Vyshyvanka is the Ukrainian word for an embroidered shirt or dress – a central piece of traditional Ukrainian clothing. Throughout history, Ukrainians have worn vyshyvankas for special occasions, such as weddings and various holidays, and they have remained important for symbolic and political reasons, often worn in support of Ukraine since 2022.4
Figure 1: Vyshyvanka for sale in Lviv 5
Typically, vyshyvankas are made out of linen and embroidered with a combination of six main colors of thread: white, black, red, blue, yellow, and green. The patterns usually differ from region to region, and sometimes even from village to village.
Embroidery is a fundamental element of the Ukrainian folk costume for both men and women. The Ukrainian vyshyvanka is distinguished by local features specific to Ukrainian embroidery:
The vyshyvanka not only speaks of its Ukrainian origin but also of the particular region in which it was made. The knowing eye could detect where a person hailed from by the clothes on their back. Embroidery is thus an important craft within Ukraine and different techniques exist to suit local styles with their own particular patterns and colours. Traditionally, the thread was coloured according to local formulas using bark, leaves, flowers, berries and so on. In this way, the local environment is literally reflected in the colour of the embroidery.
— JJ Gurga, Echoes of the Past: Ukrainian Poetic Cinema and the Experiential Ethnographic Mode 6
Figure 2: Embroidered map of Ukraine with the patterns representing different regions of Ukraine. The map was created by Luhansk craftswomen. 7
Traditional Children’s Toys
The materials used to make children’s toys were very diverse and depended on the natural conditions of the region and the particularities of the landscape: clay, wood, straw, vine, cheese, canvas, dough, vegetables, flowers, and hay. Initially, toys were made by parents and family members with the resources available. In the second half of the 18th century, craftsmen began to make and sell children’s toys, expanding the types of toys available across the country. Wooden toys were made of pear, apple, willow, aspen, and linden, among other types of wood artisans could find and use. Solid pieces of wood could be carved and turned to become toy dishes, tools, and other household items, animal and bird figurines, and toy weapons. Moveable wooden toys were also popular, such as carts, birds pecking at grain, mills, horses on wheels, and rocking horses.
A particularly iconic toy is a triskach, a wooden musical instrument. It looks like a flag and consists of a handle (flagpole), a wooden box (the flag cloth), and a wheel with teeth. Holding the handle, the box is rotated around, and the teeth of the wheel make a cracking sound. The box of this toy could be plain or decoratively carved. Dolls of straw and dried grass were also made seasonally, when materials were plentiful. 8
Figure 3: A collection of traditional Ukrainian wooden toys 9
Ukrainian Folktales
Folklore can be defined as stories of certain cultural groups that help keep culture and shared beliefs alive throughout generations. These stories connect many cultures and can teach people valuable lessons. Common to every culture, folktales are a window into the human condition. Nature and animals have played a central role in Ukrainian tales. Vast forests and endless hills determined many experiences of farmers and hunters whose lives revolved around the seasons and rhythms of the earth.
Ukrainian folk literature is vast.10 Many Ukrainian fairy tales feature forests and grassy plains, with people working as farmers or hunters; others feature animals of the regions, providing insight into traditional life in Ukraine.11 As in most cultures, the general purpose of these folktales and fairy tales was to teach children about morals, dangers, and to help them understand the world they lived in.
Professor of Folklore at the University of Alberta Natalie Kononenko writes that in Ukraine, which was historically often under occupation of foreign powers, folklore was one of the few means of cultural expression allowed to Ukrainian authors and scholars.12
When eastern Ukraine was under the rule of the Russian Empire (1721-1917), activities thought to promote feelings of Ukrainian nationalism were banned, but folklore was not. It was seen as fostering the ideas of a rural, ignorant people, so it was thought to be harmless. Folklore was considered to be a reflection of a supposedly backward borderland rather than a sophisticated form of thought and culture. Under the hierarchy of the Russian Empire, Russia considered itself “Great Russia,” Belarus “White Russia,” and Ukraine to be “Little Russia.” As a result of this enforced hierarchy, much Ukrainian folklore was not initially published as Ukrainian, but instead labeled as Russian folklore. Because of the language used in a folktale, along with the location of the story, Ukrainian-specific folklore can be discerned from Russian folklore in general.13
Under Soviet rule (1917-1991), Ukrainian folklore was treated more suspiciously by authorities. The Soviet government realized the effectiveness of folklore and sought to replace traditional folklore with new Soviet folklore that promoted principles the Soviet government considered desirable, such as collectivism. Soviet rule censored older Ukrainian folklore and tales with aspects deemed threatening, including references to religion or ideas that could encourage Ukrainian pride or nationalism.
