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Rushniks are traditional East Slavic towels, often decorated with the ornamental pattern.

Decorated rushniks are used for ceremonial events. An example of their use would be a host offering his guests bread and salt, which would then be served on a rushnik. Rushniks are also used at religious services, funerals, and other social functions. On each rushnik, there is a decorative pattern, an ornament. The ornaments are commonly designed to show local plants and flowers. These patterns are also woven into outfits. An example of an ornament can be seen on the national flag of Belarus.

The way that a towel is used depends on their name. The very basic rushnik is colloquially called the utsiralnik or wiper. The uciralnik is a basic towel that is used to clean up the home. The towel either has no designs on it or it has very narrow strip on the edges. In contrast, a nabozhnik is a highly decorated towel composing of embroidery and of lace. Nabozhniks, also called nabrazniks or nakutniks are used to decorate icons.

Rushniks are widely used in rituals of the Slavic religion and many of these ancient customs have been incorporated into modern observances. The rushnik is used during various ceremonies, including weddings and funerals. During a wedding ceremony, the bride and groom are standing on a towel called a padnozhnik, which translates as step-on towel. What happens to the padnozhnik is that the bride will drag the towel behind her, and her bridesmaids follow behind her. Tradition has it that when the bridesmaids follow behind the padnozhnik, they are following the path of the bride and hopefully be married themselves.

The words are created with the common suffix "-nik" that indicates a general association of the new word with the base one.

• Rushnik: from ruka, hand
• Na-: a prefix meaning "on", i.e., the thing is supposed to be put onto something
  • Nabozhnik: from bog, God
  • Nabraznik: from obraz, literally "image", meaning "God's image", i.e., icon
  • Nakutnik: from kut, corner, meaning the corner where an icon is hung (by East Slavic traditions).
• Padnozhnik/podnoznhik: from pod-= under and nogi = feet

• Virtual Guide to Belarus - Belarusian Textile
• Virtual Guide to Belarus - Belarusian Rushniks