The rushnyk: the cloth that marks every threshold

A rushnyk is a long, narrow cloth, woven and embroidered at both ends. It is not a towel in the practical sense, and mistaking it for one is the first error a visitor makes.

Where it appears

At a birth, to wrap or receive the child.

At a wedding, and repeatedly: the couple stands on one during the ceremony, their hands are bound with another, the korovai is carried on a third, and the parents hold one at the greeting. A traditional wedding uses a considerable number of them, each with its own function.

At a welcome, where bread and salt are presented on a rushnyk to a guest — the formal greeting still used at official occasions.

At a funeral, to lower the coffin and to cover the cross afterwards.

And in the house, hung over icons in the corner where the household kept its images.

What unites the uses

Every one of them is a threshold: entering life, joining a family, entering a house, leaving. The cloth marks a crossing, and it is the object placed between a person and the moment.

The ornament

Woven and embroidered patterns, regional in form, worked on both ends because a rushnyk is displayed hanging and both ends show.

A wedding rushnyk was made by the bride or her family and its quality was noticed, which is not a small pressure to place on a young woman with other things to do.

Why it survived

Because it is cheap to keep, easy to store and used at moments nobody skips.

The same object serving four different moments carries a kind of economic elegance: one thing made is enough for a household. Why it is like that I cannot explain. But why it survived seems clear enough to me — an object that is not expensive, can be kept and takes on new meaning each time is not easily given up.