Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated with traditional Ukrainian folk designs using a wax-resist method. Many other eastern European ethnic groups decorate eggs using wax resist for Easter. Pysanka is often taken to mean any type of decorated egg, but it specifically refers to an egg created by the written-ukrainian dating traditions batik method and utilizing traditional folk motifs and designs.
Several other types of decorated eggs are seen in Ukrainian tradition, and these vary throughout the regions of Ukraine. They are traditionally created by dripping molten wax from a beeswax candle onto an egg. They can be considered the simplest version of a pysanka, or a “proto-pysanka. This is not a traditional Ukraine practice, but has become popularized recently. In recent years, new forms of egg decoration have been brought from abroad and become popularized in Ukraine. This section needs additional citations for verification.
The world’s largest pysanka was erected in Vegreville, Alberta in 1974, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Slavic cultures probably dates back to the pre-Christian era. They base this on the widespread nature of the practice, and pre-Christian nature of the symbols used. As in many ancient cultures, Ukrainians worshipped a sun god, Dazhboh. The sun was important – it warmed the earth and thus was a source of all life. Eggs decorated with nature symbols became an integral part of spring rituals, serving as benevolent talismans. Humans could not catch the birds, but they did manage to obtain the eggs the birds laid.
Thus, the eggs were magical objects, a source of life. With the advent of Christianity, via a process of religious syncretism, the symbolism of the egg was changed to represent, not nature’s rebirth, but the rebirth of man. Christians embraced the egg symbol and likened it to the tomb from which Christ rose. Museum collections were destroyed both by war and by Soviet cadres. No actual pysanky have been found from Ukraine’s prehistoric periods, as eggshells do not preserve well.
Similarly, no actual pysanky from the Kievan Rus’ period exist, but stone, clay and bone versions do, and have been excavated in many sites throughout Ukraine. More than 70 such eggs have been excavated throughout Ukraine, many of them from graves of children and adults. These ceramic eggs were common in Kievan Rus’, and had a characteristic style. 5 by 4 cm, or 1 by 1. The majolica glazed eggs had a brown, green or yellow background, and showed interwoven yellow and green stripes. The oldest “real” pysanka was excavated in L’viv in 2013, and was found in a rainwater collection system that dates to the 15th or 16th century.