Russian Fairy Tales is a collection of nearly 600 fairy and folktales, collected and published by Alexander Afanasyev between 1855 and 1863. The collection contained fairy and folk tales from Ukraine and Belarus alongside Russian stories. These stories, songs, ballads, and folktales were laboriously taken down “from the lips of peasants from all parts of Russia.” The selection is intended to represent, as accurately as possible, the variety of Russian folktales, translated with strict adherence to the style and diction of the original, unaltered stories.14 The translated version from 1916 includes a page titled “Pronunciation of Russian Words.”
Figure 4: Page xi from Russian Fairy Tales 15
Alvin Tresselt Retelling
Alvin R. Tresselt (1916-2000) was a children's book author who focused his themes and books on describing and explaining nature to the young. He authored more than 30 children's books and adapted as many as 20 folk tales. Published in 1964, Alvin Tresselt adapted Russian Evgenii Rachev’s version of The Mitten. Rachev was a 20th-century visual artist known for his illustrations of animals in Russian folktales. Tresselt’s English version of the story is illustrated by Ukrainian-American Yaroslava Surmach Mills. Yaroslava shows traditional Ukrainian costumes on each of the animals as they approach the mitten and then climb inside.
Yaroslava (which means Glory in Ukrainian) was born in the East Village to Ukrainian immigrants in 1925. Her father, Myron Surmach, immigrated in 1910 and met her mother, Anastasia Surmach, in New York. After they were married, Myron and Anastasia opened Surma Book & Music Company on East 7th Street. Surma was a mainstay in the East Village for books, greeting cards, honey, Ukrainian folk sheet music, and more. It was here that Yaroslava first sold her drawings as greeting cards. Surma was the oldest Ukrainian bookstore in the United States until its closing in 2016. Yaroslava is quoted talking about how her mother was the one who taught her traditional Ukrainian art in the Museum’s exhibition:
“She taught me to embroider on linen by counting threads, and she taught me to decorate Easter eggs. [In Ukraine,] she decorated the white-washed walls of their thatched-roofed house each spring. I remember how she could entertain me by magically forming flowers or people or houses on paper with her pencil.” 16
Tresselt retells the story as follows:
The Mitten begins with the narrator recounting the story as told to him by his grandfather. The mitten's owner is a nameless young Ukrainian boy who, at his grandmother's request—while she is knitting mittens—goes into the forest on the coldest day of winter to gather firewood. He works hard all morning, loading sticks of wood into his sled, and as he picks up the last stick, he doesn't notice that one of his mittens, with its feathery fur cuff and red wool lining, has fallen into a snowdrift.
As soon as the boy is out of sight, the first animal to find the mitten is a little mouse, followed by a green frog in a colorful Ukrainian outfit, who is told to come in quickly from the cold. An owl appears, followed by a rabbit in a colorful Ukrainian coat, carrying something wrapped in a colorful scarf. Quite soon after, a fox in a uniquely Ukrainian outfit joins them, followed shortly by a big gray wolf.
By then, it was very crowded, but at least warm. Along comes a wild boar, dressed in his Ukrainian coat and hood. The big boar squinches himself into the mitten, as the narrator's grandfather describes. Thinking that the mitten has no more room, the occupants see a very big bear wearing a gold embroidered vest appear and attempt to enter their warm mitten. "No room! No room!" cry the animals in unison. "Nonsense! There's always room for one more," says the bear as he paws his way in. As all of this is going on, along comes a very old little black cricket who also decides to squeeze into the mitten. As soon as the cricket puts her first scratchy foot inside, with a rip and a snap, the stitches come apart, the leather cracks, and the soft red lining splits in half, popping all the animals into the snow.
At that moment, the young Ukrainian boy notices that one of his mittens is missing, and he retraces his steps in search of it. But all he can find are the ripped-apart pieces and what he thought was a small mouse hurrying away with a bit of red wool on her head. Not worried, he thinks that his grandmother will surely have his new mittens finished by the time he arrives home. And, as the story ends, the narrator's grandfather tells him that he never did learn what really happened to his mitten.
Jan Brett Retelling
Jan Brett is a prolific children’s author and illustrator. Brett travels extensively to research and experience the landscapes, architecture, and cultures depicted in her illustrations, giving her illustrations authenticity and accuracy. Her unique style of adding visual predictors in her border illustrations keeps readers engaged in thinking about what comes next.
Brett’s version includes a different collection of animals, but as in Tresselt’s, one by one, woodland animals from the Ukrainian forest find Nicki’s mitten and crawl in; first a curious mole, then a rabbit, a badger, and others, each one larger than the last. Finally, a big brown bear is followed in by a tiny brown mouse, and the mitten finally bursts. As the story of the animals in the mitten unfolds, the border illustrations show Nicki walking through the woods, unaware of what is going on. Brett’s illustrations are faithful to Ukrainian traditional culture, including textiles and costumes.
