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The Ukrainian woven towel is one of the oldest attributes of the Ukrainian people. It existed even during the times of Kyivan Rus, which is confirmed by images found during excavations in the XNUMXth century. The illustrations show Prince Volodymyr the Great holding a long towel. Scientists also note that weaving appeared earlier than embroidery.
In particular, Krolevetski woven towels are part of the intangible cultural heritage of the Ukrainian people. Krolevetske weaving has been known since the 16th century. Currently, all the materials are being collected to include it in the UNESCO world heritage.
The article was prepared by the Ukrainian interest resource
Krolevets was and is the center of towel weaving in Ukraine. In particular, at the exhibition in the National Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts, from yesterday and for a long time to come, there will be an exhibition of towels of the XIX-XX centuries, which were woven by masters from Krolevets and students of the Krolevets Vocational and Technical School of Artistic Weaving.
It is known that Krolevets towels were made mainly of cotton. Two colors were used: undyed linen or cotton and dyed cotton-clothing in red or black. Ornithomorphic motifs were usually depicted on Krolevets towels. They were used to increase the demand for towels. Such motifs are stylized images of birds, the classes and species of which were not chosen randomly, but had a certain content load, reflecting the prevailing ideas in society.
A candlestick was often depicted on towels. However, researchers believe that this is rather an image of the progenitor. Which is the pagan symbol of a woman with raised hands. And the candlestick is a kind of transformed symbol. The very image of a woman with raised hands symbolizes life and fertility, motherhood and the comfort of the family hearth. Later, researchers argued that this reflected the process of childbirth.
The towels also depicted church-monasteries. These are traditional images for Kralevets. And such churches were really built on the policy. It is also interesting that some towels were sometimes signed. For example, they set a date.
All such towels were made on looms, however, there were many techniques. If you look at the XNUMXth century towels from the reverse side, it is immediately clear that both double-sided and one-sided towels were trawled.
The tree of life was traditionally depicted on towels almost throughout the territory of Ukraine. It is a symbol of the family, the roots of the family, the past generation and the generation of descendants. Even before the XNUMXth century, towels were traditionally red and more often blue than black. And the black one came later.
The interesting thing about every hand-made towel, both woven and embroidered, is that the ends of the towel are different from each other. These are the so-called plus and minus poles, on one side a woman and on the other a man. That is, on different sides, the elements of the mole should differ in color or shape or placement.
The towel was always used in the interior. Before the holidays, houses were cleaned with beautiful towels with red patterns on them. It was believed that restrained colors in towels, for example, with unbleached linen, is a lean fabric. So towels made of such fabric were used to decorate the house during fasting. But already bleached linen, bright red shades - these colors are more suitable for holidays.
Pictures, icons were hung with towels, they could even hang windows and decorate walls. There were wedding, holiday, peg towels (for wall decoration). In addition, tubs were dug with towels and gifts were wrapped in them. It was an easy and cheap way to carry ceramic dishes with food.
In addition, towels were also used as accessories. In particular, they were used to gird up girls for weddings and make headdresses out of them. For example, the outline is traditional for Bukovyna, Ivano-Frankivsk region. It is woven from linen and decorated with woolen thread. And due to the texture, a good chiaroscuro effect is created. Hats are women's headdresses, because they were worn after marriage, and girls did not wear hats. And a woman at a solid age went to church in such an outfit.
As for the use of the Krolevetsk towel in the form of a belt, girls in Poltava region, Sumy region and Chernihiv region liked this element of wardrobe. And it was really ritualistic to use a towel in this way at a wedding. The bride was girded with it to emphasize that she is not pregnant. And it was mandatory.
Back in Slobozhanshchyna, there were towels that reached 6-7 meters, but they were about 15 centimeters wide. The newlyweds were wrapped with them at the wedding. It served as a symbol of a long and happy family life together.
Previously, Ukrainians actively used hemp to create fabric. As Lyudmila Tikhonova, a researcher at the National Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts of Uraina, notes, hemp was used in every Ukrainian family. The seeds were used to make oil, medicines, even to bake pancakes, other parts of the plant were used for fabric. It was almost waste-free production. Hemp cloth was used to make sackcloths used to hang windows and doors, as well as to make tablecloths.
The towel contains coded information. Our ancestors wove and embroidered towels, putting meaning into every detail. It was a way of communication between the clans, a way of protecting the house and each person individually. Before birth, a doli towel was woven for the baby, which was then kept throughout its life.
Photo: Ukrainian interest/Hanna Veretennyk