TIFA 2022 Editorial / sports

Lelo

  • Prize
    Bronze in Editorial/sports
  • Photographer
    Alain Schroeder
  • Photo Date
    2022

Lelo is a Georgian sport, which combines elements of wrestling and rugby and is played once a year on the Georgian Orthodox Easter Sunday in the village of Shukhuti. Hundreds of men from the two parts of the village compete for the 16 kg leather ball filled with sand and wine. The game has no rules, no time limits and no limit to the number of participants. The winner village takes the ball, which becomes a relic and a symbol of victory, to the cemetery and place it as an offering at the grave of someone who recently passed away.