Embroidery of Belarus: ritual towels

Hand-embroidered ritual towel from Podneprovie region

These amazingly beautiful, hand-embroidered ritual towels are from Belarus. They are called rushnik and all the examples in this post are from the collections of different museums of Belarus and date from the 19th century. Each region of the country has its own distinctive designs and patterns of embroidery with hidden meaning and symbolism. The most popular motifs were flowers, plants, birds and geometrical. Such towels were not for everyday use of course, but for wedding or funeral ceremonies and for decoration of the place of honour (where the icon was placed) in the house. The majority of rushniks are embroidered with red threads. The very word "red" means "beautiful" and "splendid" and the colour itself symbolizes life, sun, fertility and health. It was believed that a rushnyk with red embroidery possesses magic powers that can bring happiness, prosperity and health to a person and his/her family.

 Perhaps one of my favourite are the towels from Podneprovie region

And these are towels from Poozerie region. 

Here is an example of embroidery from Ponemanne region

This towel is from Central region

A few examples of towels from Eastern Polesse region

And finally, towels from Western Polesse

 I hope you enjoyed these hand embroidered masterpieces and perhaps some of them have given you some ideas for your own embroidery projects.