Each third Thursday in May, we celebrate World Vyshyvanka Day.
In Auckland, we commemorate the day of Ukrainian traditional embroidery by wearing it proudly, singing songs about vyshyvanka & taking some photos with our local community! If you have a Vyshyvanka – this is the day to flaunt it.
VYSHYVANKA IN HISTORY
Archaeological discoveries in Ukraine indicate that embroidery has existed there since prehistoric times, it dates back to the Neolithic–Eneolithic Trypillian culture. The elements of ornaments used by Trypillians, Sarmatians, and Scythians are found even in the modern national embroidery.
Among the earliest are the finds dated to the 6th century, found in Cherkassy Oblast, one of the silver plates depicts a man dressed in a long, wide, patterned shirt with embroidery on the chest. The Ukrainian peasants wore the same clothing just a century ago.
Cloth embroidery was first inspired by faith in the power of protective symbols and later by aesthetic motives.
In a country with a history marked by foreign invasions, embroidery has been “symbolically linked to national identity and unity,” said Dr. Oksana I. Grabowicz, an anthropologist and research associate at the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University.
Vyshyvankas have been a festal clothes for Ukrainians all over the world for a long time; nevertheless, Vyshyvanka Day emerged as a holiday not long ago.
The first Vyshyvanka Day was celebrated in 2006 in the city of Chernivtsi. Started by a local student.. “I have come up with the idea when I noticed that not I alone but also other students often wore vyshyvankas attending classes. But it never happened that we all did it together. So I suggested to everyone one day to gather at the university in embroidered shirts on the same day. For the first time, several classes of students took part in the event,” explained Ukrainian poetess Lesya Voronyuk, who came up with the idea.
At first, Lesya’s initiative was picked up by several students and teachers, but during the next few years, the festival gained an all-Ukrainian scale, and the diaspora and supporters of Ukraine joined in as well. Today, in general, this initiative is supported in at least 60 countries around the world.
The World Vyshyvanka Day does not have a fixed date; it is celebrated annually on the third Thursday of May. Thursday was not chosen randomly. Its founders insisted that the holiday fall on a working day, instead of a day off.
The purpose of the holiday is to preserve and popularise folk traditions of creating and wearing embroidered Ukrainian clothes. It does not have any obligatory requirements, except for putting on the vyshyvanka.
However, annually the number of events timed to this day is growing; there are concerts, parades, competitions, events and fairs on the initiative of students, professors, public and cultural groups or figures.
Today, as russia continues to wage its war on Ukraine, Vyshyvanka Day has become a symbol of the resilience of Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian pride and beauty and antiquity of its traditions.
More photos from the Auckland 2023 Vyshyvanka Day are here, and 2024’s here.
Our Auckland event photos have made it into other publications as well, e.g. here, here and here.
Happy Vyshyvanka Day Ukraine! Слава Україні!