Vyshyvanka Day 2019

A good Vyshyvanka Day.

The thing I like about this observance is that it is entirely voluntary and entirely visible. Nobody checks. There is no obligation, no official ceremony, and no penalty for not participating. People wear the shirt because they want to, and the effect is created purely by how many of them do.

In an office, the result is quietly striking. The same colleagues you see every day arrive in something made by hand, in patterns from the regions their families come from, and for one day the room contains a visible map of where everyone is actually from.

I wear mine. It came from a colleague who decided, without asking, that I should have one, which is how most good things have happened to me here.