Glencairn Museum News | Number 2, 2025
On April 5, 2025, members of Glencairn Museum and representatives from the local Ukrainian community attended the opening of the exhibition Rushnyky: Sacred Ukrainian Textiles.
According to an old Ukrainian saying, “A house without a rushnyk is not a home.” While the word rushnyk can refer to an ordinary towel, ceremonial rushnyky are distinct in their ornamentation and cultural significance.
The Spiritual Significance of Rushnyky
The placement of rushnyky over religious icons in churches and homes, on crosses over graves, and at the sites of holy wells indicates their sacred status. The belief in the protective strength and spiritual nature of these textiles is very ancient. A rushnyk is made from an unseamed length of whole white cloth, which represents the pathway of life’s journey. The cut ends are hemmed, knotted, or finished with some type of fringe or lacework; thus, they are “sealed,” with a beginning and an end.
Figure 1: Religious icons in Ukrainian homes are draped with rushnyky. Courtesy of Natalie Kononenko (https://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/folkloreukraine/?page_id=97).
Figure 2: In addition to icons, family photos are commonly draped with protective rushnyky. Courtesy of Natalie Kononenko (https://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/folkloreukraine/?page_id=97).
Figure 3: A cross standing in a cemetery, draped with a rushnyk (Bazaliya, Ukraine, 2005). Courtesy of Franklin Sciacca.
Figure 4: A cross decorated with a rushnyk and icons at the mouth of a sacred fresh-water spring (Bazaliya, Ukraine, 2005). Courtesy of Franklin Sciacca.
Rushnyky function as an opening to the sacred realm. Believed to offer protection to the family, home, and village, they are used in binding rituals and to invoke fertility. The protective properties of the rushnyk are reinforced by woven or embroidered motifs at each end; these are nearly always identical as the cloth is meant to be hung or held with the ends hanging parallel to each other. The center of the cloth is usually an unadorned expanse of white, although some woven rushnyky include a simplified pattern throughout.
About the Exhibition
Rushnyky: Sacred Ukrainian Textiles is a traveling exhibition from the Icon Museum and Study Center in Clinton, Massachusetts. It was curated by Hamilton College Professor Emeritus Franklin Sciacca, whose personal collection is featured in the exhibition. During installation, the rushnyky benefited from the professional care and expertise of Annina King. The exhibition was adapted and installed by a team at Glencairn (Bret Bostock, Glenn Greer, Ed and Kirsten Gyllenhaal, and Edwin Herder).
Figure 5: Museum Researcher Kirsten Gyllenhaal installs an embroidered rushnyk in the “Rushnyky for Funerals and to Commemorate the Dead” section of the exhibition.
Figure 6: Rushnyky: Sacred Ukrainian Textiles was curated by Hamilton College Professor Emeritus Franklin Sciacca. The exhibition features rushnyky from his personal collection.
Franklin Sciacca’s Ukrainian heritage, along with a remarkable story he heard from relatives when he visited Ukraine some three decades ago, inspired him to begin collecting rushnyky:
“Some years ago my interest in Ukrainian and Russian ritual towels was kindled by a family legend that was recounted to me in my grandmother’s village of Bazaliya in Ukraine. I am an American because some 100 years ago my grandmother, Olyana Onyshchuk, engaged in a binding ritual with a young man. The betrothal ritual [zaruchennia] was a ceremonial step taken to solidify the promise to marry between the two parties. The hands of the young couple and their parents were bound together with a rushnyk by one of the matchmakers, who then pronounced [an incantation], ‘I’m not tying a knot, I’m tying your word.’
“The young couple knelt on a ritual cloth and were blessed by the parents, after which gifts of various textiles were exchanged as a sign of the uniting of the couple and the two families. The transaction was the equivalent of a marriage vow and solemnized a formal engagement to be married. My grandmother’s subsequent breaking off the engagement led to a scandal not only for herself, but her entire family—which they remember (with both a laugh and a sigh) to this day. The stigma attached to her refusal could only be remedied by her escaping the village, so she decided to come to America, not for religious freedom or out of desperate economic need, but because of the ritual exchange of rushnyky!” (Franklin Sciacca, “Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period,” Folklorica The Journal of the Slavic, East European and Eurasian Folklore Association, Vol. XVII, 2013, 6).
Themes Explored in the Exhibition
Rushnyky: Sacred Ukrainian Textiles explores a range of themes that reflect the many roles rushnyky have played in Ukrainian life. Highlights include the “Tree of Life” motif; the distinctive rushnyky made in convents; how rushnyky marked moments of both courtship and separation; and how they are an essential part of Ukrainian wedding rituals. Other themes focus on the rushnyky used for funerals and commemorations of the dead, as well as those connected to prayers and lamentations. Contemporary interpretations of traditional themes and the incorporation of old embroidery patterns into patriotic scarves show how these traditions continue to evolve to this day. The exhibition also features old wooden tools and information about the historical process of creating rushnyky—from the growing of flax to the weaving of linen.
