Agree – until recently, before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, we were frivolous about our national heritage – traditions, rituals, that is, what distinguishes Ukrainians from other nations. Indulging in the notorious “trends” or being wary of an unsuccessful image in the eyes of situational “friends”, we began to lose the authentic, primordial, ours – that which forms the code of Ukrainianness. How many modern children do not know a single carol? What part of the youth does not even guess what gaivka is? How did the traditions that were called to unite the Ukrainian people die together with our grandparents?

All these questions are rhetorical, and we realize the answer to them even without statistical data. But you know, there is still light at the end of the tunnel. And most importantly – there are people who are ready to rekindle this flame in the midst of the darkness of lost traditions.

Chests are traditional furniture that have long been common in the interiors of Ukrainian houses and over time began to disappear due to changing fashion, but now they are back in trend. The Dnipro village of Igrin was once famous as a place where chests were made, painted with a special decorative painting, which became a kind of artistic calling card of the region. The preservation and popularization of this painting, which is usually called Mykolaivsky (after the name of another village located nearby - Mykolaivka), became the topic of a youth initiative of the NGO "Youth Communication Center "Positive Pavlograd". According to the director of the Pavlograd Historical and Local Lore Museum Anastasia Shanya, who joined this activity, the decorative painting of household items recreates a unique vision of the world that Ukrainians have been broadcasting for centuries.