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WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE UKRAINIAN EASTER EGG? by Gloria Surmach LO'YOiU k n o w 1—the difference between a KRASHANKA and PY SANKA? 2—what the PYSANKA has in common with a SARONG? 3—the ritual used by HUTZUL women in preparing to dec orate Pysanky ? 4—why most Pysanky have DOTS in their design? 5—some of the MAGICAL qualities credited to the Uk rainian Easter eggs? 6—how a PYSANKA helps Uk rainian girls get a husband? 7—how the PYSANKA can save the world in crisis? 1— The custom of decorating eggs in connection with Easter celebrations is practiced through out most of the Slavic countries. In the Ukraine various types of Easter eggs were originated, but the Krashanka and Pysanka ai perhaps the most widel-y known. The word Krashanka (plural Krashanky) is derived from the word “kraska” which means col or, and is an egg dyed a solid, brilliant color, most o-ften red. The egg is hard cooked and used for eating, but the shells must never be carelessly tossed away and can be destroyed only by burning or casting them into flowing water. Pysanka (plural Pysanky) stems from the verb “pysaty,” (to write). This is a multi-color- ed egg on which the designs are first “written” with wax. Pysan ky are always raw and must nev er be eaten or deliberately brok en. 2—Both the Pysanka and the South Sea Islander’s sarong are dyed in a similar process called by the cloth dyers, Batik. The ba sic design is drawn onto the egg or the cloth with melted wax, and then dyed in the first and lightest color. When the desired shade is reached, the cloth is re moved and the egg thoroughly dried, and полу wax is applied only to lines and areas that are to remain the first color. (The wax repels the dye, keeping the color beneath it intact). Then comes the second dye bath, which is incorporated into the design by sealing it with wax. And so the process is repeated until the final and darkest color is attain ed. Since each color is darker than the one preceding it,, under colors are automatically can celled. 3—Each province, each village, in fact each family in the Uk raine had its own peculiar ritual, its own symbols and meanings, and secret formulae for dying the eggs. These were kept faithfully and passed down through the generations from mother to daughter. And always, they were observed solemnly and with great ceremony. The Hutzu-ls are per haps the most noted for their ability in making intricately or namented eggs. T;heir patterns are predominantly geometric with abstract adaptations of many objects and places familiar to them, (i.e. trees, animals, churches, -etc.). The middle of the Lenten sea son was when the Hutuzul wom an began to think about decorat- ing eggs, and she pi;t aside the most perfect chicken eggs in smoothness and shape. Of great est importance were about six eggs, each being the first-laid egg of a young hen. At sunrise on the Monday of Holy Week, these six eggs had to be broken against'a budding tree, and the yoliks saved for as long as she would decorate eggs.. ,She would add the yolks to her dye to serve as a binder, and later used them in glossing the finished Pysanky. She worked on the eggs alone Членки 61 молодечого відділу СУА, Клівленд, пишуть писанки: Катерина Кан- дор, Анна Пиндик, Софія Сігда, Олена Нагір”*к.
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