Table speeches in the Caucasus are a whole ritual, often becoming a mini-representation. They are so vivid and memorable that other nations are happy to borrow and pronounce them at their banquets. It is a good toast that "holds the table" and turns a banal meal into a celebration. Interesting Caucasian toasts for all occasions are presented in this collection.
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Funny and funny Caucasian toasts
A sense of humor in the Caucasus is very much appreciated. Therefore, toasts here are rarely dispensed with. They often make fun of human vices - stupidity, greed, cowardice, not worthy of a jigit. Caucasians can also make fun of the rather sensitive aspects of the relationship between husband and wife, fathers and children.
The basis for a humorous toast can be a regular joke, to which the introductory word “once” is added at first. Further, a solemn final phrase with a proposal to raise glasses is summed up under any anecdotal situation. In meaning, it does not have to follow logically from the foregoing. The subtle moment of a funny Caucasian toast sometimes arises from the paradox of its completion.
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Once in one mountain village all the men gathered, an elder, deciding to find out if they respect their wives, he asked:
- Which of you is dissatisfied with his wives, let him get up!
Everyone stood up, only one person continued to sit. The elder was glad that at least one man in the aul respects his wife and does not say that he is dissatisfied with her; he said:
- Thank God, this is the first time I have seen a man happy with his wife!
To this, the remaining dzhigit answered:
“You're wrong, ata.”I did not get up because my wife broke my leg with a poker, and I can’t get up. Otherwise, I would jump first ...
So let’s drink to ensure that women never leave men the opportunity to stop respecting them!
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Once, a young Sofiko complained to her friend:
“Vano came to me last night.” I was so excited, so fascinated by him, that in a fit of fervent tenderness, she said: “Take my dearest!” He led the horse out of the stable, jumped on it and sped away like the wind.
So let’s drink for us to always understand women correctly!
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Once, on a distant mountain plateau, a shepherd grazed a herd of goats. Suddenly, an eagle fell from the sky onto a flock of stone and grabbed one kid. The shepherd fired - and the eagle fell, and the kid flew on.
So let’s drink for the eagles not to be shot, and the goats not to fly.
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Once in the mountains lived one very rich man and one poor. And both wanted happiness. The rich were served happiness on a large dish, but he soon became fed up with it, and he cried because he did not know what else to wish for.
And the poor one had happiness on a high rock, and he climbed, climbed on it, but, not knowing the rules of climbing, he fell off every time.
So let’s drink in order not to look for fraudulent happiness on a wide platter, but to enter the section of mountaineering and climbing, and thereby acquire reliable life skill.
Greeting wedding toasts
A wedding in the Caucasus is an event as large-scale and significant as in the rest of Russia. However, marriage is much more serious here than anywhere else. Not even a fleeting assumption of the possibility of a divorce is allowed. The marriage union is sacred and indestructible.
It is not surprising that wedding toasts occupy a special place in the array of texts of the banquet speeches. And here it’s not enough to express the wish to the young, ending it with a steady turn “So let's drink ...”. The Caucasian wedding speech should convey the valuable experience of family life. This can be done in various forms - both lyrically and humorously.
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In the Caucasus they say: “If you want to be happy one day, drink wine. If you want to be happy for two days, drink fine wine for two days. If you want to be happy all your life, respect, value, take care of your wife. ”
So let’s drink for our bridegroom, and may he be happy all his life!
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When one respected aksakal celebrated his eightieth and fifty years of his life together with his wife, he was asked:
- How did you manage to save family life and at the same time such good health?
- There is no secret, just when my wife and I got married, we made an agreement with her: as soon as we quarrel, I put on a cloak and go to the mountains. So it was daily walks in the mountains that brought such benefits to my health and my family life.
So let’s drink for even the quarrels of our newlyweds to turn into a boon for their family!
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One aksakal told me this ancient legend: a long time ago, a man lived in the mountains. He angered God with something, and God terribly punished him - a man began to experience unquenchable thirst. He drank from streams, rivers, wells, drank wine and milk, but nothing helped him. But once he went into an unfamiliar village and asked at a house to get drunk. A girl brought him water, and of such perfect beauty that the poor sinner forgot about his thirst because he fell in love with the girl at first sight. So let’s raise a toast to the bride who quenched our groom’s terrible thirst!
Original birthday greetings
It is easy to give a congratulatory speech for a birthday boy in a Caucasian style. To do this, in principle, you can use any blank parable or anecdote, inventing for her an original ending with a wish. But to observe etiquette, you need to take into account the difference between a toast for a man and for a woman.
Caucasian toasts for a man’s birthday often contain references to years lived, or about longevity.
The most respected people in the Caucasus are elder elders, and a congratulatory speech may include a story about them, as an example of what the birthday person should strive for.
