Arts and Culture
More significance surrounding pysanka this year
Doing good to overcome evil is how one local describes the art of writing Ukrainian Easter eggs this year.
Peter Bihun is from the Dolyna Ukrainian Cultural Society, and on the weekend he and his wife held a pysanka workshop, the Ukrainian word for Easter egg, at the Rotary Centre for the Arts.
“Right now, of course, people realize Ukraine is under a lot of stress, a lot of pressure,” Bihun told Kelowna10. “[There’s] an old Ukrainian saying that if people do pysanka, good will overtake evil in the world. We’re hoping to do a little good today to overcome the evil that is happening right now.”
Most people think of painting when they look at the designs, but Bihun said the proper term is writing eggs, as there are often written messages on them. He said the finished eggs are typically given to someone as a gift, where they can read the secret message.
“My grandmother would make eggs and there were certain rituals you did with them, and certain things for good luck,” Bihun explained. “So, they’re really an integral part of Ukrainian culture, absolutely.”
There were around 15 people of all ages taking part in the workshop. Colourful dyes were on the main table, and each workstation had a candle for heating up the wax to write on the eggs. Everyone was excited to work on their designs and learn about the tradition of pysanka.
The process is a repetition of drawing a design on the egg in beeswax, dipping it in dye, and repeating the process with assorted colours in order, from light to dark. It takes about an hour to make a simple egg, and more complex patterns can take a couple hours to complete.
“Eventually of course, your egg is going to look like a blob of colours and wax,” he said. “The trick is to get the wax off without breaking the egg, and without getting it too dirty so it looks good.”
Once the extra dye and beeswax is removed from the egg, using a paint stripping heat gun in this case, the egg yolk is blown out of the egg and the shell is covered in varnish, so they remain shiny for a long time.
Bihun said he has heard from lots of local Ukrainians who are getting back in touch with their heritage, such as doing pysanka, due to the ongoing war overseas.
“We love to share this art with folks and show them how it’s done.”
Published 2022-04-04 by Jordan Brenda
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