Traditional Slavic embroidery is distinguished by characteristic ornamental elements, each of which has its own meaning. Arranging them correctly and doing the job is quite a difficult task for a beginning craftswoman.

Features of traditional embroidery

When performing work according to old traditions, the following rules are observed:

• absence of knots, twists, thread breaks in the drawing. According to beliefs, if there were knots and twists in the threads, the ritual significance of the ornament on the towels disappeared. The stitches should flow into each other, the thread ends after completing a separate fragment or at the end of the embroidered area. Tacks are used instead of knots;
• using only natural fabrics and threads. It is believed that hand-spun threads, woven fabric, and dyed fibers provide the maximum effect as a talisman;
• the mood of the needlewoman during the sewing process must be calm and benevolent.

When doing embroidery at a wedding, these rules are especially significant. After all the towel will become a talisman for the new family, and creating such a talisman is necessary only with the best attitude and maximum diligence.

Important: in one product you should use not only matching colors, but also matching symbols.

Patterns and their symbolism

The common origins of the Slavic peoples determine the similarity or unity of meanings of traditional embroidery fragments.

The main signs are:

Given the huge number of symbols and traditional patterns, Let's look at the most common motifs in wedding embroidery:

Differences between Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian towels

It’s strange to talk about the basic differences in the embroidery of wedding towels in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, taking into account the modern understanding and alteration of ancient patterns. The meaning of ornaments, the meaning of combining motifs is lost - what remains is external aesthetics and compliance with fashion.

However, there are basic differences:

• in the Russian and Belarusian tradition (especially the northern regions) the signs of earth and water, the sun predominate, among plant ornaments - oak, cornflowers, ears of corn, among animals - horses and deer, birds - roosters;
• Ukrainian embroidery pleases with a wide variety of plant motifs, multicolor patterns;
• in the northern regions they preferred to embroider with counted stitches(flooring, wicker, smooth surface), in the south - cross stitch and artistic satin stitch.

The photo below shows traditional towels for different countries:

More examples of ornaments on towels:

The history of the Russian towel is fading

roots in ancient times.

This is now a towel in the kitchen - a completely familiar household item or decorative item for us. But really, before everything was completely different. During the period of the Great Domostroy, a girl from a young age prepared her own dowry: she sewed, cut and embroidered pieces of linen, dreaming about how cozy her home would be and how happy her family future would be.

“Towel” - listen to this word! It is a diminutive of the word "Canvas". According to the principle: canvas-towel, window-window, bottom-bottom. The towels were cut from a large piece of linen, they were of different sizes, and each had its own meaning.

Perhaps this is why the dowry prepared by the bride was so valued. The young housewife in her husband's family was judged by the skill, neatness and skill of the embroidered towels.
Towels made during her girlhood and hung in the new house the day after the wedding were for the young wife a dedication to a new life and a contribution to the common cause of creating a large and friendly family - the very happy family that every girl dreamed of.


Icons were decorated with embroidered towels; such a towel was called “Bozhnik”. These were long homespun canvases with patterns on the ends, or embroidery along one side. The Bozhnik was usually embroidered with a predominance of blue - the color of the Virgin Mary. It must have two initial letters embroidered on it from the name B.M. (Mother of God) or J.S. (Jesus Christ).


Business towels spoke of prosperity in the house and protected the home from evil forces. They were hung in the upper room, decorated with doors, windows, and corners.

Embroidered towels for christenings had to be embroidered by the godmother. She embroidered them in light and bright colors so that the child’s life would be happy and joyful.


Not a single wedding in Rus' was complete without towels; folk traditions were sacredly observed. During the wedding, they stood on the wedding white towel, according to folk tradition. The hands of the bride and groom were tied with a “union” towel, on which the names of the bride and groom were embroidered

There were also special embroidered bread towels - bread boxes. Bread was placed on them because putting bread on an uncovered table was considered a great sin.

Modern towels are often made using the technique of printed patterns on fabric and cannot be compared with those, albeit rough, but lovingly trimmed and embroidered with multi-colored patterns towels of old. How many hours the craftswomen worked in the evenings, by the light of a towel, on each such towel, how much soul and warmth was put into each such towel! Perhaps the progress that surrounds us everywhere now is not so good after all, How do people think about him?!

