Batumi New Year tree lighting in Georgia: dates, meaning and how to experience it

By Mariam Lomidze, GTour desk · Fact-checked against the sources listed · Last checked 25 October 2026 · Editorial policy

What it is

The Batumi New Year tree lighting is the ceremonial switching-on of Adjara‘s main New Year tree (Georgian: akhali tslis khe, “New Year tree”) on Europe Square (Evropis Moedani) in central Batumi. The Georgian word for the holiday season itself, Akhali Tseli, means simply “New Year,” and the lighting is a municipal and regional event rather than a church feast — it is organised by the Adjara Autonomous Republic government and Batumi City Hall to open the city’s winter season.

The event draws residents of Batumi and visitors from across Adjara and beyond, including Georgians returning home for the holidays and tourists who extend a Black Sea coast trip into winter. Unlike the fixed Orthodox feasts of the Georgian calendar, the tree lighting is a secular civic occasion: it has no vigil, no fasting rule and no liturgical text behind it, but it functions as the symbolic start of the country’s most socially important holiday stretch, which runs from New Year’s Eve through Orthodox Christmas on 7 January to Old New Year on 13–14 January.

Historical background

• Pre-Christian Georgia — Traditionally, agrarian communities across western Georgia marked the winter solstice and turn of the year with household rites involving fire, nuts and dried fruit, customs that later fed into New Year practice.
• 327 — The Christianization of Kartli under King Mirian III introduces the fixed liturgical calendar that gives Georgia its Christmas (Shoba) and Epiphany feasts, celebrated according to the Julian calendar still used by the Georgian Orthodox Church.
• 19th century — Under Russian imperial administration, the decorated fir tree (iolka) enters Georgian towns as a European-style New Year custom alongside older regional traditions such as the Gurian and Imeretian chichilaki, a shaved hazelnut or walnut branch.
• 1921–1991 — During the Soviet period, state anti-religious policy suppresses public Christmas observance; the New Year tree and 1 January celebration are promoted instead as the main winter holiday.
• 1991 — Georgian independence restores Orthodox Christmas (7 January) as a public holiday alongside the secular New Year, and both are observed together through the “holiday weeks.”
• 2000s — Batumi undergoes major seafront redevelopment under the Adjara government, during which Europe Square is laid out as a new civic plaza with a column, fountains and surrounding boulevard.
• 2010s — Europe Square becomes the established site for Batumi’s principal New Year tree and winter illuminations, promoted by Adjara’s tourism administration as part of the city’s push to extend its tourist season beyond summer.
• 2020s — The seafront lighting programme is expanded each year, with the tree lit around 22 December and decorations kept in place along the boulevard into mid-January, coordinated with concerts and a holiday market.

Batumi’s status as a winter festival city is comparatively recent. For most of its history the town was known as a subtropical port and summer resort; its transformation into a year-round attraction follows the broader redevelopment of the Adjara coast in the first decades of this century, when Europe Square was built as a deliberately European-facing public space, complete with a clock tower and a statue referencing the Colchian myth of the Golden Fleece and Medea, which scholars and classical sources place in ancient western Georgia.

The tree lighting therefore sits at the intersection of two different calendars: the old Christian and agrarian cycle that gives Georgians their Christmas, Epiphany and Old New Year, and a newer civic calendar built around tourism promotion, municipal budgets and an annually announced concert programme. Visitors should understand it as the latter — a modern, government-organised opening ceremony for the holiday season rather than an ancient feast with fixed ritual content.

Meaning and traditions

On the evening of the lighting, a crowd gathers around the tree on Europe Square for a countdown, the switching-on of lights, and a short concert, often including local folk and pop performers and sometimes fireworks over the sea. Families bring children to see the tree and the illuminated boulevard; street vendors sell roasted chestnuts, churchkhela (strung nuts dipped in grape-must paste) and mulled wine. The Georgian phrase heard most often is simply gilocavt akhal tsels, “happy New Year.”

In western Georgian households, including in Adjara, the older chichilaki may stand alongside or instead of a fir tree: a cone-shaped ornament made from curled hazelnut or walnut shavings, traditionally burned after Epiphany to carry away the troubles of the old year. The Batumi civic tree is the large public counterpart to these domestic customs — a shared symbol rather than a replacement for them. Regional variations exist elsewhere in Georgia: Tbilisi lights its own main tree at Rike Park near the Peace Bridge, and smaller towns hold their own lighting evenings, but Batumi’s seafront setting, with the tree reflected in the Black Sea promenade lights, is considered one of the most photographed.

When it happens

There is no fixed date in law for the tree lighting; it is set each year by Batumi City Hall and the Adjara government, typically in the week before Orthodox Christmas preparations begin, close to 22 December. For 2026 the lighting is expected around 22 December 2026, to be confirmed by official channels nearer the date; for 2027 a similar date in the final third of December should be expected, again pending confirmation. The event itself is not a public holiday — offices, banks and most shops remain open as normal on the lighting evening — but it falls within the run-up to Georgia’s actual public holidays of New Year (1–2 January) and Orthodox Christmas (7 January), when most businesses do close.

Where to experience it

The lighting takes place at Europe Square in central Batumi, a short walk from the seafront boulevard and the Batumi Piazza. Arrive in the early evening before the advertised start to find a viewing spot near the square, and expect the surrounding streets to be pedestrianised for the event. After the ceremony, the illuminated boulevard running along the Black Sea coast, the Batumi Boulevard, remains lit and decorated into mid-January and is worth an evening walk regardless of whether the lighting itself is attended. If visiting a church during the same trip — for example for the Orthodox Christmas liturgy — dress modestly, with shoulders and knees covered and women’s heads covered with a scarf, and remain quiet during services.

Did you know

• Georgia’s Orthodox Church still follows the Julian calendar for fixed feasts, which is why Christmas falls on 7 January rather than 25 December.
• The chichilaki, a curled wood-shaving “tree,” is a western Georgian custom traditionally associated with Guria and neighbouring Adjara and Imereti, distinct from the imported fir tree.
• Georgia keeps an “Old New Year” on 13–14 January, marking 1 January by the Julian calendar, and some families celebrate it quietly a second time.
• Europe Square’s name and design reflect Batumi’s post-2000s redevelopment as a European-facing port city rather than any medieval European connection.
• Ancient Colchis, the region around modern Batumi, is the setting of the Greek myth of Jason, the Argonauts and Medea, referenced in the square’s statue and column.

Practical tips for visitors

Batumi International Airport and Kutaisi International Airport both serve the region; from Tbilisi, the railway and intercity buses run regularly down to Batumi in a few hours. December evenings on the coast are cool and often wet, so bring a warm, waterproof layer even though Adjara’s climate is milder than inland Georgia. Confirm the exact lighting date and concert programme through the Adjara tourism authority or Batumi City Hall announcements closer to the date, since the schedule is set annually and not published far in advance. Restaurants and cafés around the boulevard stay open through the holiday season and get busy on the lighting evening, so booking a table in advance is advisable if travelling with a group.

Combine it with

A winter visit to the coast pairs naturally with Georgia’s inland regions: extend the trip to Adjara’s mountain villages above Batumi, to Kartli for its historic churches on the way back toward Tbilisi, or to Tbilisi to see the capital’s own New Year tree and Christmas markets at Rike Park and along Rustaveli Avenue.

Sources

• Batumi City Hall
• Go Batumi (city tourism portal)
• Visit Batumi
• Georgian National Tourism Administration
• Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate
• Agenda.ge
• Georgia Today