UKRAINIAN EASTER EGGS

As I do most years in the days before Easter, I made Ukrainian eggs, this time with my granddaughter. Her egg is on the left. I added mine to our collection of eggs through the years. This year the eggs take on a special meaning.

My family celebrated Easter last Sunday, but in Ukrainian Orthodox churches, Easter in 2022 will be celebrated on April 24th, a week after the celebration in Protestant and Catholic churches. That is because the date is calculated by two different methods.  

Easter as it's commonly celebrated in the United States falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox (always between March 22 and April 25), while Orthodox Easter is celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon after Passover (between April 4th and May 8th.) 

I became fascinated with the beautiful designs on Ukrainian eggs when I was growing up in Northeast Minneapolis. I started to make them myself when I was a teenager. The designs are drawn in wax with a stylus (kistka) and the colors are added successively.   The eggs can be kept year after year because the inside moisture simply evaporates over time.  (The designs are made on raw eggs.  The eggs are not meant to be eaten but used for decoration.) Some of the eggs in the bowl were made by my children when they were much younger, others by me. Getting them out at Easter time is a well-loved tradition.