In Ancient Georgia, Spring Arrived with Wine, Whips, and Mud
The gang of masked figures came barreling down Didi Chailuri’s main street just shy of 11 a.m. on a March morning. Mud-streaked, screaming, and armed with whips, they brought chaos to the narrow streets of this otherwise sleepy village of about 1,200 people in Georgia’s eastern Kakheti region. But the berikas, as they are known,…