Grandma's Ritual Towel

This book is about Ritual Towels. If you have ever been to Eastern Europe you have seen them, even if you didn’t notice them. From the White Sea in the North to the Black Sea in the South they are everywhere across in Slavic heartland of the Old World. In Finnish they are called Kaespaikka, in Russian and Ukrainian, Rushnyky, and in Romanian, Stergare. Orthodox immigrants to America commonly called them towels, or ritual towels, although calling them ritual cloths may be more appropriate. I have used both terms interchangeably. I was given my first towel nearly forty years ago. To this day it lives with my wife and I as a talisman of the Orthodox faith we came to embrace, a sign of the mystical that Orthodoxy opened for us, and a gateway to the potency of a life entwined with nature that we were blessed to experience in Finland, Russia, Romania, and the Carpathians. It is my prayer that this rambling story will help save the remnants of these towels that are still found among us and maybe even inspire the creation of new towels to tell of our times; soothe, comfort and protect us.