Grandma Anya's house in Chechersk district is cooler than a museum. And she herself sings, embroiders, and preserves traditions
In the village of Babichy, Chechersk district, many cultural traditions are preserved, especially the famous Babichy weaving. Times.by met with a local resident who has been engaged in embroidery for almost 70 years.
From the street, this village house looks like many in Babichy — a log cabin made of solid logs, a roof of inexpensive slate, cats warming themselves on the porch. But inside, the house is awash in bright embroidery — it's on snow-white towels and valances, pillows and paintings, curtains and napkins. Not a house, but a museum! And the hostess herself greets you beautifully dressed — her blouse and scarf are embroidered with her favorite "poppies".
"Do you really need to write about me? We have such museums in every house," Hanna Hapeyenka says, visibly embarrassed.
But journalists have already asked her neighbors and friends, so they know for sure that they must: many items are already half a century old, but they look like new — the pattern has not faded and the colors have not bleached.
"What did they embroider back then? Mainly 'utirki' (embroidered towels)"
Hanna Vasilyeŭna is 83. Her entire life is connected with the village of Babichy. She was born here, finished seven grades of school, and immediately went to work. First at a pig complex — helping to care for pigs, then she worked on a farm. And this always meant early mornings and long working days: cows had to be milked without regard for weekends or holidays. And all by hand.
Hanna Vasilyeŭna was married twice and gave birth to three children. Six years ago, during the coronavirus pandemic, she buried her eldest daughter. But the woman begins the conversation not with losses, but with what sustained her throughout her life — embroidery.
She learned to embroider at the age of thirteen, here, in her parental home. By the window, there was always a weaving loom, where her mother Tatsiana Dziamidaŭna spent almost every day. In the evenings, her sister and young neighbors would come to the house: mother would spin, and they would embroider. And they always sang.
"So soulful and prolonged, I always wanted to join them," Hanna Vasilyeŭna recalls.
She says she tried to finish her school lessons as quickly as possible and would sit down with the guests. Observing how a pattern was born, she imitated them. That's how she learned.
At those evening gatherings, the women of Babichy only embroidered with cross-stitch. No one in the village had even heard of satin stitch yet.
"What did they embroider back then? Mainly 'utirki'. No, these are not 'ruchnyki' (embroidered towels). Those are woven. 'Utirki' are what we call white towels with flowers along the edges. Such things can be found in every house in Babichy," explains the hostess.
Since then, embroidery has become a part of her life. Almost everything in Hanna Vasilyeŭna's house is embroidered: pillows, pillowcases, tablecloths. There are especially many pictures with simple subjects — lush bright flowers, a kitten in a basket, a colorful firebird, a winter forest, several fairy-tale sketches, village life, lovers…
Many of these "canvases" she created already in retirement.
"While I had to raise children, I had little free time. But when I retired, I became free," the interviewee says, showing works with deer from a candy box and paradise birds on a winding vine. "Whatever pattern I liked, I would transfer it to fabric and embroider. I usually redrew flowers from curtains."
Embroidery saves better than any psychologist
All these years, Hanna Vasilyeŭna has lived in her parental home. An attempt to go to Russia with her husband did not lead to anything good.
"People there lived poorly, in mud huts. Our house in Babichy was cozier and warmer. But the main trouble revealed itself a little later — my husband started looking at other women. And I was already carrying my eldest daughter. Oh, I cried so much. When I returned to my parental home, I couldn't look at men for a long time," the hostess recalls of the 70s of the last century.
Then, with a small daughter in her arms, the young mother embroidered a wall-to-wall rug with deer in one winter.
"I cried, thinking about my fate and embroidering," Hanna Vasilyeŭna recalls the birth of the "monumental canvas." "At its base were three potato sacks, and then my tears and colored woolen threads. I saw the pattern somewhere, I won't lie, those deer were very fashionable back then. So I got carried away."
The rug turned out to be a sight for sore eyes. Guests, when they first enter Hanna Hapeyenka's house, immediately notice it. And they are even more amazed when they learn that it is handmade cross-stitch embroidery.
"Many times they offered to buy it, but I refused everyone. That winter, it saved me from bad thoughts better than any psychologist," the grandmother honestly says.
But time heals, and soon the woman got married a second time. With the caring and hardworking Mikhail, they lived soul to soul for 20 years, raising two more children.
Sings in an ensemble and embroiders costumes for performers
Hanna Vasilyeŭna has been embroidering for almost 70 years. She believes that the brightest and most unusual patterns were created on the costumes for the folk song and music ensemble "Lyos" (Fate), in which she, along with other women from Babichy, has been singing for half a century.
The ensemble's repertoire includes hundreds of folk songs for any audience, from ritualistic to lyrical. "Lyos" has toured the entire Chechersk district with concerts, and there have been performances throughout the region.
Hanna Hapeyenka's children also sang in the ensemble. Her son Valery still plays the accordion there.
For performances, Hanna Vasilyeŭna embroiders the costumes herself, carefully selecting details. When she learned to crochet, colorful raised flowers appeared on the headwear of the female performers.
"I try to make everything look authentically rural and beautiful on stage. For me, it's not just a stage, but a continuation of those same evening gatherings where my youth began," admits Grandma Anya.
Preserves traditions and dresses guests
In Babichy, the "Ushesse" (Ascension) ritual has been preserved to this day — a peculiar farewell to spring. It is performed on the fortieth day after Easter, when the Orthodox Church celebrates the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord.
Guests come from everywhere to see this miracle: as Hanna Hapeyenka jokes, the whole world turns upside down in her house on this day.
"My friend Maryia and I, along with everyone willing, perform the ritual as our ancestors did. We gather in the center of the village and, with spring songs, go to the rye field. There we dance in circles, make wishes, and roll in the young rye to be healthy. On the way back, we sing summer and thunder songs," the old-timer of Babichy tries not to miss a single detail.
The best outfits for "Ushesse" are the vyshyvankas (embroidered shirts) made by Hanna Vasilyeŭna. And she gladly offers them to guests to try on.
At the sight of the snow-white blouses embroidered with bright flowers, the eyes light up not only for young girls from Vetka or Chechersk but also for adult ladies from Piter (St. Petersburg).
"Let them show off. They will look at the photos and remember something good about me," the woman smiles. "But seriously, it's wonderful that the tradition is preserved. Young people need to be taught the rituals so that they reach out to God. It's not for nothing they say: 'Without God - no road, without bread - no meal'."
Answering the question of who will inherit all this "museum" beauty from her house, Hanna Vasilyeŭna admits that she has already given away much, and distributed the rest among her children. And when her granddaughter gets married, she will also receive a dowry from her grandmother.
"I don't regret anything. In the village, people treat things simply: if it was, it's gone; if it remains, it lives on."
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