Psyanka
The Ukrainian tradition of intricately patterned, multi-colored eggs is older than Christianity. Originally a spring ritual in honor of the sun god Dazboh, when Ukraine accepted Christianity in 988, the custom was adapted as an Easter ritual. Under Soviet rule, in the twentieth century, the custom was banned. Around the world the custom was kept alive by the Ukranian diaspora and has once again been revived in the homeland. Pysanka refers to one decorated egg; the plural is pysanky.
Image credit: Lubap, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
All year they gather materials for the dyes:
flowers of woadwaxen for yellow,
onion skins for gold.
Crimson is derived from logwood
and the crushed bodies of conchineal beetles;
dark green and violet from the husks of sunflower seeds;
black from walnut husks.
Berries, bark, madder root, cow urine, sprouts—
all gathered to yield the richly colored dyes.
After Yordan on January 19
(Epiphany by the Julian calendar),
they begin to set aside eggs.
The eggs must be fertilized
and only the smoothest,
most symmetrical, and lightest
in color are kept.
When Lent arrives,
it is time to begin the pysanky.
Grandmothers, mothers, daughters
work at night in secret,
using family dye recipes
and design patterns
passed down for generations.
The designs are written (not drawn) on the eggs
in hot beeswax with a pysachok (stylus).
After each inscription, the egg is dyed,
working from light to dark:
yellow to orange to red to purple, brown, black.
Always light to dark.
Alum helps the natural dyes adhere to the eggshells.
After the final dye, the eggs are warmed
and the wax is wiped off with a cloth.
A large family might make sixty eggs each year.
On Easter Sunday, they are brought to church
to be blessed by the priest.
And then they are given away;
lighter colors to children, darker colors to elders.
Everyone receives an egg.
A List in Celebration of the Giving of Pysanky
1 or 2 to the priest, who has blessed the eggs, who brings news of the Risen Savior
3 or 4 to the cemetery, in honor of those who have gone to their Maker
10 to 20 to the children and grandchildren; each child gets an egg
10 or 12 to unmarried girls, who give them to single men
3 or 4 are set aside to be placed in coffins of persons who might die in the next year
3 or 4 are kept in the home—in the cupboard, on the windowsill, on the mantel
to protect the home from fire, storms, lightning
3 or 4 are placed in the mangers of cows for plentiful milk
3 or 4 placed in the mangers of sheep for safe lambing
1 beneath the beehive to bless the honey and the bees
1 for each grazing animal sent to pasture in the spring
1 in each hen’s nest for good egg laying
Today it is Easter. Everyone receives an egg.
Rita Moe’s poetry has appeared in Water~Stone, Poet Lore, Mad Swirl, Slipstream, and other literary journals. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Sins & Disciplines and Findley Place; A Street, a Ballpark, a Neighborhood. She has two grown sons and lives with her husband in Roseville, Minnesota.
Amethyst Review 