Never before was Election Day so colorful in Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians honored the day of voting fot the nation’s fifth president by wearing national costumes.
Iryna Kalashnyk from Kyiv was one of many who wore a traditional embroidered shirt, or “vyshyvanka,” when she went to the polling station.
“We have to show the whole world that we maintain our traditions and that we, Ukrainians, love Ukraine despite the troubles of the last six months,” Kalashnyk told the Kyiv Post.
Kalashnyk said that she saw at least five more voters wearing vyshyvanka when she was at the polling station. Many of her friends voted in vyshyvanka, too.
“In this way we show our unity and support,” she said.
As of 3 p.m., 40 percent of voters have already cast the ballots despite the huge lines at some of the polling stations. Many brought their children with them, and also dressed them in vyshyvankas. And at least one voter in Kyiv was ingeniuos enough to bring a cat to the polling station. He was expecially beautiful in his tiny vyshyvanka and traditional red necklace.
Anna Kholodnova, 23, a deputy head of the elections committee at one of Kyiv’s polling stations, found herself without a vyshyvanka on the election day, so wore a traditional flower hair wreath with ribbons instead, and spent the whole day at the polling station wearing it.
“Today is a holiday. We have been trying hard to get to this day, to hold snap elections. So I’m celebrating this holiday by wearing national clothes,” she said.
Voters were more than happy to see her in the wreath, Kholodnova says.
“A cute doctor came to the polling station wearing vyshyvanka and complimented me, and I complimented him back,” she said.
Photographer Daria Gonchar from Kyiv voted with her dad and both came to the polling station wearing vyshyvanka.
“It was morning and we were on our way to make our choice. Ukraine, we believe in you,” Gonchar wrote in her Instagram.
“Voting in a vyshyvanka, as I promised. Love vyshyvanka very much, but unfortunately there are not so many days when its appropriate to be dressed like this,” Ulyana Ulyanovych from Ternopil wrote under her photo on May 25.
