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THE RUSHNYK · NORTH AMERICA

The Rushnyk of Unity — Rushnyk of Victory

On 13 September 2026 the embroidered cloth that holds a European record was shown in North America for the first time, in Carleton Place. This section tells its story and gives every community that works with the rushnyk a base of materials to use.

What happened on 13 September
Ukrainian Community of Lanark County emblemRotary Intercountry Committee Canada-Ukraine emblemThe North American tour runs under the patronage ofUkrainian Community of Lanark CountyRotary Intercountry Committee Canada-Ukraine
The cloth is now withUkrainian Community of Lanark CountyCarleton Place · With us until June 30, 2027 — the next stop is handed on from here
The next stop is open

No date is set past this point. The city that gets ready first takes it.

Take the next stopThe whole route →
13 SEPTEMBER 2026 · CARLETON PLACE

The first stop outside Europe

The cloth crossed the Atlantic for the first time in its history. On festival morning, people of Carleton Place and festival guests carried it from the Roy Brown Statue through the town and into Riverside Park.

At UAFest it was unrolled on the grass, held up for photographs and sung beside. The Lanark County panel, stitched in open circles over the summer, became part of the cloth's story here.

Thank you to everyone who carried it, to the embroiderers of the Lanark panel, to our Rotary friends, and to the project's team in Europe who trusted us with the premiere.

The procession →The route onward →
A long line of people carrying the Rushnyk along a Carleton Place street, 13 September 2026
Photo: Misha Lytvynyuk
A participant waves while holding the embroidered cloth during the procession
The rushnyk arrives between the market tents in Riverside Park
Guests and organizers hold the unrolled rushnyk on the grass of Riverside Park

The festival photo archive

Send your photos, take a certificate

Your frames of the day — the stage, the market, the kids' zone, the procession, the convoy, or a past festival. Every sender gets a named participant certificate; 10 photos and 3 shares enter the draw for a panel embroidered into the Rushnyk itself.

Send photosSee the wall →
THE SECTION

Three ways in

The rushnyk itself, its events with dates, and the ways to take part, with materials for other communities.

The rushnyk

The tradition, shared rushnyky worldwide, and every figure with its source

Events

Every stop with its date: what is coming, what has been

Take part

Stitch a panel, help it travel, and the materials for your own campaign

FOR COMMUNITIES AND COLLEAGUES WORLDWIDE

An open base for everyone who works with the rushnyk

The Rushnyk travels through dozens of communities, and every one of them runs its own campaign: posts, press releases, letters to a city hall, a procession, a stitching circle.

This section gathers what we learned producing the North American premiere, a catalogue of rushnyk projects around the world, and ready texts in three languages. Use them for your own campaign.

  1. 1Credit the source: “UAFest — uafest.ca/rushnyk”.
  2. 2Name the project and its people in the forms given on the naming page.
  3. 3Take figures from the fact pack, with their status.
WHAT IS A RUSHNYK

More than embroidered cloth

For centuries, Ukrainians have used the rushnyk to mark births, weddings, homecomings and farewells: a blessing you can hold in your hands, passed from one generation to the next.

In 2024, with millions of Ukrainians living far from home, families, parishes, schools and volunteer groups across Europe began embroidering their own rushnyky, each naming a hometown in Ukraine and a new home abroad, and joining them into one cloth that keeps growing.

The tradition, in depth →
YEAR BY YEAR

From a Kherson bridge to Carleton Place

  1. Naval cadets carrying the embroidered rushnyk across a bridge in Kherson, 2014
    2013–14
    735 m
    The Kherson rushnyk

    Andrii Yatsenko brings together pupils, parents and teachers across Kherson region to embroider a rushnyk 735 m long, registered as a Ukraine record. Cadets of the Kherson State Maritime Academy unfurl it across the Antonivskyi Bridge, joining both banks of the Dnipro. That cloth is separate from the one travelling today.

  2. Scan of the 2014 Ukraine Book of Records diploma for the Kherson rushnyk
    2022
    Saved
    The occupation of Kherson

    Retreating Russian forces loot the Kherson Regional Museum where the original rushnyk was kept. Museum staff save it, and the cloth that once joined two riverbanks comes through the occupation intact.

  3. The collective rushnyk hanging across a stone church nave
    2024
    Tallinn
    International launch

    Ten years on, Yatsenko proposes a shared symbol for Ukrainians scattered by the full-scale invasion. On 1 October the project launches at Oleviste Church in Tallinn, and rushnyky begin arriving from across Europe.