Figure 7: A groom places a rushnyk on his godfather before the wedding ceremony. Courtesy of Peter and Orysia Hewka.
Figure 8: A bridal couple stands on a rushnyk while taking their marriage vows. The hands of the couple are often bound together with a rushnyk. Courtesy of Peter and Orysia Hewka.
Figure 9: The parents of the groom welcome the newly married couple into the home with bread and salt held on rushnyky. Courtesy of Natalie Kononenko (https://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/folkloreukraine/?page_id=97).
Figure 10: A rushnyk covers the lid of the coffin during a funeral. Smaller rushnyky are tied to the bier. Courtesy of Natalie Kononenko (https://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/folkloreukraine/?page_id=97).
Figure 11: Orysia Hewka poses with the Rushnyk of Hope in Glencairn’s Upper Hall.
Loans from the Local Ukrainian Community
The largest textile in the exhibition, measuring 14 feet long, is the Rushnyk of Hope. Described as a “joint prayer for peace,” it was composed in 2008 of embroidered squares crafted by over 100 members of Ukrainian communities in the USA and Canada. Its creation was supervised by Orysia Hewka of the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center (UECC) in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. Hewka has also loaned an embroidered icon of the Madonna and Child made by Father Dmytro Blazheyovskyi (1910–2011). Blazheyovskyi was a Ukrainian Catholic priest and scholar renowned for his mastery of the art of embroidering icons, creating hundreds of works over his lifetime.
A handcrafted diorama of a traditional Ukrainian home—complete with miniature rushnyky draped over the family icons—is on loan to the exhibition from Andrij and Luba Chornodolsky of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. A separate doll in traditional Ukrainian dress holds bread and salt on outstretched hands that are covered with a rushnyk, a traditional gesture of welcome. The Chornodolskys collaborated with Lydia Dychdala, who embroidered portions of both the doll and diorama.
Figure 12: Detail of embroidered squares on the Rushnyk of Hope.
Figure 13: Embroidered icon of the Madonna and Child made by Father Dmytro Blazheyovskyi.
Figure 14: A handcrafted diorama of a traditional Ukrainian home with miniature rushnyky draped over the family icons. On loan from Andrij and Luba Chornodolsky of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
Figure 15: A doll in traditional Ukrainian dress holds bread and salt on outstretched hands that are covered with a rushnyk. On loan from Andrij and Luba Chornodolsky of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
Figure 16: Andrij and Luba Chornodolsky pose with a map of Ukraine they created with traditional folk-art elements at the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.
Highlights from the Exhibition Opening
An exhibition opening event for Rushnyky: Sacred Ukrainian Textiles was held at Glencairn Museum on Saturday, April 5, and was attended by both members of the Museum and representatives from the local Ukrainian community. The featured speaker was Tania Diakiw O’Neill, who has devoted decades to exploring the techniques, traditions, and cultural significance of Ukrainian embroidery. Born in a city in western Ukraine to ethnically Ukrainian parents, O’Neill became a war refugee at the age of two. After World War II, she immigrated to the United States as a young child and grew up in Philadelphia. Her passion for Ukrainian textiles inspired her to write a bilingual how-to book, Ukrainian Embroidery Techniques – Українські Стіби (1984), featuring over 100 traditional stitches.
Figure 17: Tania Diakiw O'Neill was the featured speaker for the opening event of Rushnyky: Sacred Ukrainian Textiles on April 5, 2025.
O’Neill was introduced at the event by Brian D. Henderson, director of Glencairn Museum. Special guests in attendance included Hamilton College Professor Emeritus Franklin Sciacca, who curated the exhibition; Chrystyna Prokopovych, curator at the Ukrainian Heritage Studies Center & Museum in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania; Tetjana Danyliw, librarian at Manor College; and Natalie Firko, president of the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center in Jenkintown. The following photographs were taken at the exhibition opening.
Figure 18: Brian D. Henderson, director of Glencairn Museum, pictured with Tania Diakiw O’Neill, the featured speaker at the exhibition opening.
Figure 19: Chrystyna Prokopovych, curator at the Ukrainian Heritage Studies Center & Museum in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, with Tetjana Danyliw, librarian at Manor College.
Plan Your Visit
Rushnyky: Sacred Ukrainian Textiles is currently on view at Glencairn Museum and will remain open to the public through November 9, 2025. Visitors are welcome to view the exhibition Tuesday through Sunday, between 1:00 and 4:30 pm. Admission is $5.00 per person and is included with the purchase of a guided tour or attendance at a Museum event. Admission is free for all Museum membership levels as well as for children ages four and under.
Please note that the exhibition will be unavailable on the following dates: Thursday, May 1; and Friday, May 2. More information may be found here.
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