Vytoky

A project aimed to survey past Ukrainian traditions so that everyone can choose which customs to incorporate into their lives and pass on to future generations. It is implemented, in particular, through free illustrated guidebooks created in collaboration with ethnographers, historians, and folklorists and available for download from the project’s website.

Background

The idea of creating a guidebook to Ukrainian customs dates back to 2023. The Vytoky project is aimed at businesses, HR, marketing specialists, and everyone striving to connect deeply with their cultural roots. We have primarily chosen the business because of its broad influence on employees, their families, and clients. People get inspired by the integration of traditional culture into corporate one and can bring it home.

Apart from businesses, the project has since extended its audience to education workers, the youth, ethno enthusiasts, cultural institutions, and cultural figures.

In 2024–2025, three Ukrainian customs guidebooks were created, covering the calendar year of Christian holidays: the Spring, Summer-Autumn, and Winter cycles.

Each guidebook consists of three parts:

essays by ethnographers, folklorists, and historians on holidays and the traditions associated with them;
ideas and scenarios for integrating Ukrainian traditions into corporate culture, educational events, and family feasts;
recommended artisans, bands, blogs, media, and workshops: what to read, watch, and where to order goods or get inspiration.

Mission

Revitalizing, promoting, and preserving Ukrainian cultural heritage through the survey and integration of traditions into modern life.

Goals

The project’s goal is to survey the traditions of the past that we have largely inherited not from our families but from communities. Vytoky suggests choosing traditions worth carrying into the future.

In 2025, Zagoriy Foundation, together with the Center of Social and Market Research “SOCIS,” conducted the first study on Ukrainian traditions for the Vytoky project. It engaged 3,200 respondents from eight historical regions of Ukraine: Siveria and Sloboda Ukraine, Podolia, Dnipro Region, the Black Sea Region, Zaporizhzhia, the Carpathians Region, Volhynia and Western Polissia, and the city of Kyiv.

Together with Mysternya gallery, on October 2, 2025, we held the first conference on preserving the cultural heritage using business and marketing tools, “Vytoky. The Future.”

The panel discussion included Kateryna Zagoriy, Daria Antsybor, Volodymyr Shchybria, Yaryna Sizyk, Zakhar Davydenko, Ella Yevtushenko, Anastasiia Donets, and Gordiy Starukh. Representatives of the Gunia Project, Gushka, Avrora Multimarket, Shafa, Etnodim, the Ivan Honchar Museum, ™by Me, The Ukrainians, Local History, The Cultural Forces of Ukraine, Spadshchyna.UA, Spilnyi Spadok, Maliivtsi Museum, and other cultural institutions and businesses working with traditions joined them.

The project plans to further explore regional traditions and develop educational resources and partnerships that will help promote Vytoky’s mission.

There is a lot of work ahead. Come with us!