Ukrainian wreath

The wreath may be part of a tradition dating back to East Slavic customs that predate the Christianization of Kievan Rus'.

[4] The ceremonial, religious value diminished, and was later replaced as a national character of girlhood: to lose a wreath in folk songs and traditions means for a maiden to transition into womanhood.

[1] In his book The Golden Bough, mythology scholar James George Frazer first claimed that Ivan Kupala Day (John the Baptist Day), celebrated in Ukraine shortly after the summer solstice, and closely associated with the wreath in Ukraine, was in fact originally a pagan fertility rite.

[6] The wreath varied in many of the regions of Ukraine; young women throughout the country wore various headdresses of yarn, ribbon, coins, feathers, and grasses, but these all had the same symbolic meaning.

[7] Since the 2014 Euromaidan uprisings, the wearing of a vinok increased in popularity as part of a wider revival in Ukrainian culturalism and interest in symbols of national pride.