A rushnyk is a ritual towel.
The word comes from ruka, meaning hand, and a regular rushnyk
would be simply a towel, a piece of cloth that a person
could use to wipe his or her hands. Rushnyk has acquired
and is currently used in a double meaning: it retains its
simple meaning of "towel" and it has also acquired
the meaning of ritual object. The ritual rushnyk is a very
important item to which a great deal of power is ascribed.
It is used to secure a wedding, to dispatch the deceased
to the world of the dead, to protect the home and insure
the prosperity and fertility of the inhabitants of the household,
among other things.
The origin of the ritual power
of the rushnyk is obscure. It may have something to do with
the ritual potency of weaving and thus of all cloth. Because
the human body is a central symbol in Ukrainian culture,
the power of the rushnyk may be connected to the power of
cloth to clothe the body. This meaning appears in the begging
songs of minstrels and in ritual in the form of the kryzhma,
a special cloth given by the godmother and used in baptism.
The power of the rushnyk may come from the sacred act of
embroidery. Embroidered rushnyky are the most powerful and
the most desirable kind. While regular, unadorned towels
may be given as gifts to people who help out with weddings
and funerals, the rushnyky that hang in the home are all
embroidered. In ritual, embroidered rushnyky, or at least
printed ones, are the ideal and they are the standard toward
which those who can afford it strive.
