Happy VYSHIVANKA DAY, friends!
This year, VYSHIVANKA DAY is an anniversary: the holiday is being celebrated for the 20th time. It was initiated in 2006 by students of Chernivtsi University, and today, vyshyvanka unites Ukrainians all over the world.
Today, our compatriots and everyone in whose heart Ukraine lives will wear it - from Canada to Australia, from Antarctica, where Ukrainian polar explorers of the Akademik Vernadsky station work, and to the Arctic Circle.
Our native Ukraine and our KhAI will flourish with vyshyvanka.
To mark World Vyshyvanka Day, which is traditionally celebrated on May 21, a special thematic exhibition dedicated to Ukrainian embroidery, folk costumes, and the spiritual heritage of our people has opened in the KhAI Scientific and Technical Library.
This year's exhibition has prepared real discoveries for visitors, as some items are exhibited for the first time in the history of the university.
The central and most valuable pearl of the exhibition was a UNIQUE EMBROIDERED SHIRT with an amazing and dramatic fate. Last year, it was accidentally found in the cache of an old house during renovation work near the Manezh - on the site of the former Lytvynivka farm.
Along with a cart wheel, an old candlestick and other items of that time, this unique shirt was also found, which immediately attracted the attention of researchers and employees of KhAI.
No one knows for sure how old this embroidered shirt is. But one thing is clear: it is at least a hundred years old. Such things in Ukrainian families have been passed down from generation to generation as the greatest treasure, as a family memory and a talisman.
And that is why in difficult times someone hid it in a secret place under a roof, saving it from war, destruction or oblivion - as the most precious relic of their home. It has survived and today speaks to us through time.
Today this embroidery has become not just a museum exhibit. It is a living history of KhAI, our region and the entire Ukrainian people.
It is both incredible beauty and at the same time a silent memory of those terrible times when Ukrainian identity was punished, and the most precious thing to the heart had to be hidden in order to preserve it for posterity.
The second central exhibit of the exhibition was the rare book "EVOLUTION OF UKRAINIAN COSTUME", which was once donated to the library by KhAI Rector Oleksii LYTVYNOV.
This fundamental, lavishly illustrated scientific and artistic publication describes in detail the path of development of our national costume from antiquity to the present day, revealing the traditions of different regions.
It was this book that became the basis for organizing this year's exhibition. Thanks to its rich content, historical facts and vivid illustrations, the organizers were able to build the concept of the exposition and give it a unique, authentic atmosphere.
Come and see for yourself and touch the real, living history of our region, our university and our Ukrainian land.
