Vyshyvanka Day, 20 May 2010
A greeting for the day, and a note on the one place a shirt is always worn regardless of the calendar.
A good Vyshyvanka Day to everyone wearing one today.
Something I noticed only after several years here: the day is not the only occasion. An embroidered shirt appears at weddings, at graduations, at christenings and at funerals — the four points where a family formally marks something.
Which means the day did not invent the practice. It gave a public, collective form to something households were already doing privately at their own most important moments.
That is generally the more successful kind of new tradition: one that names something people already do rather than asking them to start.
A good day to you.
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