Vyshyvanka Day: Today Ukrainians will wear shirts embroidered with ornaments, a marker of our identity
Ukraine celebrates International Vyshyvanka Day on May 19: everyone will wear holiday embroidered shirts today
Rubryka reports.
The holiday dedicated to Ukrainian embroidery was invented by a university student and spread by the Ukrainian diaspora.
There's no national dress that fits better into the present than the Ukrainian embroidered shirt.
The embroidered shirt is not just a hallmark of Ukraine and its national shrine, it is a symbol of beauty and good health, happy destiny and family memory, amulet, and prayer without words.
Ukrainian embroidered shirt, along with Ukrainian pysanka, is one of the brightest symbols of Ukrainian culture.
Every year, on the third Thursday in May, thousands of people around the world wear Ukrainian shirts to celebrate World Vyshyvanka Day.
This holiday promotes embroidered ethnic clothing and honors Ukrainian traditions. It is easy to join the celebration of the Day of Ukrainian Embroidery; you just have to come to work or study in a Ukrainian embroidered shirt.
The celebration of Vyshyvanka Day began in 2006.
The idea to dedicate one of the days of the year to Ukrainian national dress came from a student of Yurii Fedkovych National University of Chernivtsi Lesia Voroniuk. She offered to come to the university one day in embroidered shirts.
Dozens of students took part in the event. But for the second or third year, it was joined by teachers, students from other cities, civil servants, employees of enterprises and institutions, and even taxi drivers.
"International Vyshyvanka (Ukrainian Embroidery) Day is more of a holiday for me than my birthday," admits Lesia Voroniuk, now a writer, journalist, producer, and promoter of this bright and wonderful holiday.
The Ukrainian diaspora around the world has become a driving force in promoting the holiday abroad. But, besides the diaspora, the locals fell in love with the clothes, and gladly began to wear them and support Ukrainians.
Today, this holiday has gained international proportions and Ukrainian traditional clothing is worn by people in more than 70 countries.
In 2011, the five-year anniversary of the holiday was marked by setting a record for the number of people in embroidered shirts in one place. More than 4,000 people in embroidered shirts gathered on the Central Square of Chernivtsi.
Each region of Ukraine has its own embroidery technique, details, and themes of the ornament and traditional colors of the embroidered shirt. In total, there are about two hundred different embroidery techniques in Ukraine.
It is gratifying that today the old techniques are being revived.
The traditional color of the Ukrainian shirt is white. Poltava embroidered shirt is considered to be one of the most difficult. It was embroidered mostly white on white, occasionally adding gray, black, or red threads to enhance the effect.
An embroidered shirt is a festive garment, not an everyday one. In ancient times, women's and men's shirts were cut in the same way, later their cuts began to differ.
Work on one embroidered shirt can take from two weeks to three years, depending on the skill of the embroiderer and the techniques used.
For a long time, the embroidered shirt served as a talisman for Ukrainians from all kinds of evil. This was its primary purpose.
Photo: Radio Svoboda
russia's full-scale war is currently underway in Ukraine.
But we are a nation born in embroidered shirts, so we will overcome all the trials that befell us, and we will surely win the righteous struggle for freedom and a peaceful sky for our children!
Unfortunately, this year the red color on the embroidered patterns symbolizes not love, but the blood of our defenders, who are once again giving their lives for the independence of Ukraine.
So let, as in ancient times, embroidered shirts be their strongest amulet and inexhaustible source of strength.
And the enemy's eyes gleam with bright Ukrainian embroideries and his heart trembles at the indomitability of our spirit.
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