Wax and Fire! - Ukrainian Pysanky Eggs

Yes, we did go a bit egg crazy this year!
It's such a fun thing to do with family, and we haven't done anything with eggs since 2001.

Pysanky eggs are reserved for the older ones - they take a good bit of time, they involve fire, and that dye is permanent. Period. Clockwise from left, Aunt Karilyn, Haley, Nate, Tim, Elli and Becca.

First you melt the beeswax in your little kistka, then you apply the wax to every area of the egg that you want to be white. When you dip the egg in the dye, the wax preserves the original color.

After you've covered your white parts, you move on to yellow, from there to green and so on. You continue covering and dipping in progressively darker colors until you end, traditionally, with black.

Here is what the eggs look like in process. You can see whatever the current color is, and the rest is ugly black wax . It's really fun at the end when you melt off the wax and all the beautiful colors are finally revealed. Mom likes to say it's like what happens when we allow Jesus to remove our sins and make us like Himself!

We had eight or nine different colors. The traditional colors are white, yellow, orange, green , red, sometimes blue, and black. I think we also had pink and dark blue (which, if used after red made a lovely shade of purple). Traditionally, different designs stand for different things. Fish stand for Christians, the Cross represents Christ, animals show prosperity, grapes stand for the Fruit of the Spirit, flowers for spring, triangles for the Trinity, and so on.


I think Pysanky eggs are my favorite kind to make. You put a lot of thought and planning into each egg, but it's always a surprise to see what it looks like in the end. Of course, the delight of getting to do things you're not normally supposed to probably adds to the appeal. There is something very fun about melting wax and playing around with fire! - GJ