From the Smoky Lake Signal, Wednesday, May 3, 1978. Page 10.

Ukrainian Easter Eggs

The egg, as the embodiment of the life principle, has been associated with mythical and religious ceremonies from the earliest times. With the advent of Christianity, the egg transcended its symbolism of nature's rebirth and became the representation of man's rebirth.

Of the various types of Easter eggs in the Ukraine, the pysanka and the krashanka are the most widely known. Krashanka (plural krashanky) is derived from the word kraska meaning color. Krashanka is a hard-boiled egg, dyed a sold brilliant color, which may be eaten. Pysanka (plural pysanky) stems from the verb pysaty (to write), as the designs are actually written on the egg, which is then dyed in several colors. Pysanky are raw and are not eaten.

On today's Easter eggs are many symbols which have been passed down from generation to generation, whose meanings have been forgotten.

Research has shown that the nature of the designs themselves, may be classified into three categories: Geometric, Plant and Animal.

Geometric Motifs

Geometric motifs are the oldest and most general form of ornamentation. Alone, they have no characteristic features, for these simple forms are found among all people. Among Ukrainians, however, individual motifs bear specific names.

Ribbon, Belt - a universal motif. May be a combination of individual lines or of wider stripes. The motif may be made lengthwise and horizontally (leaving the fields between them blank or with a design added).  Since the "belt" encircles the egg, having no beginning or end, it is called the "endless line," symbolizing eternity.

Star - a difficult motif to distinguish from that called the "rose". Both have the appearance of a star with colored rays. "Roses" have one distinguishing characteristic in that they are always placed in the center of the broad side of the egg, while stars are dispersed over the entire field. "Roses" usually have some other floral motif as part of thee pattern, while stars do not. The use of stars on pysanky is very widespread.

Cross - crosses on pysanky, are exclusively religious. Often, a corresponding Easter inscription is found on the pysanka. This type of pysanka is usually offered to a priest on Easter.

Plant Motifs

There are a few geometric motifs with curved lines which are a transition to plant ornamentation. Stems develop from lines, leaves and floral wreaths from spirals and especially from their combinations. These then lose their imagined forms, acquiring realistic features. On pysanky, plant ornamentation is closely allied with geometric form, supplementing it and forming an harmonious whole. Either a whole plant, or, more frequently, some apart of it are depicted - flower, leaf or branch. Here, as in the case of geometric patterns, popular names exist for individual motifs:

Rose - this is an excellent and beautiful example of plant ornamentation. At a glance it would be impossible to regard this as a plant, for it seems to be a star. Indeed, this motif is placed in the centre of the broad side of the egg, where all the lines of the grill meet; one petal in the form of a rhomb with markedly shaped corners, is placed between each two. The whole gives the appearance of a star and even a system of stars, one upon the other. There are, on the average, eight petals. Almost always, geometrically ornaments such as rakes, baskets or other plant motifs are added. A variation of the "rose" motif is the empty rose.

Apples - This motif is a series of spirals arranged on both sides of a straight line.

Grapevine - A faithful reproduction of a grape cluster or some flowers with leaves.

Tree - A trunk with rough bark is drawn, from which slender lines protrude in the many directions representing branches.

Animal Motifs

Animal motifs offer technical difficulties. The area on which these motifs are to be drawn favors geometric of plant ornamentation. In representation of animals, the work must be in miniature and requires great skill.

In animal motifs we must distinguish between two kinds which are completely different in origin. They are those showing individual parts of the animal body, such as horns, feet, etc., and those where the entire body is sketched.

Ram's Horns - a long elliptical figure bent at both ends towards the center, forming a crescent. This is nothing more than a double spiral, basically a geometric motif. Only through its approach to nature did the present name and form arise. this design is always connected with some geometric motif, i.e., a cross, star, triangle.

Goose or Duck Feet - This represents a foot with three webbed toes. The webbing is usually painted red. On occasion half is painted in black and half in yellow. Yet, this is primarily a plant motif of a broad-leafed form. Both forms, the feet of the goose and the duck, are identical, distinguishable only by size.

Spiders - Depicted without any attempt at naturalism. Transferred from the geometric motifs by a very distant comparison to a spider with outstretched legs.

Storks, Hens, Roosters, Sparrows - These birds are rendered naturalistically. At first glance it is not possible to distinguish one from the other. Hens are often placed on branches. Unlike butterflies, which are always show in flight with outstretched wings, birds are always depicted at rest. The hen, as the actual fruition of the egg, symbolizes fertility and the fulfillment of wishes.

