Motanka doll with an open heart
Is a Ukrainian folk doll, a symbol of women’s wisdom, a family amulet.
From time immemorial, the motanka doll has served as a talisman in every family, a symbol of wisdom, guardian of the family, a symbol of the mother-ancestor and connection between generations, one of the most ancient toys and sacred (sacred) beings of our nation, thousands and thousands of years old. Berehynya – crosses were wound about their faces. And they were made for different needs: for a person to recover, for it to rain or vice versa – the downpour stopped, the storm stopped…
All items of motanka clothing are symbolic: the skirt represents the earth; the shirt – three times: past, present and future; headdress – cap, ribbon or scarf – connection with the sky …
It is no coincidence that the motanka doll does not have a face. After all, it arose not as a toy, but as a sacred thing. She was to call the spirit of a dead or unborn person to the living, to invite her to the family, to the table, or to the child she was raising. SHE brought up. For it embodied the spirit of the ancient Ancestor,
A sacred being with a cross instead of a face symbolizes the harmony of vertical (spirituality) and horizontal (human development), ie helps to harmonize space. Such toys should be on the penance of the sunrise, above the crib (protects the child), above the door (meets and sees off guests) …
this picture of motanka, let it be as a talisman, from the ancient roots of Ukraine
Artist Elena Bandurka 