  4. Embroidered rushnyk panels hanging in a church, one with a Rotary emblem
    2025
    5
    Ukrainian cities

    The cloth comes home first: Chernivtsi, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Poltava. Then it spends a year touring Europe: Portugal, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway.

  5. The Book of World Records European record certificate, 2026
    May 2026
    160.5 m
    European record

    In Tallinn, The Book of World Records registers the cloth as a European record: 103 rushnyky from 89 organizations, joined into 160.5 m. More panels were added within days.

  6. Ukrainian community members in Ireland holding rushnyk panels by the sea
    July 2026
    +3
    Scotland → Ireland

    The cloth keeps growing on the road. In Ireland the diaspora community adds three more panels at a gathering by the sea.

  7. Two young women carrying the start of the rushnyk along a Carleton Place street
    13 Sep 2026
    1st
    North American stop

    The North American premiere at UAFest in Carleton Place: the first time the cloth was shown outside Europe.

Told by the community

Larnaca, Cyprus · October 2025

The report gives no date for the presentation itself; 28 October 2025 is the day it was published.

The Ukrainian community of Cyprus received the rushnyk from Spain and presented it in Larnaca; the report says that after presentations in the towns of Cyprus the cloth was to travel on to Norway. The Obiimy Ukrainian educational and cultural centre, the Ukrainian-Cypriot Friendship Society and the local Plast scouts ran the day with support from Ukraine's Embassy in the Republic of Cyprus: a living chain on the square in front of the Church of Saint Lazarus, then a procession with the cloth to the Anchor-Heart memorial that Odesa gave Larnaca in 2019. Cyprus has two rushnyky in the cloth, both worked to original designs by the Kyiv culturologist and craftswoman Oksana Martynenko. One is by Liolia Filimonova of the Friendship Society — her first piece of embroidery, finished in two months, carrying the Society's emblem and a tryzub in olive leaves among cornflowers and Greek meanders. The other is by Zoia Kernasovska for the Obiimy centre: a tree of life in the ornaments of Kherson region.

Source
pro.te.ua — Людмила Островська, 28 October 2025 · archived copy
Community material

The photographs and video of that day belong to the community and to the newspaper — the links above lead to them, and this page hosts none of them.

BY THE NUMBERS

A living record

Figures as registered in May 2026. The cloth has grown since, so every number here is a floor.

of embroidered cloth at the record
160.5 m
rushnyky joined into one
103
organizations that added a panel
89
countries of Europe crossedas reported by the project's team
14
embroiderers, from children to grandmothersas reported by the project's team
120+
records for two cloths: Ukraine 2014 (Kherson) and Europe 2026
2
Every figure with its source →
WHO STANDS BEHIND IT

The project and its parties

UAFest (Ukrainian Community of Lanark County) organized and produced the North American premiere of the Rushnyk of Unity — Rushnyk of Victory. The project was conceived by Andrii Yatsenko and is carried by its co-organizers in Ukraine and Estonia.

  • Association of Ukrainian Organizations in EstoniaCo-organizer · the project's strongest institutional party
  • Andrii YatsenkoProject author and director — named on the record certificate
  • Viktoriia BebkoProject curator — countersigns the participation certificates
  • NGO “Shchaslyva Natsiia” (Kherson), Tallinn Bible Church, Kirovohrad Regional Taxpayers OrganizationCo-organizers of the original 2013–14 rushnyk
  • Ukrainian Community of Lanark County (UAFest)Organizer and producer of the North American premiere
Interview, September 2026 · English subtitles
In his own words

The man who started the Rushnyk

Andrii Yatsenko is the author of the idea and the project director of the Rushnyk of Unity — Rushnyk of Victory.

His journey with the rushnyk began more than a decade ago in Kherson: in 2013–2014 students, parents, teachers and whole communities across the region embroidered a 735-metre cloth, recognized by the Book of Records of Ukraine. Ten years later, with millions of Ukrainians scattered across Europe by Russia's full-scale invasion, the international project launched in Tallinn — and by 2026 it had grown to 160.5 metres from 103 rushnyky by 89 organizations, and a European record. On 13 September 2026 it was shown in North America for the first time, in Carleton Place.