“In the minds of ancient artists, this is the goddess Bereginya, a symbol of life and fertility. By depicting it on household items (towels, clothes), women believed that it would bring happiness and harmony to the house. The ornamental decoration on the skirt is stylized knotted writing from pagan times. Before the advent of writing, information was transmitted by weaving knots onto a stick. Each node is a concept (word). Later they were transformed into embroidery. The woman, the keeper of the hearth, embroidered knots-symbols representing the ancient gods, as if appeasing them and asking for a favorable attitude towards her and her family. Color carries meaning. Red was considered beautiful." The information is very interesting, but at the same time I have some questions:
How did our ancestors learn the art of embroidery?
What do the symbolic drawings that have survived to this day mean?
What role does embroidery play in modern life?
So, the subject of my research is embroidery. It seems like nothing special. Women embroider using different techniques and different materials. They embroider landscapes, portraits, paintings. Both my great-grandmother and grandmother embroidered at our house, and my mother also embroiders. A familiar picture: a woman, while away the long winter evenings, bent over her embroidery hoop. Skeins of multi-colored threads, scissors. Quiet, soothing music. Peace and amazing harmony - a pattern is born on the canvas.
The appearance of embroidery in Russia dates back to the first centuries of ancient Rus'. They invented the drawings themselves, for example, based on the patterns on the windows in winter, they were often made up of stylized images of plants, animal and human figures. “The drawing was given a magical meaning; some images were so-called “amulets”, which, according to beliefs, protected the house, animals and people from illness and troubles.” There were no books, and there were no schools. We learned from each other. In each province, sometimes even in the smallest region, its own embroidery technique was born, different from others: Tver small stitch, Krestetskaya stitch, Nizhny Novgorod guipure, Ivanovo and Yaroslavl stitches with outline, Olonets sewing with interlacing, chain stitch, “verkhoshov”, double-sided satin stitch . Even cross stitch, a well-known embroidery technique in all regions of Russia, differs in both type and color: Voronezh patterns were embroidered mainly with black thread, northern ones with red thread, in the Belgorod region the main pattern was a combination of red and black colors. The heyday of embroidery art in Russia occurred at the beginning of the 19th century, when both serf girls and their mistresses were engaged in embroidery. They embroidered with satin stitch and cross stitch on canvas, with wool and beads on silk and velvet. For a woman, embroidery was a kind of expression of the spiritual need for beauty, a way of expressing the aesthetic perception of the surrounding world. They embroidered clothes (shirts, aprons, sundresses), towels, which in our area are called towels.

I. Rushnik in the ritual culture of the Slavs

In the old days, you couldn’t find a single house in Rus' without towels - original towels, the decorations of which used the traditions of deep antiquity. The towel is the main amulet of a person from birth to death. Towels were used not only for their intended purpose as a towel (at that time they were called a towel and were decorated with modest embroidery), they were also used to decorate the hut. “They hung a special towel separately - the main talisman of the hut and the family. One end of it rushed towards God, and the other two – into mother damp earth. The ceiling was connected to the floor, and the sky was connected to the earth. When laying the foundation of a house, a towel-amulet embroidered with circles and crosses was placed at its foundation. (The circle and the cross are solar symbols).” Towels were used in wedding, maternity, baptismal and funeral rites. They occupied the most worthy place at a wedding: they were part of the bride's dowry (girls began to embroider in childhood, since according to custom there should have been at least 100 pieces in the dowry). The bride gave them to matchmakers and the groom's relatives; they were tied over the shoulders of the most important wedding participants. Towels were placed as a footstool on which young people stood in church during a wedding. Belarusians have an expression “to stand on a towel”, it means to get married.
I met with embroiderers Elena Vitalievna Dubinina, Irina Viktorovna Shapovalova, Polina Mikhailovna Kurochkina. During the research, I became acquainted with ethnographic monuments preserved by their families. I noticed that the antique towels are made in red and black colors. The drawings on them are of a geometric plan, there is a floral ornament. Red color is beautiful, black is a symbol of the wealth of the Voronezh region, black soil. In the 20th century, in the villages of Sloboda and the village of Khrenovoe they began to embroider using satin stitch and bright colors. This is explained by the fact that many immigrants arrived in these places, where the technique of satin stitch embroidery was widespread.
I was especially impressed by my meeting with Nina Dmitrievna Kiseleva. How much she told me about towels! Nina Dmitrievna is a passionate collector: she has been collecting folk embroidery patterns for many years. Particular attention is paid to the patterns of towels. From Nina Dmitrievna’s story: “A towel is not just beautiful, but also interesting and educational. After all, nothing falls on a towel so easily. There are different types of towels: “matchmaker”, and “soldier’s or Cossack”, and others. For example, “matchmaker” ones are the largest ones, so that it would be enough to bandage the tall, prominent men who were chosen as matchmakers. The groom's relatives embroidered roosters or peacocks with a hint of the beauty and growth of the guy, oak leaves with acorns - this is the wealth and strength of the family. If the bride accepted the matchmaker’s offer, then she tied it even more tightly with her towel, where nothing was random either, everything had meaning.” Based on Nina Dmitrievna’s stories, I compiled a pattern for embroidering a towel. There are 4 fragments of the pattern, each with its own meaning:
1. “Begin.” Start of embroidery. It can be embroidered with a narrow strip.
2. "Earth". The design is embroidered in comparison with the beginning of a larger volume (after all, wealth comes from the earth), and floral patterns are used.
3. "Home". Must be handsome and tall, show wealth and skill as a needlewoman.
4. "Crown". Richly embroidered. This is what you strive for in life.
Moreover, the fragments of the embroidery pattern are separated from each other either by “beginning” strips, or instead of the “beginning” strip, you can use lace or hemlines.
The design filled the fabric of the towel by two-thirds. The bottom of the towel was decorated with lace, crocheted or using the fillet knitting technique.
The embroidery on the towel (the fragments indicated in the diagram) must be “related,” that is, of the same type. We can say that the patterns of embroidered towels are an encrypted story about the life of the people, about nature
Having studied Nina Dmitrievna’s collection, we compiled a table for classifying towels by image and purpose (Appendix No. 2).
From all that has been said above, it follows that the towel played a sacred role in the life of the Slavs, accompanied a person from birth to death, was an important element in everyday life and has survived to this day. In Russian villages they still decorate the red corner, and in many city houses it has become an honored guest. Nina Romanovna Akulova, a resident of the village of Khrenovoe, shared an interesting observation with me. She told me that in some rituals the role of the towel was transformed beyond recognition. In the village of Khrenovoe there was a tradition: on the second day of the wedding, the young woman hung her towels in the hut on top of her mother-in-law’s so that everyone could admire her skill. Today, this tradition has been transformed into a new custom: the young woman changes the “curtains” (curtains) on the windows, demonstrating the wealth of her family.
Fashion is capricious. From my mother’s stories I know that in her youth, decorating a house with embroidery was considered philistine. Nowadays, characterized by a revival of interest in the spiritual and material culture of the past, embroidery is finding its second life. More and more craftswomen are passionately working to preserve what has been almost lost forever.

