Easter Amid Air Raid Alarms: Interesting Facts and Traditions of Ukrainian Pysanka

As in ancient times, so today, bird eggs painted in different colours or decorated with patterns, called krashanky and pysanky in Ukraine, are an integral attribute of the Easter holidays. This year, Eastern Rite Christians celebrate Easter on 5 May.

Despite the Russian war, a world record was set between air raids at this year's Ukrainian Easter Egg Festival in Kyiv: 530 people made 800 Easter eggs in five hours. Even the Royal Canadian Mint this year issued a silver coin in the shape of a Ukrainian pysanka. The reverse of the coin features colourful designs by artist Tanya Mykytyuk, a second-generation Canadian of Ukrainian descent. The obverse features a profile of Queen Elizabeth II.

In general, the exact date of the appearance of Easter eggs is unknown. The custom of painting bird eggs originated from the tradition of honouring the egg as a symbol of the birth of the universe. 

Photo: Easter Amid Air Raid Alarms: Interesting Facts and Traditions of Ukrainian Pysanka. Source: mint.ca 

The oldest pysanka found in Ukraine dates back to the tenth century. In Kyiv, archaeologists found an Easter egg made of ceramic from the times of Kyivan Rus, decorated with ornaments resembling cobwebs. In the Rivne region, a clay Easter egg made 950 years ago was discovered.

Krashanka

Krashanka is a simple and edible attribute of Easter. It is boiled chicken eggs dyed in any one colour.  At Easter, they were usually dyed red. They were blessed in churches and eaten after the ritual service. Easter eggs have been actively used on the territory of modern Ukraine since the pre-Christian period. Back then, they were used as attributes of magical rituals. They were believed to have healing powers. A sick person wore an Easter egg around his neck, suspended by threads. According to pagan belief, the Easter egg absorbed the disease. At a house-warming party, amulets made of red Easter eggs framed by ears of wheat were hung over the door.

Pysanka

Pysanka is a kind of amulet. These are bird eggs painted with different patterns and colours. Each pattern and colour on a pysanka has its own meaning. A pattern is created on a chicken egg using a special device called a pysachok, to which heated wax is added and layers of different colours are successively applied to the shell. Pysanky had magical, ritualistic and healing effects. They were kept in the family all year round, until the next Easter, as a talisman. They were not allowed to be eaten. 

Regional traditions

Each region of Ukraine has its own traditions and peculiarities of pysanka making. One glance at a pysanka is enough to tell in which region it was made and what the author of the pysanka wanted to say.

Pysanky from the Kyiv region have geometric motifs (triangles, stars), animal motifs (chicken feet) and images of flowers. The colours of the ornaments are more saturated and quite large. Kyivan pysanky are distinguished by bright images of solar signs and plants.

In the Chernihiv region, white, red and black pysanky predominate. The ornaments include solar and floral motifs (geometric motifs are almost never found): hops, hollyhocks, endless waves.

Volyn pysanka is divided into several paired fields depicting windmills, rakes and spirals on a cherry or green background, with the colour of the ornament: yellow, orange, red, white, pink. A combination of geometric and floral ornaments is common on pysanky: symbols of fertility, land and water.

In the Naddniprianshchyna region, pysanky depicted floral motifs on a black, dark cherry, red, and sometimes green background. The pysanka was divided into fields. The flowers were always depicted unfolded and were white, yellow and red.

In the Black Sea region, the most popular colours for pysanky were a combination of blue and green, red and black, and yellow and green. The ornaments were often geometric and floral.

In Podillia, dark-coloured pysanky are common: black, purple and brown. The patterns are also of dim colours: black, red and white (sometimes yellow and green). Among the ornaments are geometric, floral and animal motifs: oak leaves, chicken feet, shells, etc.

Kharkiv pysanky are dark: black, dark red or green. The ornaments are in calm colours: brown, yellow, white. The most common symbols are oak leaves, tulips, hollyhocks, and stars.

Pysanky of Sumy region are traditionally divided into two parts. The pattern on each one is the same. Characteristic ornaments are solar signs - stars and the sun. The colours of the ornament are red and white (the background is often black, as in Ternopil pysanky).

Southern Ukrainian pysanky are characterised by bright and contrasting colours, large drawings with few details. Geometric motifs combined with floral symbols are common.

Hutsul pysanky were considered the most informative - they could tell a whole story about a person's life. Initially, Hutsul pysanky were orange, and later other colours appeared on them: blue, red, pink and purple. Each colour had a symbolic meaning: black - the earth, red - life, strength, health and love, white - purity and holiness, yellow - the colour of the sun and abundance, green - spring and the awakening of nature from its winter sleep.

Ukraine also has the world's only Museum of Easter Egg Painting, where you can see the largest exhibition of Easter eggs from all regions of the country. It was opened at the end of September 2000 in Kolomyia, in the Carpathian region. The premises of the Pysanka Museum are designed in the form of a giant 13-metre-long pysanka egg, which has become a kind of advertisement not only for the museum, the city and the region, but also for the cultural heritage of the country in general, just like the embroidered shirt vyshyvanka.