Rebecca: This ancient Ukrainian art form starts as a gift to spread goodness to different households. Hi, I’m Rebecca Britney, and welcome to watchmojo.com. And today, we’ll be looking at the pysanky. So can you tell us about the history of the pysanky?
Christine: The pysanky started before Jesus Christ, before Christianity came into Ukraine. It starts with the pagan time. The egg was a symbol of rebirth during the spring time. It so happens that easter is around the spring time. So when Christianity came into Ukraine, it was almost, actually very normal to offer eggs because it was still the symbol of rebirth and life.
Rebecca: Can you outline the tools and supplies that you need to use to start making the pysanky.
Christine: A kyska, which is, if you translate the word kyska, it means bone. But it was a slightly different type of tool in the olden days. It was a wood tool with a copper funnel at the end. We used bees wax. And of course we need raw eggs, and of course we have our dyes which are here. These are called analin dyes, they come in a powder solution and we dilute them with hot boiling water.
Rebecca: So, how do you come up with the designs?
Christine: You can create one egg from that egg, you like the design, you change a little bit something else and then you create another egg. There is a trend for the designs where there are usually more traditional and what I mean about traditional is we don’t see bunny rabbits and we don’t see things like that, it’s more of a religious side of easter which we see. We see more crosses, birds, fishes, everything is symbolic. So our designs are all symbolic. Animals such as deer, horses, they’re all symbol of good health, the never ending line around the egg which is a symbol of eternity. White is purity, black is eternal life. The word pysanka, or pysatte, because it comes from the verb pysatte, the verb pysatte means to write. So we’re not painting, we’re not coloring, we are writing a design, we are writing a message and when you write a message, you are wishing somebody good health, wealth, prosperity.