II. Towel in rituals - a symbol of holiness, purity, protection

In the church. The towel played a figurative and symbolic role in Christian rituals. Thus, the role of the towel was important in the ritual of washing feet, face, and hands during the liturgy. The apostolic teachings say that deacons should serve at the sacrament of the Eucharist, having towels and khustochki for wiping the lips of those who receive communion. The deacon's Orar also reminds believers about the “lention” with which Jesus Christ wiped the feet of his disciples after washing. In addition to their ritual role, towels were used in churches to decorate icons.
On the crosses. There was a custom of tying crosses and banners during a campaign, procession or funeral, as well as hanging towels on crosses in a cemetery, near a church, or tying roadside crosses with towels. According to ethical standards of behavior, removing such a towel was considered a grave sin, so they were not touched, and only after they were completely destroyed by rain or wind were new towels attached.
Amulet. The towel played an important protective role during droughts or the spread of epidemics. So, for protective purposes, they collectively made a towel or just a piece of linen, with which they could tie a “figure”, gird a church, line a road, a street, a road, drive cattle across the linen or cross it for people. During a drought, such a towel was carried to the church and placed on the image. Sometimes they made a wooden cross, dug it in on the edge of the village or on a grave and hung a woven towel on it. In case of illness of a child or for a child who was born in a family in which children had died before, the mother made towels, which were called " votive" and were given to the church, for the icons of the Mother of God of the Intercession.
Towels were hung over the window “from evil spirits,” when a hut was consecrated or a funeral was celebrated, the corners of the hut were covered “so that evil spirits would not hide anywhere.” A long towel was also hung over the doors to protect the house.
For a newborn. They came to the mother in labor with a towel to welcome the birth of a new person, a towel with a special design was used to receive the newborn, and the baby’s cradle was hung with an elongated piece of fabric - a canopy (“from the evil eye”).
On a towel, embroidered with light, cheerful flowers, without a single black stitch, the baby was carried to baptism. The godmother prepared it in advance, and, wrapping the child in it, pronounced the words “red road” to the newborn. This towel is used to cover a baby in church. There was a custom to sew a child’s first shirt from it; sometimes it was kept until the wedding, or even put in a coffin.
At the wedding. The towel played a special role in wedding rituals as one of the most important attributes. Wedding towels, like the entire dowry, were prepared by each girl in advance. Towels were given to the elders, tied over the shoulder if they came to an agreement at the betrothal. In many areas, not only elders and groomsmen, but also boyars and other wedding officials tied towels at weddings. Often both the young woman and her boyfriend wore a towel instead of a belt - ends first.
During the wedding, they tied the hands of the newlyweds with a towel, wishing them mutual understanding and a happy and long marital journey. At the wedding, when welcoming the newlyweds, they covered the road from the threshold to the table, or even from the gate to the door of the hut, with a towel; sometimes a towel was laid in front of the entrance to the church.
But the most important thing was the towel on which the parents blessed the young. Such a towel is a special shrine, which was not shown to strangers and was cherished like the apple of an eye, passed on from generation to generation.
Of no small importance was the white embroidered towel on which the newlyweds were supposed to stand under the crown. The groom's relatives placed silver coins and wheat under this towel for good luck and wealth. This towel was then used to cover the image or hang it in a prominent place in the room.
On the road. The towel, and sometimes more than one, was taken on the road by Chumaks, military men, those who went to work, and everyone who was away from their home for a long time. The towel was a symbol of wishes for a happy fate in the future and the memory of one’s home, and therefore the most expensive gift from a mother to her son when he set off for a new life.
During the farewell to the army, young guys were hung with towels from head to toe, thereby wishing them a happy service and a safe return home. When seeing off her son on a long journey, the mother gave him an embroidered towel. At the same time, wishing happiness, she said: “May your share flow with this towel!”
At the funeral. During the funeral, the towel was a symbol of a person’s transition to another world: the towel is the road of life, the beginning is birth, the end is the completion of life’s journey.
Sometimes towels were used to cover the body of the deceased or placed under his feet; the cart on which the coffin was transported was covered with a towel or carpet. The coffin was also covered with a towel, on which bread was placed. As a sign of mourning, a towel was hung on the gate or in the window. In front of the funeral procession they carried a cross tied with a towel. Participants in the funeral procession had towels tied around their hands. According to custom, the coffin used to be lowered into the grave on special towels, and the grave cross, especially at the funeral of a guy, was also tied with a towel. Those who carried the coffin, cross, banner, as well as the diggers were given hustkas or towels - none of those who helped at the funeral were paid in money.
After the 40th day, the towel was given to the church for the funeral of the soul. As a rule, funeral towels were not decorated with ornaments.

