A pysanky egg is more than just fine lines and delicate decorations. A traditional Ukrainian Easter egg’s meaning is as varied as the colours on the handcrafted eggs. The annual tradition of immersing eggs in cups of water or vinegar with dissolved colour tablets is taken to new heights by the Dubuque inhabitant. He diligently decorates pysanky, Ukrainian Easter eggs, with layers of hand-written motifs in molten beeswax.
“Everything about it is meaningful,” said Scott Township resident Pat Sally. “There is significance to the symbols on the egg. The colours have significance. The egg has significance. Everything has to do with Easter and the beginning of spring.”
The name is symbolic as well. Pysanky comes from the Ukrainian word “pysaty,” which means “to write,” and that is exactly what the more than 50 men and women gathered inside St. Peter and St. Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Carnegie did on April 2.
Most experts believe that before Christianity, Slavic civilizations began making pysanky and other wax-resist adorned eggs, with eggs signifying nature’s rebirth after a long, hard winter. The egg was taken as a symbol of the tomb from which Christ was raised as Christian beliefs spread, and pysanky became an essential part of Ukrainian Christian rites.
In the weeks preceding up to Easter Sunday, the church has offered pysanky egg-decorating workshops in the common room for more than 50 years. Attendees dip their kistky (plural of “kistka,” a pencil-like utensil with a fine, metal tip) into the flames of flickering candles. To make symmetrical designs, the hot tip of each individual kistka is pressed into hard beeswax and dragged along smooth, fresh eggs.