient holiday, although its first celebration is unknown. The holiday was largely harmed when, in August 2008, Russian and separatist South Ossetian troops took over the Akhalgori district, ethnically Georgian but with some Ossetian families living at the border with the Dusheti district, and following 2011, when Russian troops started the "borderization" process, setting up barbed wires between Georgia proper and its separatist republic.
In 2019, President Salome Zourabichvili traveled to the village of Gremiskhevi for Tijroba, saying, The day after Pentecost, Tijroba is celebrated here, which had unified Georgian and Ossetian Christians for centuries. People used to come here and pray but today, the population of the village cannot come to the shrine because of the occupation line, an artificial separation of the people who have been living together for centuries, which is a serious crime!

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