III. A towel in everyday life is a symbol of goodness, good luck, a good start and finish to a business.

In agriculture. They did not do without a towel in agricultural rituals. On the first day of the winter inspection (on Yuri), we walked into the field in a herd (usually by family). The father walked ahead and carried bread and salt on a towel, and the mother carried refreshments in a basket covered with a towel. A towel was spread out on a green field, pies and dyes were placed on it. This was done on the first day of plowing, sowing and harvest.
The holiday of the first sheaf is a ceremonial celebration of the beginning of the harvest, which was based on the idea that ritual actions, songs, etc. can ensure good conservation of the harvest. Having gone out into the field to eat, the hostess laid out a towel with bread and salt and a candle. On the side of the road she stopped and bowed to the field three times, saying: “God grant, it’s easy to start, and even easier to finish.” After the end of the harvest, the owner met the reapers with bread and salt on a towel, and they put a harvesting wreath on it.
Housing construction. The towel played a symbolic role in the construction of housing. The main attribute during the foundation of the house was a towel, on which lay a cross, a bouquet of flowers, bread, salt and a cup of water or wine. The senior master took the towel with bread, kissed it, saying: “Lord, help me.”
When the house was being built, the basements were covered with towels. The custom has also been preserved when building a hut, to lift the last rafter at the end of the roof on towels, which were then given to the craftsmen. The youngest had to place a “wreath” on the top of the roof - a bouquet of birch or oak branches along with flowers tied with towels, which the future mistress of the house embroidered for this purpose. They also entered the newly built hut with an icon, an embroidered towel, and bread and salt. All it symbolized hope for goodness and happiness in a person's life.
Bread and towel. From ancient times to this day, bread and towel go together. Obviously, the symbolism of bread required a respectful attitude towards it and demanded that it never lie on a “naked” table not covered with a towel. Towels were used to cover the bread on the table, a tub of kneaded dough, and a paska with dyes, which were carried to the church to be blessed. Wedding bread - loaf, cones, rolls - was placed on the table, also covered with a towel. At Christmas in some regions they wove "pshenichnik" - a long towel with crosses and infinities, which, falling from the images, covered a bowl of kutya on the table.
Greeting guests. Until this time, the towel also remained a symbol of goodwill and hospitality, so dear guests were greeted with bread and salt on an embroidered towel. Accepting a towel and kissing bread symbolized agreement and spiritual unity. Before greeting a guest from a long journey at the table, the hostess hung a clean towel-wiper on his shoulder and poured water from the well from a jug onto his hands.
In addition to the custom of greeting honored guests with bread on a towel, the custom of giving bread on a towel in honor of some special event has been preserved.
IV. Decorative and practical role of the towel
On icons. With the adoption of Christianity, a tradition arose of decorating icons with towels, which were called bozhniki ("devotees", "nabrazniki"). As a rule, icons were hung on pokutya, which is why these towels were called “pokutnya”. Their length reached three meters or more.
On major holidays - Christmas, Easter, a temple holiday, for a wedding - the huts were hung with more decorated towels - festive ones, and during Lent - “sentry”, pure white or with decorated edges, usually in dark colors.
Room decoration. In addition to huts, towels in the past also decorated public buildings - churches, village councils, schools, etc.
Towels in the hut were hung on pegs on the walls, above doors, windows, on racks, on mirrors. As a decorative frame, towels gave the hut festivity, solemnity, and national flavor. They amazed with their rich decor, rich colors, and variety of ornaments that had deep symbolism.
In addition to ritual and decorative significance, towels also had a purely practical use. According to the functions they performed, towels had their own names. For example, an utirach (wiping tray) was used to wipe the face and hands, and dishes and tables were used for washing. The towel was the “face” of Ukrainian women’s housing. Based on how many and what kind of towels there were, they judged the owner and her daughter.
A towel, sparsely decorated and made of coarser fabric, hung for every day in every rural hut near the threshold, on a peg or on a pole. They wiped their hands and dishes with it, covered the bread, milked the cow with it, and fussed around the stove. The towel served lunch for mowers, reapers, and shepherds.
V. Symbols of the art of embroidery
Living conditions, customs, and native nature determined the nature of the embroidery and color. Thus, images of ancient Russian embroidery were often associated with the religious beliefs of the Slavs. The cult of the goddess of earth and fertility was manifested in the depiction of the majestic figure of a woman surrounded by flowers, birds, animals or horsemen. Later, in folk embroidery of the 18th-19th centuries, images of birds and animals lost the meaning of a pagan symbol and were perceived as an expression of goodness and well-being in the family, harmony, and love between husband and wife.
The elements that make up the motif of Voronezh patterns are of ancient origin and are directly related to the veneration of the cult of the pagan deity by our ancestors through special signs-symbols, signs-amulets. These conventional signs were always supposed to remind the gods and other forces of good to turn away the hand of evil in time when it wanted to cause any misfortune or mortal grief to a person.
