Ukrainian Folk Costumes, Ukraine

lets use this lazy Sunday for taking part in the Sunday stamps...and the theme being ethnic or national costumes. I have a few of these, but for today I decided to share with you these three Ukrainian FDCs, with according to me, AWESOME stamps!

These were issued on December 20, 2005 and each stamp has the face value of 70 kopiyoks.
The first FDC has two stamps representing the Land of Zhytomyr. (Zhytomyr is a city in the northwestern part of Ukraine, and considered as the main centre of the Polish minority in Ukraine).
The stamp on the left represents the Melanka and Vasyl Holiday (St. Basil's Day).
Melanka is a Ukrainian folk holiday celebrated on January 13th, which is New Year's Eve according to the Julian calendar. Carolers in costumes and masks go from house to house in the village - from morning till evening, play traditional scenes and sing schedrivky. There are several traditional roles: "old man and old woman", "Melanka and Vasyl", "gypsy", "jew", "gendarme", "drunkard", "doctor" and many "devils".

The stamp on the right represents St. Zosyma's Day. St. Zosyma was one of the founders of the Solovetsky monastery,on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea of northern Russia.

The second FDC has two stamps portraying the Land of Rivne (Rivne is a historic city in the western part of Ukraine).
The stamp on the left represents St Yuriy's Day, which is the Russian name for either of the two feasts of Saint George celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the feast of St George on April 23 (Julian Calendar)and in addition to this, the Russian Church also celebrates the anniversary of the consecration of the Church of St George in Kiev by Yaroslav I the Wise (1051) on November 26 (Julian Calendar).
The stamp on the right represents St Peter's and St Paul's Day.

and on the third FDC, we have two stamps portraying the Volyn province in north-western Ukraine.
The stamp on the left represents The Annunciation, while the right one represents St. Nicholas' Day. That one is celebrated on December 19 in most Orthodox countries and my grandparents do commemorate it each year as a celebration inherited from my grandfather's parents, because his father (my great-grandfather's name was Nikola (the Macedonian version of Nicholas) :)

for more traditional clothings, patterns and such, go to Viridian's blog...and I promise to check all the other posts later, but right now I am just in a terrible need of a short nap =/