Tamada - Choosing A Tamada

Choosing A Tamada

If the Supra is very small, in someone's home with only a few guests, the tamada won't be chosen, but the head of the house will simply assume the role of tamada.

At very large occasions, such as wedding or funeral banquets, the tamada is chosen in advance by the family. They ask a relative or friend who is known to be a good tamada, to lead the Supra. At occasions between these two, however, the people of the table themselves choose the tamada.

The choice depends on just a few factors. There may be a senior person at the table to whom the role naturally falls. In some groups there will be one man who regularly is the tamada because he enjoys it and is good at it. Sometimes groups of friends who gather frequently more or less rotate the responsibility of being tamada. In many cases when it comes time to choose, one person, often the oldest member of the table, will propose a candidate for tamada by saying something like, “Kote should be our tamada, shouldn't he?”. Others express agreement and, if Kote raises no serious objections, the person who first suggested Kote, then raises his glass and proposes the first toast to the tamada – “Kotes gaumarjos” (to Kote). The Supra participants do the same. The newly toasted tamada initiates new toasts from then on.

It might be the case, however, that Kote doesn't want to be tamada. Perhaps he feels that the senior person is suggesting his name ought to be the tamada. Maybe he was tamada last night and has a hangover, or is driving and can't drink, or would like to leave the gathering early, or just doesn't like to be tamada. He would refuse the job, perhaps pleading some excuse. Then the people at the table propose someone else as tamada, who may be willing to take up tamada−hood and may not be, and so on, until someone at the table agrees to be tamada, and the first toast is drunk to him.

If the tamada has been chosen in advance by the family, the senior member of the family would initiate the drinking by proposing the first toast to the tamada directly, without any preceding discussion. Following the proposal of this first toast, each member of the Supra toasts the tamada with a fixed phrase or two and drinks his glass. On this toast people drink quite quickly, almost in unison, and without any verbal elaboration on the theme of the toast. Some frequently heard phrases on this first toast “Kotes gaumarjos” (to Kote) where Kote is the name of the person who will be tamada “kargad chaatarebinos es supra” (may he lead this Supra well”, or “may he cause us to have a good time”).

There is only one common circumstance where the first toast is not to the tamada and that concerns (usually small, less formal) Supras where the host is tamada. In that case, the host simply assumes the role, as noted above, and proposes the first toast to a particular theme (discussed below).