Easter is on April 4, just under two weeks away. Will this be the year you attempt to create pysanky? 

Pysanky refers to eggs inscribed by an artist using a stylus that imparts the design in beeswax. The eggs may be chicken, duck, goose, or even ostritch. Some artists leave the egg intact with the yolk and white inside. Over time, the egg’s contents should dry up. The down side of this methods is that the eggs can explode under heat pressue which both destroys the design and emits an unpleasant odor.

The alternative is to “blow out” the egg first. Pierce a hole in opposite ends of the egg, and literally blow out the inside of the egg. This is both time-consuming and exhausting. As a child I once blew out an egg. That was enough for me.

There’s another reason to keep the egg intact as well as keeping a rooster among the hens. The eggs used for pysanky must be fertilized so that the home is blessed with fertility.

Like many Easter customs, the art of Ukranian pysanky predates Christianity. People worshiped a sun god known as Dazhboh who chose birds for his companions. Humans could not catch the birds, but they could gather the eggs.

Fun Fact: Chickens need 14 hours of light to produce eggs so they don’t lay very well in the winter months. They also prefer temperatures between 45 degrees F and 75 degrees F. This is why hens begin laying more eggs in the spring when warmth and life return to the earth.

Traditionally, women began to gather eggs they judged appropriate, on the basis of their size and shell thickness, in the middle of Lent, or about 2 weeks before Easter.

Women also produced dyes made from dried plants, roots, insects, and bark. For example, yellow from woadwaxen, gold from onion skins; red from cochineal, and black from walnut husks.

Artists created the designs using a sylus called the pysachok, with which they used beeswax to “write” the design on the egg.

Before Christianity, designs emphasized elements of nature. A triangle could mean the trilogy of air-fire-water; the cycle of life: birth-life-death; or a family unit. Modern Christian symbolism sees the Holy Trinity within the triangle.

Curls and spirals are for defense. Dots may represent seeds, stars or cuckoo bird eggs. Or simply the Virgin Mary’s tears.

Creating pysanda is an intricate process, as depicted in this 20-minute how-to video by Miss Justina Marie.

So what do you think? Will you try making pysanky this year?

???

Illustrations

Pysachok by Luba Petrusha

Chickens & a Park Vase by Albertus Verhoesen

Variety of styluses by Lubap

Basket of pysanky by Lubap

The post Pysanky aka Ukrainian Easter Eggs first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Ostara, an obscure Germanic goddess, lent her name to the annual season of Easter. Anglo-Saxon accounts mention feasts in her honor held in April.

EASTER: CHRISTIAN CELEBRATION OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION 

The early Christian Church superimposed its teaching on many ancient holidays, among them celebrations to welcome Spring’s return.

 Easter is the most significant celebration on the Christian calendar.  It marks Jesus Christ’s resurrection from death into life eternal.  Christians believe that if they believe in Christ and His Resurrection, they will have eternal spiritual life.  Their greeting on Easter morning: “He is Risen.”  Response: “He is Risen Indeed.”

EASTER SYMBOL: THE EGG

Many cultures celebrate the coming of spring with eggs – often dyed, decorated, & given as gifts.  One of the expenses listed in Edward I’s household records is 18 pence paid to dye 450 eggs decorate them with gold leaf.  [Hmmm. 18 pence in the 13^th century equals about US$60 today.  I guess gold leaf was less expensive then.]

The egg has a long association with life.  Many cultures imagine the world’s origin in an enormous egg.  Christians draw symbolism from the egg’s hard shell, which they equate with the tomb that housed Jesus after his death by crucifixion.  The Christian metaphor for Jesus leaving the tomb is the cracking of an egg to release its contents.

FABREGE EGGS

 The most famous Easter eggs are those created by the House of Faberge  (1885-1917) in Tsarist St. Petersburg

The Faberge tradition began when Tsar Alexander III gave the first Faberge egg to Tsarina Maria Fedorovna.  She was delighted.  Tsar Alexander appointed Peter Carl Faberge (1846-1920) as “goldsmith by special appointment to the imperial crown.”  Imperial eggs became an annual event.  After 1887, no one knew what the egg would contain until the gift was opened.  The only requirement:  Each Faberge egg must have a surprise inside.

Easter is a time of renewal

 A time when when each of us can experience rebirth

 Open up yourself to find the surprise inside.

(Research taken from http://homecooking.about.com/od/foodhistory/a/easteregghistry.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

The post EASTER – SPRING – THE EXPECTATION OF NEW LIFE first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.