Hutsuls: lifestyle, food and clothing

 25.05.2022 Hutsuls: lifestyle, food and clothing

The Hutsul way of life is extremely simple. Raimund Kandl, a well-known Austrian historian, ethnographer and researcher of the Hutsul region, describes how Hutsuls lived in ancient times.

a Hutsul man

While still a student, he became interested in studying the ancient and medieval history of Hutsuls.

The Hutsul is proud and brutal

In summer, the Hutsul takes off before the sun’s up and goes to bed at nightfall. His sleep, compared to extremely hard work, does not last long. He may only sleep longer in winter. He allows himself to spend few hours in the evening by the fire, but still goes to bed very early and gets up only at dawn relatively late.

Every decent man feels that it’s a sin to sleep during the day. They are afraid to sleep in cemeteries, as well as in places where murder or a sudden death took place.

The Hutsul had to bring a significant part of his living needs from the foothills, especially grain bread. Despite this, however, he feels superficial about his neighbors. Perhaps this is a consequence of his relatively greater wealth, but, above all, the result of previous relationships. The fact is that the Hutsul, as a free mountain man and earner who instilled fear, looked down on the enslaved inhabitants of the foothills.

The Hutsul speaks about himself mostly in the plural. He is relatively tolerant of non-believers, even Jews. He is agile, witty and with a good sense of humor. This is proved by expressions, proverbs and improvised songs. You can’t deny them a sense of taste and a certain artistic sense. But, unfortunately, they are not great truth-seekers – quite careless in their legal views.

Having reached the position and influence, the Hutsul often becomes proud and brutal. Apparently, all these features are due to their past lives. The body structure of men is mostly strong and stocky and their women are usually short. Men have wavy hair and do not have beards. Women completely hide their hair under a headscarf. Girls style their hair with great dexterity and time, but with a little sense of taste. Hair color is mostly dark, rarely blond. The blond girl is considered especially beautiful. The beauty of Hutsul women was often overestimated.

group of Hutsul people

The Hutsul eats three times a day

The first time is around 9 am, it’s called obid (lunch); the second – between 1 and 3 o’clock in the afternoon, is called poludynok (brunch); the third – about 7-8 o’clock in the evening and is called vechera (dinner).

In general, the mountain people eat much better than the peasants in the foothills. His usual food is kulesha – a thick porridge of corn flour, similar to Italian polenta. He adds sheep’s cheese bryndza, then a kind of sour cow’s or sheep’s milk huslinka. Sometimes borshch which is a special soup made from red beets, potatoes and other vegetables with or without lamb or pork. Sometimes this soup is acidified by mixing the mentioned huslinka.

Kulesha completely replaces bread, which is usually baked from corn flour, to which boiled and mashed potatoes are added (especially among the poorer Hutsuls). In addition, they add barley, bean or bean flour. Cornmeal pies are often made into cakes. When the bread dough is already kneaded, the cross sign is squeezed in it. The first loaf, which is placed in the oven, is also marked with an embossed sign of the cross and the oven is marked with it so that the devil retreats and the bread succeeds. If some bread is forgotten in the oven, the next harvest will be bad; such bread is also a good remedy against fever. Before cutting each loaf, the sign of the cross must be drawn on it with a knife. They do the same with kulesha.

Everyday dishes include: beans; raw & cooked pickled cabbage, potatoes, onions, garlic and raw or pickled cucumbers when they are still young. Lamb is eaten fresh or smoked. Pork is eaten fresh, salted or, in rare cases, also smoked.

Festive and fasting dishes of Hutsuls

Special meal #1 is of course banush. It’s a kulesha (porridge of corn flour cooked in boiling water), which is cooked in sour cream (instead of water) (sour cream) and melted butter. Knyshi – buns filled with brynza (cheese); holubtsi (cabbage rolls) – cabbage or beet leaves filled with corn grits, fried onions, and sometimes chopped meat or fat; boiled red beets, chopped and mixed with crushed garlic; wheat, boiled and mixed with poppy seeds, honey or sugar, which is eaten only at Christmas; cabbage dumplings (perohe); butter, scrambled eggs and dried fruits.

It remains only to say something about Hutsul fasting dishes. They consist mainly of uncooked pickled cabbage with onions and hemp oil, rarely cooked pickled cabbage with corn grits; kulesha with grated poppy seeds, as well as dried fish.

