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Pysanky is kept vital by constantly expanding its definition, while preserving its traditions.
Ancient legend tell us that the world began from the egg, a kind of magic egg (the Ukrainian call it Yaytse-Raytse -Heavenly Egg), from which all the human beings and beasts, flowers and herbs had come. Too mystical is life-giving solar power of the yolk, of perfect roundness of eggs, too strong is magic hidden in ornaments of pysanky and shkriabanky. To create this magic with your own hands is a big miracle and great responsibility. Hutsul Legend: Far off in the mountains, bound to a sheer precipice with heavy iron chains, there is a terrible monster. And that monster has twelve envoys, who go among the villages and towns and pay close attention to how the people there live. They report back to the monster everything that they see and hear. If the envoys tell him that the people are poor and argue among themselves, the monster rejoices and laughs so hard that the mountains shake, loosening his chains. If the envoys tell him that the people live well and in harmony, the monster becomes very angry, scowls, and the chains squeeze his evil flesh all the harder. The most fearful news for the monster is to hear that people are writing pysanky, that they haven’t forgotten this ancient tradition: in that case he roars, tears at his bonds with all his might, and beats his head against the cliff so hard that sparks fly. This causes thunder and lightning and his chains become so tight, they nearly tear him apart. (Hutsul Text)
A Carpathian woman is using a stylus that appears to be a straight needle to apply bees wax to an egg. Pysankas of the Ukrainian Carpathians by Solomchenko, 2002.
EARLIEST WRITING TOOLS Peasants often made a crude wooden tool with a pig-bristle fixed to the end. In earliest times, it would have been a thorn. Today pysanky writers use a copper, metal or electric" kistka". What is a kistka? A kistka or kystka is the name given to the stylus (tool) used in making pysanky in some areas of western Ukraine and in Poland. It is also referred to as a pysachok and pysaltse. It generally consists of a small metal reservoir with a fine tip/opening on a wooden or plastic handle. Wax is scooped into the reservoir, heated, and then this stylus is used to write with wax on an egg's shell.
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Cultic ceramic eggs have been discovered in excavations near the village of Luka Vrublivets'ka, during excavations of a Trypillian site (5th to 3rd millennium BC). These eggs were ornamented, and in the form of торохкальці (torokhkal'tsi; rattles containing a small stone with which to scare evil spirits away).
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 This is the oldest Easter egg found by Lviv archaeologists to date.
500-year-old Easter egg was found during excavations in Lviv, the press service of the Rescue Archaeological Service of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine has reported.According to the report, the pysanka (a Ukrainian ornate Easter egg) was found in a water collector dated to the 15th-16th centuries, on Shevska Street in the central part of the city at a depth of 5.5 meters.
"Previously, Kyivan Rus pysankas dated to the 12th-13th centuries were found in Zhydachiv, Lviv region, and Khrinnyky in Volyn region, but these were ceramic eggs. This one is made on an egg shell, most likely from a goose egg. And it is very well preserved, almost 90%," a junior research officer of the Rescue Archaeological Service, Ostap Lazurko, said. |