Fish - on some pysanky we find whole fish incorporated into the design. This is an ancient symbol of Christianity.

From the April 2, 1980 Smoky Lake Signal

Pysanky

by O Fil'

Among the cultural treasures brought to Canada by the Ukrainians is the traditional decorating of pysaynky. According to Ukrainian customs pysanky are decorated during lent and exchanged at Easter by loved ones, members of the family, friends and neighbours, as tokens of love, friendship and trust.

Much painstaking effort and loving care is devoted to the decoration of a pysanky by its creator. Each pysanka is unique, has individual characteristics and shows an unusual feeling of balance in design and color.  There is never an excess in ornamentation and a great innate taste of compositional order is evident, yet it carries upon it the symbolic designs handed down through many generations. That the Ukrainian pysanka shows such a wealth of compositional arrangement, symbolic designs, ornamental motifs and the combination of colors is not surprising, for each creator chooses her designs and colors with great care.

Our pysanka has a very ancient history. Proof of this is found in archeological and ethnological researches and in folklore and mythology.

Archeological and ethnological research in Ukraine shows evidence that decorated eggs were originally associated with the pre-Christian cult of the Sun worship, the Festival of Spring, the recurring joy of spring rebirth. Together with Ukrainian mythology of pre-Christian times, folk songs, religious rituals and traditions, where are associative with the Sun cult and the yearly cycle of agricultural festivals, furnish proof of a strong, highly developed ancient culture of the Ukrainian people reaching back thousands of years to the Neolitic period whose culture is called Trypillian. This is affirmed by the actual number of symbolic designs and ornamentations found on ceramic ware, which are directly associated with the Sun cult, such as the "spiral," "swastika," "broke cross," "stars," "meander," and the floral motifs the "sunflower" and the "rosette", and others.

When Christianity came to the Ukraine the new faith at first warred against the old "pagan" customs and symbols. In time, however the ancient picturesque symbols of egg decoration were the customs and rituals of the Christian festival of Easter, and came to represent symbols of Christ's Resurrection, of the resurgence of life, victory of eternal life over death, of the power of light over darkness and good over evil.

Legends

There are also many legends associated with our pysanka. There is the story of the Holy Virgin who mourned and wept for her son Jesus. When Sunday, the third day dawned, Mary still sat in her room silent in her grief, taking neither food nor drink. Worried and concerned, women came to see Mary to console her, begging her to partake of food. One good and pious maiden, named Anna also came to visit the Holy Virgin early on Sunday - Easter morning when the joyous tidings of Christ's Resurrection had begun to spread. Anna, who was poor, took the only food that she had, which also consisted of several fresh eggs, placed them into a little basket and brought them to Mary. "Do not week," said Anna, "do not mourn, do you not know that Jesus your Son has risen from the grave?" "Rejoice, Mary, Christ has risen."

"I know this," said Mary, "I saw my son in blinding light and I know Christ has risen." The maiden gave Mary her modest gift, the basket with eggs. The Holy Virgin accepted the gift with trembling hands, tears of joy shone in her eyes and dropped like dew on the eggs. Where a tear fell from Mary's eyes, there on the white eggs appeared marvelous colored patterns and stars. The Virgin Mary smiled and picked up these colorful eggs and gave them to those present with the words: "Rejoice, Christ has Risen!" She returned the empty basket to Anna and thanked her warmly.

When Anna returned to teh streets she looked into her basket and saw that it was again full of marvelously colored eggs. With great joy she ran the streets of Jerusalem and when she met with friends she greeted them as Mary, Mother of Christ did and presented them with the colored eggs saying 'Rejoice, Christ is Risen." The people took the decorated eggs and in turn passed them to their friends with the same joyous words. Soon the entire city knew of the glad tidings of the Resurrection of Christ.

There are many more legends and they vary with the territorial differences of Ukraine.

Another legend tells of the three Marys who came to the grave of Christ and brought these decorated eggs to bribe the guards to let them into the tomb.

In every story the pysanka emerges as an attractive object, and quite worthy enough to ransom Jesus from his maryrdom. There is great importance in decorating the pysanka, and the symbols put on the egg are worthwhile to study in detail.

Let us once again decorate and exchange our pysanka according to our custom - as gifts between loved ones, family and friends.

Chrystos Voskres!
Voistynu Voskres!

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