The geometric rhombus is the main, most stable figure in the ornament, a sign of the radiant sun, which among our Slavic ancestors was considered a circle. The hooks and sticks released from the sides of the rhombus were conventionally understood as the rays of the sun. In the process of the evolution of the rhombus in the Voronezh region, multiple variants of it arose, and one of them is the “burdock” - a combed rhombus with two protrusions at each corner. It got its name because of its resemblance to burdock. This amulet sign has turned into a multiple symbol: the home of a young family, a source of water, fire, fertility and life. So, if it was depicted with dots in the center or divided into four small rhombuses with circles in each, it denoted fertile soil, a sown field, a peasant plot or an estate. An empty diamond in the middle meant earth or firmament. A chain of vertically arranged rhombuses is the “tree” of life. A rhombus with hooks on the sides was a symbol of mother earth.
Experts consider the cross to be the second most common symbol of the Voronezh pattern. The technique of cross stitch is widespread in the Voronezh region today, which indicates its ancient roots. Among pagan peoples, the sign of the cross was a symbol of a man. The double cross signifies husband and wife, that is, family.
The geometric triangle meant virgin land, and later a defensive structure.
A square crossed by crosswise lines with dots in the middle symbolized the field sown by the plowman.
The lucky number seven and the seven-day week were represented by a seven-pointed star.
The eight-pointed star symbolized family. The spiral symbolizes the snake, representing wisdom.
A circle with a small cross in the middle denoted the inextricable union of the god Yarila with man.
A small circle inside a large one testified that along with good (large circle) there is also evil (small circle)
Signs in the form of a dot symbolized grain, and signs in the form of the Roman numeral five symbolized a plant.
Thus, we see that the pattern on embroidery has not only aesthetic meaning and content, but also carries a semantic load: embroidery symbols can tell us about the worldview, values, and aspirations of our ancestors. By studying this symbolism, we can better understand our past and enrich modern culture.
As a result of the research, I found out that embroidery is one of the most ancient elements of the spiritual and material culture of our people. Her images are directly related not only to everyday life, but also to the beliefs and customs of the Slavs, which is why in them we find reflections of both pagan and Christian views on the world around us and relationships between people. The color scheme is also no coincidence: each color carried a great meaning.
Most often, embroidery was used to decorate towels, which played not so much a utilitarian but a ritual role during human life: they were a necessary element of any significant events in a person’s life from birth to death. The peculiarity of the embroidery of our region, which for a long time was a frontier, is the synthesis of the embroidery traditions of the three fraternal Slavic peoples and their western neighbors. And, thank God, they will delight people with their beauty for many years to come. After all, what is a towel in the culture of Ukrainians, Russians, and Belarusians? This is the history of our ancestors, thoughts and hopes, the beauty and richness of spiritual culture: mother’s song, father’s hut, grandfather’s fairy tale, grandmother’s pattern and affection, a kind word from a neighbor, mutual assistance - all this is on towels, the ancestral memory of our ancestors.
The study of specialized literature allowed me to learn that embroidery, developing from isolated signs-amulets with cult meaning, turned into an artistic ornamental system, which in the modern world is used by fashion designers in clothing design. Embroidery is part of the living history of the Russian people, the Slavs, which has absorbed centuries, from the pagans to the present day. In the 21st century, the century of globalization, it is important to preserve the originality of folk culture. So it is with embroidery: the semantic meaning of the drawings-symbols has been lost, it is necessary to return it, and then it will become a “book of folk wisdom.” In recent years, my fellow countrymen have renewed their interest in the art of embroidery, which these days is acquiring a new semantic meaning: the ritualism of embroidery is increasingly inferior to its aesthetics. In my opinion, embroidery is an important part of folk culture; we must use its beauty in everyday life, carefully preserve what our ancestors managed to preserve and preserve.
For a long time, folk embroidery was not perceived as an art, so samples of products were not collected, and embroidery techniques were not studied. At our school there is a local history museum “Istoki”; during the study group we tried to collect, study, systematize folk patterns, and describe the features of ancient Russian embroidery. How many long centuries is embroidery destined to live? The story of her transfiguration and resurrection continues in our time.
In conclusion, I would like to quote the lines of a poem by Natasha Hristoeva:
A towel is not just beauty.
It contains instructions and wishes for happiness.
It contains the heart of a mother, love and warmth,
The fire of goodness is the eternal radiance.
A towel can be read like a book.
After all, age-old wisdom is stored in it.
And so that this knowledge does not go to waste,
We need to go back to our roots.