Tour Team

Who carries the rushnyk across the Americas

The Pan-American tour has its own small team, formed in 2026 and still growing as the route does. Roles are broad at this stage — each person covers several directions at once.

Olga Ialovenko
Olga Ialovenko
Pan-American Tour Coordinator

Keeps the route, host communities and the whole Pan-American handoff moving from city to city.

Maksym Stepanenko
Maksym Stepanenko
Marketing Strategy

Shapes the tour's public story, digital tools and launch plan so each new stop can be found and understood.

Yuliia Bobrovnyk
Yuliia Bobrovnyk
Project Administration, Grants & Design

Keeps partners, grant work, project files and the tour's visual language moving together as one project.

Rushnyk of Unity — Rushnyk of Victory | Pan-American Tour Team. These are tour roles. The same people hold different, separate roles on the festival's organizing team.

GALLERY

From Kherson bridges to Riverside Park

Wide view of the full rushnyk installation across a church nave
Naval cadets and volunteers unrolling the original rushnyk in Kherson, 2014
Community members in vyshyvankas carrying the rushnyk across an old-town square
Ukrainian community members in Ireland holding rushnyk panels outdoors
A panel embroidered with two red roosters and a tree of life
A beaded panel with kalyna berries around a geometric star
Holding up the Rotary rushnyk in Riverside Park, 2026
A song beside the rushnyk on festival day, 2026
THE RUSHNYK BEYOND THE FESTIVAL

Larnaca, Cyprus — 3 September 2026

The Ukrainian community of Larnaca unrolled its own panels along the seafront and sent us the photographs.

  • Embroidered panels of the rushnyk held along the Larnaca promenade
  • A panel with an embroidered wreath and trident
  • A participant with a panel embroidered with red flowers
  • Participants hold the rushnyk in the evening wind
  • A panel with red poppies held above the promenade
  • A panel with a wreath and trident, held by its embroiderer
  • Children and teenagers of the Larnaca community by the anchor monument
  • A participant holds her embroidered panel
  • A participant with an embroidered panel by the harbour
  • A participant holds a panel with red flowers
  • Children on the anchor monument after the rushnyk walk
  • The rushnyk stretches along the seafront at sunset

Photographs: Ukrainian community of Larnaca, Cyprus

THE ROAD CONTINUES

Add a panel, or invite the cloth

Every community that hosts the rushnyk is invited to embroider its own panel: 50 cm wide, 1.5–2 metres long, natural white linen or cotton, any technique.

Embroider a panel

Who this is for
Needleworkers, schools, parishes, families — anyone with a needle
What we need from you
A panel 50 cm wide and 1.5–2 m long, natural linen or cotton, any technique
What we do
We send the specification, agree how it reaches the cloth and name you in the register
Time it takes: Weeks of stitchingStart here →

Host it in your city

Who this is for
A community, a town, a parish, a museum, a school, a festival
What we need from you
A place, a date and one person who answers for the day
What we do
We bring the cloth, hand over the campaign plan, the checklists and ready texts
Time it takes: Two to three months to prepareStart here →

Carry it on the day

Who this is for
Anyone who comes — children with their parents, families, volunteers
What we need from you
An hour of your time and a pair of hands at the meeting point
What we do
We register you, send the meeting point and the photographs afterwards
Time it takes: One morningStart here →

Help it travel

Who this is for
Carriers, businesses, sponsors of a single leg of the road
What we need from you
Transport between two cities, insurance, or the cost of one leg
What we do
Your name travels with that leg — on the page, in the press materials and at the stop
Time it takes: One conversationStart here →

Add your own rushnyk

Who this is for
Communities that already have a cloth of their own
What we need from you
The story of your cloth, photographs and a source we can point to
What we do
We add it to the catalogue of rushnyk projects worldwide, with your source
Time it takes: An evening of writingStart here →

Pay for a stretch of road

Who this is for
Anyone who would rather give money than time
What we need from you
Whatever you decide — a transfer, or the cost of one leg between two cities
What we do
We show where it goes: the road, children in Ukraine, and festivals that grow from this one
Time it takes: Two minutesStart here →

Tell people about it

Who this is for
Media, bloggers, community pages and anyone with an audience
What we need from you
A post, an article or a mention where your people will see it
What we do
Boilerplate, a fact sheet, photographs and previous coverage, ready to reuse
Time it takes: Twenty minutesStart here →

Pass it on

Every stop so far started with someone sending this link to their own community.