Folk Trades,
ustoms and Traditions

Hutsulshchyna is
rich in people’s trades, customs and traditions. The centres
of the people’s trades are Kosiv and Yavoriv. Famous engravers,
ceramists, weavers, and embroiders live there. Their works are
exhibited in museums all over the world.

Embroidery
of Hutsulshchyna is one of the most famous kinds of people’s
art. It is a general Slavic tradition to embroider the clothes.
Hutsul embroidery is remarkable for its colour and technique. Hutsul
embroidery as a rule uses geometrical ornament. When people meet
guests they put bread and salt on the embroidered towel.

Another
popular tradition is pisankarstvo (ornamenting (decorating)
eggs during Easter holidays). Such eggs were usually by ornamented
women and girls and rarely by boys and men.

Hutsul customs and
ceremonies from the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century are
preserved nowadays. The family calendar and holidays are Christmas,
Easter, Green Holidays and Spas. Before Green Holidays Ukrainians
usually decorate their houses and fences with green branches of time
trees. There are many ceremonial songs connected with these
holidays such as shchedrivky, coliadky and hayivky.

Family
customs and ceremonies mark the most important events in the
life of a man: the birth of a baby, marriage, death. For
instance, a bride embroiders a towel and the young couple
stands on it during the wedding church service.