One thing that stands out -- so many Ukrainians have turned out to vote wearing their vyshyvanka, the traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt. This is something you wear for special occasions, for feasts, weddings, for Sviata. I have written a few articles on the vyshyvanka and its symbolism. The following is one of them. It appeared in my column in The Ukrainian Weekly in September 2008.
photo from Telekanal Ukraina
VYSHYVANKA ALWAYS
Orysia Paszczak Tracz
Oleh Skrypka sure got it
right. His Vyshyvanka [traditional Ukrainian
embroidered shirt] Parade in Kyiv in May was a huge success, as is his
established festival Krayina Mriy [Land of Dreams].
In each, Ukrainians are encouraged to wear their embroidered/woven folk finery,
creating an event of all-encompassing beauty.
To someone other than a Ukrainian,
the embroidered sorochka [traditional folk shirt] is something pretty. To a
Ukrainian, putting on that sorochka is special, emotional, and
spiritual. It means so much more than a piece of
clothing. It means everything – everything good. It
symbolizes love, well-being, health, family, decency, festivity, beauty,
tradition – and patriotism. And it is this last attribute that
Skrypka and others want Ukrainians in Ukraine to regain.
The sorochka in its simplest form
was the earliest piece of fabric clothing worn by our ancestors. As
linen and hempen cloth weaving developed among the agriculturalists (the
Trypillians, in the case of Ukraine, approx. 7-6,000 to 3-2,000 B.C.), a long
folded over piece of fabric with a cut-out for the head was the thing to
wear. Echoes of this tunic-style knee-length sorochka are seen in
the hip- and knee-length men's shirts of certain regions of
western Ukraine. The tucked-in sorochka for men became common
in central and eastern Ukraine.
In time, ornamentation with darkened
and then dyed threads developed into the weaving and embroidery designs which
make the sorochka such an amazing thing. These designs and their
placement were not random, but were there to protect the wearer from all the
unclean and evil spirits and powers out there. They also symbolized
specific motifs of the earth, fertility, nature, the celestial bodies, and
ancestors. As with the motifs in pysanky, woodcarving, weaving,
metalwork, and all the folk arts, the symbols are rarely realistic, but are
quite stylized and even abstract. This makes these designs so much
more fascinating. And, of course, the regional differences of cut,
placement of ornament, color, and the designs of the ornaments vary so greatly,
creating a wealth of beauty and meaning.
The Scythians (at least
the horsemen) were not our direct ancestors. Most probably some of the agricultural
Scythians mentioned by Herodotus were. That small gold figure of the
dancing Scythian in a squatting position wearing his geometrically-ornamented
shirt sure tells us he's one of us.
There is very much information out
there on Ukrainian folk costume, and the embroidery and ornamentation of the
sorochka. It helps if you read Ukrainian, but there is more and more
material appearing in English. The Ukrainian Museum Gift Shop inNew
York [ http://www.ukrainianmuseum.org/shop/ ] carries
books on Ukrainian folk costume, as well as their own fine exhibition
catalogues. Ukrains'kyi Narodnyi Odiah – Ukrainian Folk
Costume (Toronto-Philadelphia: World Federation
of Ukrainian Women's Organizations, 1992), available at this shop, is a
bi-lingual Ukrainian-English volume on the costume in all regions
of Ukraine.
There are more and more fine books
on folk costume being published in Ukraine. Zinaida Vasina is
the author of the two-volume Ukrains'kyi Litopys Vbrannia (Kyiv: Mystetsvo,
2003-2007). These are very large volumes extensively and beautifully
illustrated. There has been some controversy about the author's
depiction of the clothing of the prehistoric peoples on theterritory of Ukraine. How
could she be so sure this is what they wore, some reviewers
wrote. Vasina discusses the sorochka and its ornamentation in
detail.
Another very richly illustrated book
on folk costume is Ukrains'kyi Striy by Maia Bilan and Halyna
Stel'mashchuk (Lviv: Feniks, 2000). It covers the history
of the costume from the earliest times, as well as detailed information about
each piece of clothing and accessory, as well as regional
costumes. The book is practically overflowing with photographs and
illustrations. One very interesting photograph shows a man's sorochka from
the Borshchiv region from the turn of the last century. The trident,
the present symbol and seal of Ukraine which originated with the
kings (kniazi) of Ukraine in the 10th century, is
embroidered in gold thread within the traditional multicolored floral design
both on the front panels (three times) and on the cuffs. This is
certainly a most patriotic gesture of the embroiderer, and of the wearer of the
sorochka. That the sorochka survived Soviet times is also
remarkable.
Reverend Oleksander Harkavy
of Winnipeg first arrived in the city in early August 1991 to perform
at the Folklorama Festival. At the time, he was a Narodnyi Artyst Ukrainy,
an honored nationally-awarded artist-performer, and only years later moved
toWinnipeg to study theology. We met on the Saturday before the
putsch of August 19, 1991. At one point, conversation turned to
the sorochka, and O. Harkavy remembered how in Ukraine in the 1970s a
student could be expelled, or persecuted for wearing a vyshyvanka
publicly. It was a dangerous piece of clothing.
An image that remains in my mind
from childhood is something I saw in a history book, The Black Deeds of
the Kremlin: a white book, I think. The
chapter on the Soviet massacre of Ukrainians in Vinnytsia in 1937-38 includes
many photographs. The one I remember shows a victim wearing his
vyshyvanka. The pamphlet Crime of Moscow in Vynnytsia (Edinburgh: Scottish
League for European Freedom, 1952) states: "Naturally, being
buried for years [uncovered in 1943], the features of victims had very much
changed, but they were recognized by the clothes, y the Ukrainian shirts
embroidered with love by the mothers and wives of the victims, and by the
documents found in their pockets."
"Sorochku maty vyshyla meni…..
" My mother embroidered me a sorochka…. I
wonder if someone other than a Ukrainian would, first of all, compose a song
about the sorochka, and then have that song known and sung around the world
decades later.
The vyshyvanka is worn for the most
important personal and national occasions, whether a private event, or one of
Skrypka's festivals. The late Bill Hanischuk, a descendant of
pioneers of the Vita/Gardenton area of south-eastern Manitoba, told me how
he wore his sorochka for his party upon retiring from
the University of Manitoba. The sorochka had been
embroidered by his mother and wife, and this was the best and most important
thing he could wear.
There was a human interest article
by Gordon Sinclair in the Winnipeg Free Press about the late George Dmytriw
ofWinnipeg (Nov. 15, 2007). His wife Debbie wrote in to thank
the policemen who assisted Dmytriw when he died at work. The
accompanying photo shows Mr. and Mrs. Dmytriw at some special event, and he is
wearing his vyshyvanka.
When a woman from one of my tours
finally met a distant relative in Staryi Kosiv, he and his family later
traveled to Kolomyia to spend more time with her. The whole family
dressed up for this event, and the elderly gentleman came in his vyshyvanka –
he was honoring his Canadian distant cousin.
A poignant symbol of how important
the vyshyvanka is happened at the funeral of Dr. Alexandra (Lesia) Pawlowsky
inWinnipeg earlier this year. In planning her funeral, one of
her requests was for the pall bearers and honorary pall bearers to wear their
sorochky. Lesia, who passed away much too early at 55, knew and
believed in the symbolism of the vyshyvanka.
Ukrainian Weekly.
Sept. 2008.