Hutsul values horilka (vodka) first of all. When the harmfulness of alcohol becomes apparent, many renounce the drink by swearing in the church. In this case, they drink only beer or even wine. Many Hutsuls love tea; some of them even drink coffee.

Outfits are the biggest expense of a Hutsul

The Hutsul has the biggest expenses with his outfit. It is rich, beautiful, and maybe even picturesque.

Male outfit

This is how it looks like: men wear a shirt made of coarse material, which always falls over the pants. In some areas it is decorated with narrow embroidered stripes on the collar, chest, bottom of the trim and the edges of the sleeves. The pants are very wide and in summer are also sewn from coarse material. In winter, men wear gray and black pants. For festive occasions – from bright red, less often made of blue woolen cloth.

Linen pants are called portenytsi, made of cloth – gachi. At the top they are supported by a wide (remin) or narrow (bukuriia) belt, with fitted pockets. At the bottom of the pants fall wide on the boots or tighten on the calves with a rope from the shoes.

They put on a kind of woolen socks (kaptsi) and put on shoes (postoly) or, less often, boots. The first ones are often laced with narrow belts (ustuhvy), and then, with the help of woolen laces (voloky), they are fixed above the ankles to the legs, tying the trousers at the same time.

On top of the shirt a man wears a short fur tank top (kiptar) decorated with fur stripes and embroidery. It is lined with colorful leather and decorated with cords and leather tassels (darmovysy).

On top of that he wears a short cloak made of woolen cloth (serdak). The cloak is also decorated with multicolored cords and tassels, mostly black, brown, gray, but also red or very rarely white.

A torn serdak is called a felega or feledzhena.

In winter, for travel and in severe winds and snowfall, the Hutsul wears a long cloak over his serdak, equipped with a high collar. It has a special name – manto.

A colorful, semi-silk scarf wraps around his neck. Its ends extend through the ring that holds them together.

Men wear a hat (krysania) in the Hungarian style and with various ornaments (ketytsi), and in winter – a hat made of sheep fur (shepka).

The bags are worn slung over the shoulders with a woolen ribbon or on a wide leather belt decorated with plaques (blenda). Bags can be made of wool (dziobnia), or made of leather (tobiuka), the latter is often decorated with rivets, buttons, etc. These ornaments are called kolotyltsi. The bags carry a pipe, tobacco and tinderbox. On the belt they wear a knife attached to a long chain, then a wallet and a needle-like tool for cleaning the pipe. It should be noted that Hutsuls also smoke cigarettes.

Going on the road, the Hutsul also carries on his shoulders a travel bag (bordyukh) made of sheep, goat or roe deer skin.

On weekdays, the Hutsul usually carries with him his ax, or a stick (kelef).

The described full national dress is not used at all on weekdays. On ordinary days, the Hutsul wears, in addition to shirt and trousers, a belt, a hat and shoes, except for the keptar, and in the winter also the serdak. The clothes of the young man and the man are the same. The guy wears only those pieces of clothing that are appropriate for his working day.

Female outfit

Women wear shirts with mostly red-black-yellow embroidery on the sleeves. On weekdays, sometimes without embroidery or embroidered only in white. The chest is also embroidered in some areas.

hutsul female outfit

Instead of a skirt, there is a wide apron (opynka) or two narrower ones (zapaska), mostly made of red wool with black, yellow or green stripes. They are fastened at the waist with a long narrow woolen belt (poprushka). Sometimes you can see a rich Hutsul lady in a skirt, and in Zhabye a blue cloth skirt belongs to the girl’s solemn wedding outfit.

Women also wear a short fur tank top, short and long cloak and bag. Their shoes are the same as men’s. Earrings, copper chains around the wrists, on the neck – small bells or a colorful glass necklace. Sometimes you can see a necklace made of silver coins (zgarda).

Women wear a headscarf. It is usually yellow, black, or red. Girls go even in the harshest winter cold with their heads uncovered and weave their hair with red wool, to which adult girls still add copper buttons. A girl in such clothes is called diuka, which suggests that she is already fit for marriage.

In the severe winter cold, women wear a kind of white woolen shorts. Like men, they wear woolen mittens.

A woman, in general, also does not wear all this lush outfit all the time, but only a shirt, a scarf with a belt, a hat and shoes, and finally, a keptar and a serdak. Like a man, a woman walks with a stick; just like him she wouldn’t mind a glass of vodka or a pipe.

Join us on our Hutsul family tour. Spend few days in a real Hutsul family and explore how people live.