List of used literature:

1. A.I. Nemirovsky. Myths of Ancient Hellas. M., “Enlightenment”, 1992, pp. 63 – 65.
2. Illustrated mythological dictionary, St. Petersburg, “North-West”, 1994, p.39.
3. Maksimova M., Kuzmina M. Embroidery. First steps. M., "Eksmo-press", 1997, p.5
4. Lyubimov L. The Art of Ancient Rus'. M., “Enlightenment”, 1981, p. 18.
5. Zhirov N.S. Folk artistic culture of the Belgorod region. Belgorod, 2000, pp. 200 – 201.
6. Botova S.I., Pristavkina T.A., Ryabchikov A.V. The man-made beauty of the Belgorod land. Belgorod, 200, p. 213.
7. Turanina N.A., Shaternikova N.I. Mythological semantics of folk life. Belgorod, “Veselitsa”, 2002, p. 40, 49-50.
8. Folk poetry. MCC "Dobrorechye", Belgorod, 1992, p. 3-4.
9. Kashkarova-Duke E.D. Handicraft Guide. M., IPC “Russian Rarity”, 1993, p.16.
10. Eremenko T.I. Needlework. M., Legpromizdat, 1989, pp. 28-33.
11. Eremenko T.I. The needle is a magician. M., “Enlightenment”, 1988, pp.40-54.
12. Utkin P.I. Folk arts and crafts of Russia. M., “Soviet Russia”, 1984, pp. 167-169.
13. Babenko I., Kapyshkina S. Patterns were suggested by nature - magazine “Folk Creativity”, 1998 No. 2, p. 13-15.
14. Klinovskaya G. Embroidery on a peasant costume - magazine “Folk Creativity”, 1996 No. 6, p. 13-14.
15. Litovchenko Z. There is no price for the past - magazine “Folk Creativity” 1996 No. 4, p. 14-15.
16. Rybakova S. The work was hard, there was a desire to give - magazine “Folk Creativity”, 1999 No. 4, p. 10-11.
17. Fedotova L. Living crafts - magazine “Folk Creativity”, 1996, No. 3, p. 24.
18. Tsvetkova N. How long have they been embroidering in Rus'? - magazine “Lena”, 2002, No. 4, p. 8-10.
19. Shalaeva N. Traditional Russian embroidery - magazine “Folk Creativity”, 1995 No. 5, p. 25-27; 1995 No. 6, pp. 19–21; 1996 No. 1, p. 19-21.

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The towel is a carrier of Slavic traditions

Among the ancient Slavs, a towel was a piece of homespun fabric, hand-woven from cotton or linen threads on a horizontal or vertical loom. Such towels were decorated in all possible ways: cross- or satin stitch embroidered patterns, lace, ribbons, narrow strips of colorful chintz (calico).

Ordinary towels intended for daily use were called wipers or wipers. They were decorated to a minimum, with only modest ornaments.

