Exhibition of Ukrainian Easter eggs – pysanky – opened in Kyiv (photo)

“Once every boy had a basket, in which girls put their heart pysanka eggs on the Easter. It meant that a girl fell in love with the boy. It happened sometimes that one received many heart pysanka eggs, and one got none”, tells folk art master.

“Easter Pysanka” All-Ukrainian exhibition opened in the hall of the National Folk Art Masters Union in Kyiv on 3 April.

The exhibition represents works of 30 masters from all over Ukraine. Every master of “pysanka” [Ukrainian traditional Easter eggs] has her own style, favorite colors, and ornamental patterns.

For instance, folk art master Liubov Kittorova decorates her pysanka eggs with very ancient pagan elements and regrets that “too little people know about these elements, even artists do not always understand what they paint”.

Folk master Liubov Kittorova and her granddaughter

Mrs. Liuba’s granddaughter also studies this sophisticated art – in my presence she painted a so-called “heart pysanka”.

“Once every boy had a basket, in which girls put their heart pysanka eggs on the Easter. It meant that a girl fell in love with the boy. It happened sometimes that one received many heart pysanka eggs, and one got none”, tells Liubov Kittorova.

The heart pysanka is to the left

At the exhibition you may watch the live process of creating Easter egg miniatures.

Drawing from the source of archaic symbols, masters depict the fairy world, peculiar to different regions of Ukraine – Podillia, Slobozhanshchyna, Bukovyna, Kyivshchyna, Sumshchyna, Lvivshchyna, and many others.

 

Symbols and meanings of Ukrainian Easter eggs:

The ladder: prayer

Plants: new life

Animals: prosperity

Straight, unbroken line: continuous thread of life, eternity

A basket: motherhood and knowledge

Dots: the stars, or the Virgin`s tears

Star: the sun, or God`s love

Red: the sun, life and joy, Christ`s blood

Yellow: wealth and fertility

Green: spring and plant life