Saturday, January 26, 2013

The Different Types of Ukrainian Easter Eggs

Pysanka is often taken to mean any type of decorated egg, but it specifically refers to an egg created by the written-wax batik method and utilizing traditional folk motifs and designs. Several other types of decorated eggs are seen in Ukrainian tradition, and these vary throughout the regions of Ukraine.
  • Krashanky (see below. –from krasyty (красити), "to decorate"– are boiled eggs dyed a single color (with vegetable dyes), and are blessed and eaten at Easter.
  • Pysanky –from pysaty (писати), "to write"– are raw eggs created with the wax-resist method (batik). The designs are "written" in hot wax with a stylus or a pin-head. Wooden eggs and beaded eggs are often referred to as "pysanky" because they mimic the decorative style of pysanky in a different medium.
  • Krapanky –from krapka (крапка), "a dot"– are raw eggs decorated using the wax-resist method, but with only dots as ornamentation (no symbols or other drawings). They are traditionally created by dripping molten wax from a beeswax candle onto an egg.
  • Dryapanky –from dryapaty (дряпати), "to scratch"– are created by scratching the surface of a dyed egg to reveal the white shell below.
  • Malyovanky –from malyuvaty (малювати), "to paint"– are created by painting a design with a brush using oil or water color paints. It is sometimes used to refer to coloring (e.g. with a marker) on an egg.
  • Nakleyanky –from kleyaty (клеяти), "to glue on"– are created by glueing objects to the surface of an egg. (see straw examples from the Czech Republic below)
  • Travlenky –from travlenya (травлення), “etching” – are created by waxing eggs and then etching away the unwaxed areas. This is not a traditional Ukraine practice, but has become popularized recently.
  • Biserky –from biser (бісер), "beads"– are created by coating an egg with beeswax, and then embedding beads into the wax to create geometric designs.
  • Lystovky –from lystya (листя), "leaves"– are created by dyeing an egg to which small leaves have been attached.
All but the krashanky and lystovky are usually meant to be decorative (as opposed to edible), and the egg yolk and white are either allowed to dry up over time, or removed by blowing them out through a small hole in the egg.

A traditional and still widespread way of colouring Easter eggs in the Czech Republic is boiling them together with onion skins. The patterns can be gained by attaching leaves of various plants to them before boiling, and removing them afterwards. In this picture there are just egg shells, but usually whole eggs are boiled and decorated in this way.
A traditional way of decorating Easter eggs with straw in the region of Haná, the Czech Republic. The photograph was taken on an exhibition of egg decorating in Bělkovice-Lašťany, the Czech Republic, on 1 April 2006.

Above,  Belarusian Easter Eggs.

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