For the bride's wedding, they prepared a whole mountain of new, elegant towels, usually from 30 to 100 pieces. The betrothed chose the most beautiful towel and tied it around his belt. Close relatives also had to decorate their belts in a similar way.

The wedding ceremony featured another very small, but richly embroidered towel - the so-called fly. Before the wedding, the bride wiped away her girlish tears with her fly. The groom tied this towel around the bride's right hand to take his betrothed out of her parents' house. And during the wedding, the hands of the bride and groom were tied with a fly.

On the 2nd day of the formation of a new family, the young wife hung all her towels on the walls of her husband’s house so that her new relatives could appreciate her handicrafts.

Bath towels in Europe and America

Until the early 19th century, when the textile industry began to be mechanized, bath towels were very expensive because they were woven by hand, a time-consuming process. Therefore, a towel for a medieval person did not play as big a role as for a modern person.

In the 19th century, the towel became more widespread. It was hung behind the washbasin, on the sink, or placed under a jug of water. These towels were still woven primarily by hand from evenly distributed threads. In size they were more like modern napkins. They only wiped their faces and hands. Towels woven on a jacquard loom and painted red or white were considered especially fashionable.

It was only by 1890 that soft terry cloth replaced the rather stiff linen examples in people's homes. When the cotton industry was mechanized, Europeans and Americans were able to buy not only ready-made towels, but also the material for them - by the meter.

Any American housewife could go to a supermarket and order by mail a ready-made Turkish towel, woven, embroidered with patterns and finished at the edges. But almost all of them were made of rough and tough fabric. And only when the American industry began to produce terry cotton fabric on a large scale, and this happened towards the end of the 19th century, the need to buy towels abroad from US residents disappeared.

History of the Turkish towel

A traditional Turkish towel is a bath towel measuring 0.9 m by 1.1 m with a small loop in the center. Towels have always played a very important role in the social life of Turkey, but the original purpose of the Turkish towel was the ceremonial bathing of the bride before the wedding.

No less important were towels for Turkish baths. Residents used them quite actively when taking baths. This elaborate ceremony required a set of towels, one for each part of the body: chest, legs, shoulders, hips and head. It was the Turks who made a luxurious household item out of an ordinary, ordinary towel. They brought to the towel industry the style, imagination and weaving skills gained from centuries-old and always masterful carpet making.

Waffle towels, which are used all over the world today, were originally woven in the Turkish town of Bursa in the 18th century. Local weavers have invented many ways to make towels, depending on the type of weave of the threads. But it was waffle towels that gained worldwide fame and were called “Turkish towels.” Since the first waffle samples were made by hand, no more than 3-4 new towels were needed per day of work.

Instead of a conclusion

As you can see, in each country the towel has its own unique history, firmly intertwined with local traditions and rituals. And how great it is that today we have the opportunity to choose a towel not just to wipe our face and body, but also so that its very appearance will delight us with its bright colors and fancy patterns. Indeed, in the modern world, a towel has ceased to be just a necessary household item, but has also become a fashionable reflection of our tastes.

In the traditional culture of the Russian people there are customs and rituals associated with the use of ritual objects that stood out from the vast objective world surrounding a person and occupied a special place in this world (bell, icon, candle, wedding ring, horseshoe, details of a woman’s festive costume, amulet belt). These also include a towel as an object of decorative and applied art and an integral element of folk rituals, customs, beliefs and holidays.

The towel played an important role in folk life; it accompanied a person from birth to old age, as if marking the main moments of his life. The decorated item became a participant in people's communication.

Towel headdress in the 19th century. quite widely used in the Tula, Kaluga and Bryansk provinces. Girls from these regions wore head towels with rolled or embroidered ends on holidays and when visiting church. A towel made of linen canvas, folded in 4 rows lengthwise, was placed on the forehead, then it was intertwined at the back of the head and put forward with the ends decorated in red with geometric patterns.

For many peoples in ancient times, the color red symbolized the life-giving forces of nature; it was credited with the magical property of promoting human vitality. The color red in clothing is also associated with the idea of ​​protective significance. The wedding towel, which was used to cover the bride, was made up to 3 meters long, with red lace stripes and red lace sewn on the ends. Along the long side of the towel, which went down to the forehead, a red stripe was sewn into the edge or diamonds and triangles were embroidered with red wool - a security ornament. The wedding towel very clearly preserves the meaning of the protective cover of the fabric, which was used to cover the bride “from the evil eye”, reinforced by a protective ornament made with red threads

Starting from the 1st day of matchmaking, the towel plays a certain role in the ceremony. So, if the bride agrees to the marriage, she gives the groom and everyone who came with him bath or embroidered towels; With the groom, the bride sends towels to his relatives. On the wedding day, in the bride's house, the groom is tied over his shoulder with a towel about 3 meters long, with embroidered ends that go down to the ground. The groom does not part with this towel, a symbol of his wedding ceremony, throughout the wedding.