Brett does not create in a vacuum. Her research into Ukrainian folk art in the late 1980s required her to look behind the Iron Curtain. 17 Next to the dedication page in The Mitten, Brett placed a special thanks to her Ukrainian friend, Oksana Piaseckyj, who was instrumental in guiding her through not only variations of the story, but aspects of Ukrainian culture to include in her illustrations to provide authenticity to her version. Among the versions, Piaseckyj shared one that told of a hunter finding his lost mitten filled with animals, and blast goes his gun. This version of the story would have been told during a time of families hunting for their own food. Brett decided to change its violent ending and appreciated the many versions as she crafted her own.
Brett and her husband continued research by visiting the Ukrainian section of New York City to discover more about the culture. Christine, their guide at the Ukrainian Museum, helped her with some cultural tidbits. To guide her illustration choices for the grandmother’s house, Brett needed to know what a Ukrainian house looked like inside and out. She learned that, because Nicki would likely be wearing homemade hand-me-downs, his clothes should appear big and oversized for him. She learned there was a custom of hanging a water jug on your fence so a passerby could help themselves to a cool drink. Finally, Christine said to be sure to include a stork’s nest on the cottage roof as it brings good luck! In the opening pages of the book, Brett included these details, from the nest, to the jugs on the fence, and Nicki wearing his roomy, comfy traditional vyshyvanka.
Figure 5: Jan Brett’s handwritten notes about her research for The Mitten.18
Brett’s retelling is as follows:
Narrated in the third person, the story begins during the snowy wintertime. Nicki expresses his desire for a pair of white wool mittens. Nicki’s grandmother, Baba, does not want to knit a pair of white mittens for Nicki because it will be very difficult to find the mittens if they are dropped in the snow. Nevertheless, Nicki insists on having snow-white gloves, and Baba finally agrees to knit them for him. Baba tells Nicki before he leaves the house that when he returns, she will first check to make sure he is all right, and then check to see if he still has his white mittens with him. While climbing a tree, Nicki accidentally drops one of his white mittens, but he doesn’t notice that it is missing. Soon, a mole burrows inside the mitten looking for shelter after a long day of tunneling through the snow. Feeling fit and snug, the mole decides to stay inside the mitten.
Shortly after, a snowshoe rabbit, stopping to admire his winter coat, spots the mitten on the ground. The rabbit wiggles into the mitten, feet first. At first, the mole thinks there isn’t enough room for them both, but when the rabbit enters, the mole happily scoots aside to let him in. Soon, after a long day of looking for food underneath wet leaves and snow, a hedgehog stops, deciding to warm himself inside the mitten. The mole and rabbit are “bumped and jostled” but don’t think it’s worth it to argue with a spiny hedgehog, so they make room and let him in. Just as the hedgehog vanishes into the mitten, a snow owl swoops down to investigate the commotion. When the owl decides to also move into the mitten, the mole, rabbit, and hedgehog “grumble” in displeasure, but when they see the owl’s shiny talons, they quickly decide to make room to let the owl in. Not long after, a badger appears through the snow. The mole, rabbit, hedgehog, and owl are not happy because there is no more room left in the mitten. However, when the animals see the sharp “diggers” the badger has, they let the badger take shelter in the thumb of the mitten.
With the animals warm and cozy inside the mitten, a waft of steam is let out, attracting the attention of a fox that comes to investigate. Although the mitten is full, when the mole, the rabbit, the hedgehog, the owl, and the badger see the fox’s sharp teeth, they give the fox plenty of space. Soon, a big brown bear spots the mitten all “plumped up.” Never one to want to be left alone, the bear noses his way into the mitten. Though the animals are packed into the mitten as tightly as they can be, they cannot argue with a great big bear. The mitten is pulled, stretched, yanked, and bulged to “many times its size,” but it never tears due to Baba’s good knitting. Soon, an acorn-sized meadow mouse squeezes its way into the last remaining opening in the mitten and makes itself comfortable atop the bear’s nose. However, when the mouse’s whiskers cause the bear to sneeze, the force is so great that it causes the mitten to fly into the air and scatter all of the animals in different directions.
As Nicki walks toward home, he notices a white mitten-shaped silhouette in the sky. Just as Nicki runs to catch his mitten in the air, he sees Baba’s face looking out at him from the window of their house. As she promised, first Baba looks to make sure Nicky is safe and then looks to make sure he still has both mittens. In the final illustration of the book, Nicky warms his feet beside the fireplace, as Baba stares curiously at the overstretched white mitten.
