Bolton AUGB part of Ukrainian Vyshyvanka celebrations

The Bolton Ukrainian Cultural Centre hosted an event in celebration, with many very fine examples of traditional Ukrainian costume on display.

The Bolton centre is a branch of the larger AUGB – the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain – dedicated to promoting and supporting the interests and welfare of the UK’s Ukrainian population.

(Image: HENRY LISOWSKI)

Yaroslaw Tymchyshyn of the Bolton Ukrainian Cultural Centre: “To Ukrainians all over the world, including the UK, this day is highly significant, because it’s about our heritage, culture, and nationality.

“These are the things that Putin is trying to destroy, so that is why it is so important for us.

“The day started around 20 years ago in Chernivtsi and has since expanded, not only in Ukraine but across the world.

“I’ve seen people celebrating Vyshyvanka day in Canada, Australia, America, New Zealand, and all over Europe.

(Image: HENRY LISOWSKI)

“I’ve seen members of foreign delegations wearing Vyshyvankas, I’ve seen people in embassies wearing them.

“It’s just so symbolic for us – Ukrainians in the past have died for wearing them. People used to get thrown in gulags for it.

“That’s why we hold it in such esteem.

“There is an old song in Ukraine about a young man who was thrown in prison. His mother sent him a Vyshyvanka to wear, in the colours red and black.

(Image: HENRY LISOWSKI)

“Red stands for love, black for grief – that just sums it up, really.”

‘Vyshyvanka’ is the casual name for a specific type of embroidered shirt worn in Ukraine and Belarus.

Popular with both sexes, the shirts feature patterns made using a very specific type of traditional Ukrainian embroidery techniques.

(Image: HENRY LISOWSKI)

The shirts feature maze-like patterns in rings around the arms and neck, with black, red, and white being the basic colours and yellow, blue, and green used as supplements.

The Vyshyvanka has also become a symbol of resistance in the years since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Vyshyvanka Day began in 2006, the creation of a student at Chernivtsi University in Western Ukraine.

(Image: HENRY LISOWSKI)

One day, she suggested to her friends that they all spend a day wearing Vyshyvanka shirts together, with several students and staff members taking part.

Soon, the day spread all over Ukraine, and then the world, attracting the attention of the global Ukrainian diaspora.

The fifth anniversary of Vyshyvanka Day in 2011 saw a new Guinness World Record set for the largest number of people wearing Vyshyvankas in one place.

(Image: HENRY LISOWSKI)

More than 4,000 people in Vyshyvankas gathered in Chernivtsi’s main square for the event.

That same year, a huge, four-by-ten metre Vyshyvanka shirt was gifted to the university for display in its central building.

Volodymyr Zelensky regularly sports a Vyshyvanka in public appearances, a green one with black detailing around the neckline.