what does the symbolism of Ukrainian embroidery mean?
I would like to tell you about such Ukrainian traditional art as embroidering. Generally, ladies embroider, but gentlemen can make embroidery things too. Ukrainian women have always been protectresses of their families and generations. They give flourishing and prosperity to their kids and relatives with the help of embroidery patterns. As great protectresses, women know the secrets of nature and use them in embroidery motifs.
Embroidery designs are used mostly on clothing. A traditional form of embroidery is used for a shirt (for both men and women). The basic part of the design is placed on a sleeve. Other parts of the shirt – such as a collar, a front, cuffs, and a bottom – have narrower bands of embroidery, which complement the main motif on the sleeve.
Special significance is given to the embroidery on towels. The ancient, symbolic signs are rarely found today; they have been replaced by floral designs. Embroidered towels are used for weddings and for decorating holy icons.
The most popular method of embroidery today is cross-stitching because it made possible, to a large degree, the transition from geometric to floral motifs. Cross-stitching has become widespread among all European peoples.
The most important motifs in Ukrainian embroidery for many centuries have been stylized shapes of guilder rose, oak, grapes and poppies. All of them are actually ancient symbols stemming from pre-Christian, pagan beliefs. The Ukrainians regard the guilder rose as their “national tree”, “the family tree”. The red juice from the guilder rose red fruit symbolizes blood, and blood, in its turn, symbolizes the family and the cycle of birth and death. Wedding towels and clothes used to be embroidered in heavy bunches of guilder rose fruit.
The oak was a sacred tree of the ancient Ukrainians. It symbolised Perun, god of thunder, human energy, development and life. Men’s shirts were often embroidered with stylized shapes of acorns and oak leaves.
Many of the old Ukrainian folk songs feature references to “sad-vynohrad” (garden-grapes). This sad-vynohrad symbolized the garden of life, in which Man sows and plants, and Woman takes care of the growing fruit and grain. Motifs of bunches of grapes on embroidered shirts were particularly wide-spread in Ukraine.
The bloom of the poppy was the flower of love, and the poppy seeds were thrown over people, cattle and houses to protect them against evil. Old people believed that poppies grow in great numbers on battlefields. Girls whose fiances died at war, embroidered red poppies on their shirts, and made wreaths with seven poppies woven into them.
The lily was a symbol of chastity and purity. In embroidery, lilies often appeared alongside with leaves and buds which symbolized the tripartite unity of birth, growth and development. The drops of dew that often appear above the lily in embroideries are believed to be a symbol of conception, of new life.
The most enigmatic and most beautiful symbol that appears in Ukrainian traditional embroidery is Berehynya, The Protectress, a female figure with raised arms, each hand holding a flower. Berehynya was a pagan goddess of meadows and fields, a symbol of life and fertility, the mother of everything living. Berehynya is Mother, Nature and Tree of Life, all rolled into one. Girls embroidered the Berehynya symbols onto the shirts of their fiances who were to go war – these shirts were believed to give protection to those who wore them.
Kateryna Kudrya