For a woman’s birthday, the toast is prepared differently. Here the emphasis is on the beauty of the birthday girl and her other virtues - housekeeping, complaisant character, sharp mind. Talking about age, in this case, is bad manners.
It is interesting:meaning of the word moveton
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The venerable Georgian prince sneezed somehow, and the servant hurriedly says:
- A thousand years of health!
- Tsyts! Cried the lord. “Why do you wish me the impossible?”
“Then live a hundred and twenty years.”
- Tsyts! The prince became angry again.
- Then at least a hundred!
Again did not please!
- Eighty?
All wrong! The servant came out of patience and said:
- Yes, if it were my will, just die now!
Let’s drink for our birthday boy to live as long as he wants to!
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In the distant village there lived an old elder. And then one day he decided to retreat to another world. But suddenly a strong wind rose and brought a newspaper from somewhere. And then the aksakal’s gaze came across a note telling that another aksakal, who was 120 years old, lives in a neighboring village and that he still feels great. It became insulting to our aksakal, and he said:
- I will live longer than him, because I am only 119 years old.
So let's raise the glasses so that the mail to the birthday always arrives on time.
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A real man is one who remembers the woman’s birthday exactly and never knows how old she is. So let's drink so that only real men meet in the life path of our birthday girl!
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Every woman is like a rose - just as beautiful. But roses do not exist without thorns. The petals fly quickly around, but the spiky thorns remain. So let’s drink for the birthday girl who manages to be an ever-blooming rose without thorns!
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One old aksakal told me: “By what a man’s wife is, how good she is and what kind of mistress, one can judge what he himself is and whether he knows his own worth.” So let’s drink for a charming and skillful birthday girl, whose husband, apparently, is a real sultan!
Wise Caucasian Toast Parables
A parable is a short instructive story, akin to a fable. Caucasian folklore contains a great many of them, and almost each of them can become the basis for toast. The plot of the parables is very diverse, and their characters can be both people and animals. A characteristic feature of the Caucasian parable is the through image of a traveler on a mountain road.
Taking the parable as the basis of the toast, you need to complete it with a conclusion. The final sentence, “Let's raise our glasses ...” can relate to anything - from love to cybernetics. It all depends on the purpose of the toast and his ability to derive his own morality from the story. The Caucasian parable thus becomes a universal material for toasts for all occasions.
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Three travelers walked along a rocky mountain road. Day go, two. The water is long gone, thirst tormented, and there is not a single source nearby. But suddenly the travelers saw on their way an orange tree, miraculously grown among inaccessible bare rocks. Losing strength, the exhausted travelers reached a tree on which there were three fruits.
The first traveler, not wanting to spend the last effort on peeling the juicy fruit, tried to squeeze the juice from the orange, but the thick peel missed very little saving moisture, which was not enough to escape from thirst. The second, seeing the fate of the first, tried to eat the whole orange without peeling. However, the bitter and stiff peel stuck in a dry throat. The third took into account the errors of the first two. Having spent his last efforts to peel, he peeled the fruit, and the life-giving pulp saved his life.
So let's drink so that we always take off the bitter peel of quarrels, insults and adversities and revel in the juicy fruits of love!
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Once a traveler was walking along a mountain gorge. Suddenly he saw: an ancient old man plants a fruit tree in the garden. The traveler was surprised and asked:
“Father, tell me how many years will pass before a tree that has grown from a seed you planted begins to bear fruit?”
The old man answered him:
“You're right, of course.” The fruits will appear no earlier than in a good twenty years. Most likely, I will not live to see this, but let others eat them, as I now eat that my ancestor has planted.
I’m offering a toast to the old man,
So that his covenant will not go out for centuries,
So generosity is just that
Distinguished each of us.
The most beautiful toasts about friends
Friendship in the Caucasus is a sacred concept. No wonder the system of kunachism has developed here and still exists. Seismicism is a social relationship that makes people among themselves not just friends, but twin cities. For his kunak, the highlander is able to give his life, and the children and parents of a friend become his own children and parents for him.
Table talks about friendship occupy a huge place in the case of Caucasian toasts. And among them there is not one comic, because according to the ideas of Caucasians about the saint they will not goggle. Toasts about friends are lyrical and full of deep gratitude. It is in this category of feast speeches, as in no other, that the original, ancient function of the toast - prayer - is manifested to a greater extent.
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Somewhere far in the mountains lived one beautiful animal. It loved itself very much for its long slender horns, rainbow plumage, large blue eyes and graceful wings. This animal ate only fine food and drank only spring water, but every evening it rose high into the mountains and howled very sadly at the moon. Scientists became interested in the strange behavior of this self-loving animal and found out that he simply had no friends! Let’s raise our glasses for people who will not let us howl from boredom! For friends!
