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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, БЕРЕЗЕНЬ 2010 19 Nos talgia for an Extraordinary Tradition by Ir ena Pyskir - Bil ak Childr en’s Embroidered Ball Not long ago, a s I l ooked through my family albu ms one cold winter evening, I was pleasantly surp rised to see how many beautiful photographs I had of my children and of my friends’ children dre ssed in U krainian embroideries. T here were also pict ures of me and of our friends wearing embr oidered gowns at balls held in Chicago many year s ago. What beautiful memories, such nostalgia . . . . “ Wha t a shame, ” I tho ught, “ tha t these tra ditions have lapsed. ” Why, I wondered, what happe n ed? For many years, Branch 29 in Chicago held an a nnual “Vyshyvana Zabava” (Embroidered Ball) for youngsters in the pre - school Sadochok Kazok whic h it sponsored. All the children came decked out i n a specially made dress or pants and shirt ens emble embroid ere d by their mothers or gra ndmothers, and all enjoyed the music and games ass ociated with the day’s activities. As I leafed thr ough the album I remembered our pre - school and how the mothers prepared: “Wh at are you embroidering this year,” asks one mot her whil e waiting for her child to come out of S adochok Kazok. “I l ove the Hutzul colors: orange, green, and yell ow”, answers the other young woman, also wai ting for her small charge to come out of class, “but I can’t decide between a gray or white fabric. Of cour se, the cream color would be nice too. The embr oidery always looks so rich on cream.” As I teacher at the pre - schoo l, I overheard thes e conversations and I smiled, wondering how I wou ld embroider my son’s shirt to go along with his shor t pants of the sam e fabric. It was a thought that was going through the minds of most mothers in the Ukr ainian community in Chicago as we got ready for the children’s spring ball. We pored over int ricate patterns — styl es of dresses for little girls, shi rts of jackets for lit tle boys; ensembles were pain stakingly chosen so as to have just the right one. And a lthough some of this very involved stitching was compared and advice was sought out, each mot her or grandmother tried to outdo one another, not onl y so that her child o r gr andchild would be outs tanding, but also to reserve some element of surp rise for the final showing. When the day finally came, it was alw ays fil led with magic. Sponsored by Branch 29 of the UNW LA, the event was usually hosted on a Sunday aft ernoon, in a lar ge parish hall of one of the Ukr ainian churches of Chicago, where a hundred or mor e three to ten year old children with their parents and grandparents gathered to spend a few hours of a happy time in their fine embroidery. Gam es and prizes, children’s dan ces with songs and live music kept the children busy and pare nts beaming for most of the afternoon. Older chil dren from Ridna Shkola came too, engaged to perf orm skits to entertain the guests and to lead the chil dren in games. The small fry marched arou nd
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