Fatih Şahin Фатіх Шахін Ukraine, business and international experience — since 2004
National Days & Anniversaries

Vyshyvanka Day 2007

A day that began as a student idea in Chernivtsi: wear the embroidered shirt to class and see who else does.

MakovskiyAV Nadoela1897ODES
Photo: Aleksandr Makovsky · Public domain

A good Vyshyvanka Day.

This one is young. It began at the university in Chernivtsi in the middle of the 2000s as a simple student proposal: wear the embroidered shirt to class on an agreed day and see how many others do the same. It spread the way good ideas spread, without a ministry and without a budget.

What I find appealing is that it is not a costume day. The vyshyvanka is worn with jeans, with a suit, to an office, on the metro. It is a garment that carries a great deal of meaning and is treated as clothing rather than as a display.

I have one, given to me by a colleague, and I wear it. I write elsewhere on this site about what the patterns mean and how they differ by region. Today is simpler than that: put it on and go to work.

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