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ART | CULTURE
The Beauty of Pysanky
Easter eggs decorated with the traditional Ukrainian method
Emerging from the tyranny of winter, spring is the season when all the world awakens to new life.
Flowers, tender and delicate, blossom in every garden, ditch, and wayside fringe. Birds migrate northwards, build their nests, lay eggs and raise their young.
And like the season of spring, eggs are a symbol of new life.
Driving around our neighborhood in recent days, my wife and I have come across several homes where the residents have hung brightly colored Easter eggs on the branches of trees along the road. The eggs are a startling joy to behold!
And each Easter, to decorate our home, my wife brings out a basket of eggs painted by our daughter Britta using the traditional Ukrainian pysanky method.
Writing pysanky is an art form that originated in ancient times and has been practiced for many centuries in Ukraine and other Slavic countries, where it represents spring and rebirth.
The technique is to apply wax to certain areas of the egg using a kistka pen with a tiny funnel full of beeswax. The kistka is heated over an open candle flame to melt the wax, then capillary…
