HAPPY EASTER! Making Ukrainian Easter Eggs

Eggs have long been associated with Easter is a symbol of renewed life. I became fascinated with the beautiful designs on Ukrainian Easter eggs (called psanky) when I was growing up in Northeast Minneapolis. I started to make them myself when I was a teenager. I took a bus from our home in South Minneapolis to the Ukrainian Gift Shop on East Hennepin Avenue to buy the tools and special dyes needed to make the designs. Behind the counter a woman dressed in a traditional Ukrainian costume demonstrated the technique, making beautiful intricate designs and using many colors of dyes. To make the eggs the designs are drawn in wax with a stylus (kistka) and the colors are added successively. In the end the wax is removed, revealing the richness of the colors.  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 above were made by my children when they were much younger, others by me. Getting them out at Eastertime is a well-loved family tradition.

HAPPY EASTER! 

(Note: In 2026, Easter falls on Sunday, April 5th. But in the Orthodox Church, Easter is a week later, on April 12th, because of a different way of calculating the date on the Orthodox calendar. Whichever you celebrate, best wishes for a happy holiday!)

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.

 

UKRAINIAN EASTER EGGS

 HAPPY EASTER!

Every year at this time I get out my Ukrainian Easter Egg tools to make new eggs to add to my collection. Using a kistka (a tool with a hollow pointed tip) to apply the melted wax, I draw my designs before dipping the egg in dye. With each succeeding color I add more designs. At the end, I melt the wax on the egg and rub it off, revealing the completed pattern. 

My eggs are an amateur version of the beautiful eggs made by professional Ukrainian egg artists. For more about Ukrainian eggs (pysanky) and how to make them, click HERE.

Note: The Ukrainian Orthodox church will celebrate Easter on May 2, 2021. It is on the Sunday following the paschal full moon, which is the full moon that falls on or after the spring equinox. Orthodox Easter will usually fall later in the year than Western Christian Easter because Orthodox Easter uses the Julian calendar and the latter uses the Gregorian calendar.