ritual towels

Ritual TowelsA currency of love

and a uniquely feminine phenomenon.

A Power Point presentationby Alvin Alexsi Currier

If you were ever in Eastern Europe

you have seen such towels

even if you didn’t notice them,

for from the White Sea

in the North to the

Black Sea in the South,

they are found

everywhere in Orthodox

Eastern Europe.

The White Sea

The Black Sea

You might first notice them

draped around icons in Eastern Orthodox

Churches,

especially in old or historic

Churches,like here at

Nicula Monastery,in Romania

or in this village Church

in Ieud, Romania

or even in this new village Church in Pintik, Romania

and in large city churchesfrom Finland (below)

to Poland (on the right)

as here on the Iconostasis of the Cathedral Church, in Sanok, Poland

or in a chapel

or hung around an icon in a home.

or simply hung up as decoration

As seen in these scenes

Towels are everywhere in Eastern Europe for in the villages over there weaving is still a part of the way of

life.

Woven woolen sacksremain to this day

the common carrier of the village.

So also, when the women wanted a carpet for their new Church, they collected bark and berries and boiled them to make dye,

The next day they brought wool, boiled it in the dye all day long, and then hung it to dry

and after a month of weaving the new carpet was rolled out in the Church.

Like the traditional clothes,most towels are made of linen.

Flax is cut and dried, then soaked and hammered into fibers before being combed and spun into linen thread.

Linen has a natural rusty hue, often found in northern Europe, while further south it is always bleached white.

Because such cloth woven by hand is so precious

it is almost always embellished with

embroidery,

especially when used for shirts, sheets, or

table clothes.

Wool is also used for weaving rugs and

embroidery.

The sheep are sheared, the wool is dried, and the women spin it into yarn.

Then it is made into coats,

bed coverings, and traditional

aprons.

But the amazing thing is that everywhere,

women,and only women,

weave towels.

The bride-to-be weaves them for her new home

The old women weave them

by the cupboard full,

as memorial gifts for their funeral.

From the Baltic to the Balkans,

from Romania to Russia, they hang in every icon corner.

along the way they hang

on roadside crosses,

churchyard crosses, village shrines, and crossroad crosses.

Before any feast day the clotheslines are

filled with them.

These facts invite us to explore their origin, purpose, meaning

and power.

A clue to the ancient use of these towels is the consistent appearance of

feminine figures.

All of the oldest symbols point to a feminine power associated with

the goddesses of pre-Christian times.

Thanks to the life long research of Dr. Mary Kelly

we have marvelous studies of the origin

of these symbols.

And thanks to women like Rita Korhonen of Finland

we have masterful modern reproductions.

Their cultural significance is seen in the fact that they were housed in

museums and displayed at exhibits.

Finland even created a stamp to honor them.

Of course in the very beginning the towels were

functional,they were used to dry, wrap

and protect things.

But weaving or embroideringwas never neutral.

A woman’s joys and sorrows entered into the work

that she created.

The towels held the hopes and

prayers of the weavers.

The signs, symbols and decorations, that were added

signaled these powers, and meanings.

Over time, unfortunately,

tasteless trends evolved

as did examples of

classic beauty.

But the most dramatic sign that these towels embody

power is the fact

that they are not for sale, they are given as gifts,

and they most often serve a ritual purpose.

As the Virgin Mary

came to radiate the power

once reflected by goddesses,

the towels came to her in the

Church.

There they blossomed and remain rooted

to this day.

Today as in ancient times they ritually serve

to protect precious, holy, or heavenly things

from earthly contamination.

.

In processions one can see this custom observed.

The bride and groom stand on a towel at their wedding,And towels are spread for the blessing of the waters.

Because they embody the women who wove them they are offered to honor the home

and the items

they adorn.

They adorn the home. On a feast day,

they adorn the cross, and on the night

of Easter they adorn the baskets

ready to be blessed.

Once in Russia two sisters demonstrated to me how the towels were ritually worn in a

wedding,

as seen in folk art

and old photos,

and observed here being worn by the Master of Ceremonies at this modern Slovakian wedding

and they explained how towels were

used when welcoming a guest with bread and salt.

In the Orthodox world

the Bishop is always

welcomed with bread and salt

carried on a towel.

One Russian woman showed us

a roll of 22 towels she had woven that winter

for ritual use in the next year.

The most beautiful towels

are given for the

ceremonial hand washing

in the Liturgy,

For the leave taking dances and the traditions of a wedding

the best towels adorn the house.

And towels adorn the Church and hall for the festivities.

But it is at the time of a death and in a funeral that the towels play their most moving role,

for they are given out to all the mourners as memorials of the deceased.

Towels even line the grave and weather on the cross to comfort

the departed.

At the funeral the towels given as memorials to the pall

bearers,and passed ritually over the

casket to the poor,carry the power of the deceased

who had created them.

Here at a feast following a funeral in Romania towels are being handed out

to the mourners.

Once in a seemingly abandoned Russian chapel we found an icon lovingly wrapped with a beautiful towel.The image on the icon,like the Russian Church,was bruised and faded, but the towel testifiedto a faithstill alive and vibrant.

Also in the Old World the old ways are weathering

but the towels testify to a currency of love that is still vital and strong.

The End.