Vyshyvanka Day, 18 May 2017
A greeting for the day, and a note on the shirts that come out of wardrobes rather than shops.
A good Vyshyvanka Day to everyone wearing one today.
The shirts I find most interesting are the ones that are clearly older than the person wearing them. You can tell at a glance: the linen is heavier, the collar sits differently, and the wearer is being slightly careful with it.
Ask about one and you will usually get a name and a village. It was made by a grandmother or a great-grandmother, it has been in a cupboard for decades, and it comes out once a year.
An object that is used annually and stored carefully for the other three hundred and sixty-four days is being treated as an archive, whether or not anyone would use that word.
A good day to you.
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