What Celebration is Otsoba?

Tamaz Kochlamazashvili

doi:10.32859/kadmos/5/248-258

What Celebration is Otsoba?

Authors

Tamaz Kochlamazashvili Ilia State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32859/kadmos/5/248-258

Keywords:

Otsoba, Religious Festival

Abstract

Otsoba is the name of a publicly celebrated religious festival still extant in Georgian highlands. It coincides with the Annunciation. The article argues that the name of the festival stems from an old Georgian word ‘otseba’ meaning ‘apparition’/‘revelation’ and refers to Archangel Gabriel’s visit to the Virgin
Mary.