TSOK-TSOK THE EGG
Today we are going to Ukraine to taste some exotic superstitions. Many of them came to my culture from ancient times together with the pysankarstvo. A pysanka is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated with traditional Ukrainian folk ornaments using a wax-resist method.
It is believed that the fate of the world
depends upon the pysanka. As long as the pysankarstvo lives, the world will
exist and abandoned evil – a horrible serpent forever chained to a cliff – will
not break free.
You must be very careful as a witch can
steal your pysanka and use its shell to gather dew to dry up a cow's milk or to
poke people and sicken them. The egg shell had to be ground up carefully or
broken into pieces and tossed into a running stream.
Did you know?
- The older people should be given pysanky with dark colors and rich ornaments as they have already lived long and filled life;
- The young people should be given predominantly white pysanky because their life only started;
- A girl should never give her boyfriend a pysanka without an ornament on the top and at the bottom of an egg as the boyfriend would soon lose his hair;
- Everybody who tramples on a pysanka will be punished by God with a variety of diseases.
Check out this link about pysankarstvo in Canada.
It is interesting to know Ukrainian Easter eggs.
ReplyDeleteIt's our ancient tradition. I love Easter the most because of pysanky))
DeleteThis was a great post Nadia, really great to get some insight into your Ukrainian culture!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much)) We have a lot of wonderful traditions)
DeleteNadiia, that was a very interesting read and you Ukrainians seem to have a very cool culture.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I certainly found interesting was when you said, "A girl should never give her boyfriend a pysanka without an ornament on the top and at the bottom of an egg as the boyfriend would soon lose his hair".
At the time, I thought she was just giving me a decorative Easter egg....if only I had known it was a Pysanka!!
Well, at least now I know :)
You made my day Kyle. I hope it's not pysanka's fault. Next time you get some exotic present, check out it's meaning ;)
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