Ukrainian Easter Eggs

I have a friend who was handed down from his Grandma a few items that relate to Easter egg decorating and a Easter basket. He is not a computer geek and is allowing me to sell for him his stuff on Ebay.

I arranged in his Ruby Red Glass Easter Basket his vintage Ukrainian Pysanky - a batik dyed egg that is very intricate - to capture on my camera before, (if or when) I sell these items.

It is too bad that half of these beautiful eggs are cracked or chipped but he has two that are in pristine vintage - handmade during WW2 - very old and very detailed work. He has wooden eggs but they are nothing compared to the ones in the photograph above.

I really love the Ruby Red Easter Basket - but I am a total klutz and know that one day I would break it. That's why I don't wear jewelry - although I love it because they all break eventually. The only jewelry that I have is a simple wedding ring made of white gold. I would prefer platinum like that 1989 movie "The Abyss", where he flushes his wedding ring down the toilet then retrieves it. Throughout the rest of the movie he had a blue dyed hand and at one point the platinum ring saves his life because a gold ring would be too soft and squash up on itself.

I hope you like my photos - feel free to copy and print out! For archives - I photographed the Ukrainian eggs before they get damaged any further. I had one lady on Ebay tell me that these eggs were not well made - that comment got my friend Robert hopping mad because these eggs were done during World War 2 and lightbulbs back in those days were much more weaker. The dyes are probably handmade. BTW - the lady sells decorated eggs also but she sells batik dyed emu eggs which are huge. These eggs are small chicken eggs - much smaller than the huge AA large eggs found today in the stores.

The information I found online and put on Ebay to sell the best eggs is as follows:

Each region, each village, and almost every family in Ukraine had its own special ritual, its own symbols, meanings and secret formulas for dyeing eggs.

Antique traditionally made real blown chicken egg with design made via batik wax dye. This authentic Easter egg is blown by piercing both ends of the egg and than blowing the yolk out and then resealed.

Symbolic representation of designs include:
Leaves and flowers shows life and growth.
Flowers are for Beauty & Humility.
Triangles denotes the Holy Trinity.
Sun signs are the warm love of the Eternal God.
Ribbons, belts encircling the egg with no beginning or end denotes eternity.
Ladders means prayer, steps to heaven.

Colors have secondary meaning to the symbols used on Pysanky.
Black represents earth, eternity and darkest time before dawn.
Red symbolizes happiness, passion and blood.
Orange/Yellow means the sun, harvest, warmth and family.
White is for purity, light and virginity.

According the Wiki, "The egg is widely used as a symbol of the start of new life, just as new life emerges from an egg when the chick hatches out ...is seen by followers of Christianity as a symbol of resurrection: while being dormant it contains a new life sealed within it ... Easter eggs are a widely popular symbol of new life in Bulgaria, Russia, Romania, Ukraine, Poland and other Slavic countries' folk traditions. A batik (wax resist) process is used to create intricate, brilliantly-colored eggs., the best-known of which is the Ukrainian pysanka "

This types of eggs is also called Pisanica in Croatian and Pisanka in Polish.