Ukrainian embroidery symbols: meanings and where they come from
What the motifs on a Ukrainian vyshyvanka can mean: geometric, plant, animal and human figures, colors, regional styles, and how to tell folk meaning from modern myth.
Ukrainian folk art
Guides to Ukrainian folk art and crafts for readers abroad: what the symbols mean, how to try a craft at home and where traditions come from.
Articles
Symbols
All symbols
BerehyniaBerehynia is today’s name for the female figure with raised arms on ritual towels; many scholars see the “ancient guardian goddess Berehynia” as a late 20th-century construct.
DeerAn animal motif of a deer with spreading antlers, known from Hutsul pysanky, embroidery and ceramics, and from carols in which the deer has marvelous antlers.
Eight-pointed starThe eight-pointed (eight-rayed) star is one of the most common geometric motifs in Ukrainian embroidery, weaving and pysanky.
GrapevineA plant motif of a grape cluster or a winding vine with clusters, one of the most common fruit ornaments in Ukrainian embroidery and on pysanky.
HopsHops is a plant motif of a twining stem with leaves and cones; in Ukrainian folk songs it stands for a young man, courtship and wedding merriment.
KalynaA plant motif of red berry clusters and leaves; in folklore one of the central images, linked above all with a young woman, love and weddings.