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One old Georgian had five friends: one was honest, the second was smart, the third was kind, the fourth was fair and the fifth was generous. When a Georgian was said about how kind, fair, or smart he always answered: “I have five friends: one is honest, the second is smart, the third is kind, the fourth is fair and the fifth is generous. It was they who taught me to be so! ”
I join the judgments of this old wise Georgian and ask you to raise glasses for my friends!
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In the old days, two people lived in one village. One was very household and kept cleaning his yard all the time: either from snow, or from leaves, which constantly blocked the way to his house. And the second one had many friends, and every day they trampled a path to his house, so that he did not have to clean anything. So let us raise glasses for our friends, thanks to whom the road to our houses will not grow and will not be brought!
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A man with a dog walked along a tiring mountain road. He walked to himself, walked, terribly tired, the dog was tired too. Suddenly in front of him is an oasis! Beautiful gate, behind the fence - music, flowers, the murmur of a stream ...
- What it is? The traveler asked the gatekeeper.
- This is paradise, you have already died, and now you can enter and relax for real.
“Is there water there?”
- As many as you want: clean fountains, cool pools ...
- Will they give me something to eat?
- Whatever you want.
“But the dog is with me.”
“Sorry, but you can't with dogs.” She will have to be left here.
And the traveler went by ... After a while, the road led him to the farm. The gatekeeper also sat at the gate.
“I'm thirsty,” the traveler asked.
- Come in, there is a well in the yard.
- And my dog?
- Near the well you will see a drinking bowl.
- What to eat?
“I can treat you to dinner.”
- And the dog?
- There is a bone.
“What is this place?”
- It is a paradise.
- How so? The doorkeeper at a palace nearby told me that heaven is there.
“He's lying.” There is hell.
“How can you endure this in paradise?”
- This is very useful for us. Only those who do not abandon their friends reach heaven ...
I raise my glass to true and true friends!
Caucasian toasts for the anniversary
Anniversaries in the Caucasus are highly respected.Round dates here are perceived in the same way as the rest of the Russians - as a kind of mystical milestone. Caucasians often compare life with climbing a high mountain, and the anniversary date within the framework of this metaphor resembles a mountain plateau, on which you can rest and look back at the traveled road.
Caucasian toasts for the anniversary are an occasion to remind a person of his advantages and achievements. Moreover, the emphasis is not so much on the material aspects of being, but on the valuable personal qualities of the hero of the day.
According to the rules of etiquette, you need to pay attention to the toast. When a speech is made, guests should not talk, eat or lay food, interrupt the speaker. This is considered a manifestation of disrespect not only to the toasting, but also to the hero of the day.
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In the Caucasus, they say that God sends people into the world with four goals: some for suffering, others for boredom, third for eking out a miserable existence, and fourth for giving joy to others. So let’s drink for our dear hero of the day, who gives us incomparable joy!
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The mountain peoples have one good proverb: “The camel gave birth to a camel - the neighbor also did not hear it. "He laid the egg - cackles all over the world." Let’s raise our glasses for our humble hero of the day who knows his job well, but doesn’t ring the bell about it!
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In the Caucasus they say: "It is easy to make people know you, but it is difficult to know yourself." I want to wish dear hero of the day that he knows himself! This will help him achieve the noble goal that he set for himself. Happy anniversary, dear!
Greetings in verses
Traditional Caucasian feasting speeches, although they have a certain poetry, are not pronounced in poetic form. But this does not mean that you cannot stylize any congratulations in verses as a Caucasian toast. Two things are required to create such a stylization.
Firstly, in the text of the congratulation it is necessary to include characteristic concepts and images that convey the spirit of Caucasian hospitality or wisdom. This imaginative system includes bread and wine, road, fidelity, respect, stamina, warm relations between children and parents. Secondly, you need to complete the congratulation in the traditional way: “Let's drink for ...”.
The art of making feasts in the Caucasus is cultivated at the level of national tradition. Caucasian toasts, full of powerful energy, sparkling humor, touching tenderness and deep wisdom, will decorate any feast. Such a speech never looks banal and for a long time remains in the memory of guests and heroes of the occasion.
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Remember my son:
There are many troubles in life.
Her lessons are both wise and strict.
And yet, probably, there is no evil of misfortune,
Than suddenly yes to be without a road.
The road - under the stones, under the sand,
Direct il curve - everything is more expensive
Covered with sadness and longing
Aimless, empty off-road.
Happy Birthday, my son, and drink to ensure that the road never goes from under your feet!
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I drink, so that for everyone who has not been with us today,
I couldn’t drink and eat at this wedding,
We kept the good smell of bread
Which we broke here.
For everyone sitting at the table,
For the long term he saved in his blood
And mischief, and this invigorating current
Guilt, fun, friendship and love.
Let us drink to the young, and let their happiness, like young wine, intoxicate the whole world!
