Vyshyvanka is stylish

CHERNIVTSI — I don’t know whether our project has become anything extraordinary, but for us, the students at the departments of history, political science, and international relationships of the Fedkovych Chernivtsi University, it has turned into a vivid symbol of belief, belief in ourselves and our peers.

Once, during a long break, the students of the International Relations Department and our fellow students from the Department of Political Science were discussing the fact that Ukraine does not have any clear-cut, single national idea; someone joined our discussion, others left to the cafeteria. At one point Ihor Zhytariuk, a student several years younger than us, joined our conversation. He came to classes wearing a vyshyvanka (an embroidered shirt) on a most ordinary day of an ordinary working week. I still remember it very well: a shirt with blue embroidery on a snow-white linen with a red cluster of pompons at the neck.

The fashion of wearing vyshyvankas is quite popular among the Chernivtsi youth, so I was not surprised at Ihor’s outfit. But after a split moment it dawned on me what we should do — and I yelled so loud that all the people in the corridor must have heard me, “Let’s come to classes wearing vyshyvankas, all on the same day!”

The idea was immediately embraced by the students, and the teachers joined us as well. We chose the date that does not have any association with an historical event. April 3, a usual day otherwise, became extraordinary for us. The initiative group was formed (I must mention Oleksandr Tkachuk, who was an active participant) and posted bills and sent invitations to the press. Honestly, we were very much worried when we first carried out this campaign last year because we did not know how many students would support it.

Finally, on April 3, the hallways of the department building turned into a stage on which young people proudly presented their vyshyvankas. I had never before seen my peers do anything with such ardor; they were examining each other’s vyshyvankas with interest, asking where they came from, what the embroidery means, and how much the shirts cost. Most of them came in modern vyshyvankas, embroidered with red and black threads, but there were people wearing rarity shirts that belonged to their families and were more than a century old.

“Vyshyvanka is stylish!” became a natural slogan. We did not organize any competitions or concerts on that day, because it is Lent now, and this was not the main idea. The most important thing is that the students got eagerly involved in the Ukrainian Shirt Day.

This year we received support from other departments of our university, as well as some higher education institutions in Chernivtsi, the oblast scholarly library, and local council members. Hopefully, next year our idea will be supported by students in other cities. It’s cool to be Ukrainians, stylish Ukrainians.

Lesia Voroniuk is a student of the Yurii Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University