Pysanka history
“Nation lives in beauty, can not only create, but also make itself immortal in the beautiful it creates. So much can be deciphered in pysankas! A fairy tale, a song, a ballade, a mother’s lullaby and a sprinkled with fresh dew childhood path, a wreth of first love and adulthood strength, a wiseness of old age and a taste of eternity in the dusk of the evening sky. Joy goes by the side of sadness, a smile is followed by hope. Select, interpret, return treasures to nation, that will multiply them again and again.” — Mykhailo Stelmakh.
Pysanka (Ukrainian national painted Easter egg) is a most unique artwork of nation genius. The oldest Ukrainian ceramic pysanka found by archeologists is dated in 9th century A.D. Such pysankas were common in Kyiv Rus, in particular in Chernihiv region, where there was a production of bricks and ceramic tiles.
Pysanka was gifted as a sign of truce, as a wish of good health, good harvest. It was rolled on the ground and buried in the field so the bread gets full and the wheat grows good. It was placed under the beehive so that bees swarm endlessly.
We had different traditions in various regions of Ukraine – someplace pysankas were made only by girls, otherplace only by mothers. Long ago writing of pysankas was viewed as a holy act. Girls and women were supposed to prepare themselves before writing a pysanka, had to calm their thoughts, restrain their character, not to hold a grudge against someone. Impure thoughts, anger, or quarrels could affect the pysanka, and it could turn out bad.
The majority of pysanka ornaments are signs of our ancestors’s communication with mother nature, the universe, with the spiritual principle that governs all. The most popular were symbols that depicted sun. Other popular symbols were “roses”, “spiders”, “Svarga”, “cross”, “tree of life”.
We must save this priceless treasure, love it, cherish it, remember it. “As long as people will write pysankas, love will not leave the world”.
The article was prepared by Olga Tsikvas, master of Pysanka.
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