The role of the towel in rituals is very diverse. In rituals, towels acted as symbols and gifts. The presentation of gifts by the bride to the groom, his parents, their relatives and other wedding participants has been carried out since ancient times in order to maintain good relations with them and ensure a friendly attitude on their part. As symbols, towels acted as distinctive signs of characters in pre-wedding and wedding rituals. So, in the Tambov province, “callers” were invited to the bride’s bachelorette party - the bride’s friends, girded with colorful sashes or embroidered towels, and special small towels were attached to their hands. And in the Vologda province, during Maslenitsa, the newlywed gave pancake towels to her husband’s relatives for treating them to pancakes.

On wedding towels you can often see two birds - peahens, depicted on the sides of a bush - tree. Such birds were embroidered as a sign of love, wishes of goodness and happiness to the young. Birds - peahens - are ancient birds that were worshiped by our ancestors. There was even this popular belief among peasant women: “If you don’t get a bird or a peahen or two, you won’t get married.”

Often the foremother was embroidered on towels - the earth, raising her hands to the sun, asking him for bounties to people. Since then, an agricultural proverb has come down to us about the dependence of the harvest on the weather: it is not the earth that gives birth to bread, but the sky. Women began to embroider patterns with birds and the foremother - the earth with the arrival of spring, with the onset of long bright days, when there was still time before the start of field work. And the peasant woman embroidered her patterns under the beneficial rays of the spring sun. The word “pattern” sounds approximately the same as lightning, glow, dawn. And therefore, on the silver-white canvas, the embroidered ornament glows like a glow.

Red was the color of the sun, fire, life, beauty and personified masculinity. The red patterns of peasant embroidery are perceived as the earth, which has received energy from the sun and is capable of giving life to all living things.

Russians also hang embroidered towels on windows not only during weddings, but also on holidays in general - evil spirits can more easily enter windows; hanging them with towels serves as the same amulet as crossing windows and doors with the banner of the cross.

The towel serves as a talisman not only in wedding rituals, but also in maternity and funeral rituals.

So, at the birth of a child, they wrap the cradle with a towel so that the evil spirit does not penetrate to him.

At a funeral, towels are distributed to all those accompanying the deceased: they are given to protect those accompanying them from misfortunes when communicating with the deceased. In all these cases, the magical power of the towel is enhanced by embroidery, which undoubtedly plays an important role and has a protective value.

Among other things, the towel also plays an informative role. So, at funerals it is hung on the corner of the house, in the red corner, on the cross, on the lid of the coffin, used in a set for the first person they meet, etc. The towel is, as it were, an identification sign not only for the living, informing “strangers” about what the deceased belonged to the family group; it apparently served as an identification mark for the ancestors. This probably explains the hanging of towels on the doorpost or spreading them on benches, covering the water in the font, etc. Hanging out towels can be regarded as an “invitation” to ancestors to take part in certain activities related to the family and to provide patronage to descendants.

The old folk embroidery with its wonderful patterns, special and unique in each area, has almost not been preserved as a form of art. But, all the same, embroidery is not a dying type of folk art. Wonderful works of embroiderers of the past are carefully preserved in museums and serve as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the creativity of our contemporaries.

Along with ancient images, embroidery is enriched with themes related to modern village life, which also gradually become history.

Nowadays you can see portraits of fallen soldiers framed with embroidered towels in rural houses. The towel also actively participates in ceremonial meetings of honored guests - bread and salt are served on it.

The tradition of rituals with towels began to be revived in modern rituals. In modern weddings, we see the bride and groom wearing ornamented towels tied over the right shoulder. And although the wedding ritual retains the features of past life, they have changed significantly in our days.

A lace or embroidered towel always looks very elegant and solemn; it is no coincidence that it is customary to offer bread and salt on them. It is probably impossible to think of a better decoration than a white elegant towel: after all, it contains symbolic purity, and the idea of ​​prosperity is associated with it. What more could young people wish for!

The wonderful Vologda lace artist Maria Medkova, our contemporary, created a series of lace towels. Among them are some with wedding symbols.

Material taken from various sources.

1. “Folk ornaments”, Vasilyeva L.K., M., 1991 2. “Fine arts”, N.A. Goryaeva, O.V. Ostrovskaya, M., 2006 1984 3. “Russian wedding”, D.M. Balashov, Yu.I. Marchenko, M., 1085 4. “Russian folk embroidery”, Boguslavskaya I.Ya., M., 1986, 5. Vologda lace in the interior M. Medkova, O. Kirillova.