Pysanka- an egg decorated with traditional symbols, which are painted with wax and dyes. The production of Easter eggs was associated with the pre-Christian folk custom of meeting spring, later - with Easter.

This type of folk art is widespread in many Slavic peoples, including Ukrainians. Researchers believe that the Ukrainian pysanka has more than 100 symbolic drawings.

Pysanka (galunka)- the symbol of the Sun; life, his immortality; love and beauty; spring revival; goodness, happiness, joy.

In the myths of many peoples of the world, it is the egg that is the peacekeeping principle. Among the pagan Slavs, Easter eggs already existed in the time of the Ants - our great-ancestors / III - VIII centuries. n. e./ and were a symbol of the solar cult. Birds are the messengers of spring resurrection, the Sun, and their testicles are the emblem of the sun - life, birth.

The egg of a bird in general is the germ of life, a symbol of the sun god; in ancient times it symbolized - goodness, joy, happiness, love, wealth, success, the location of good forces, the protection of a person from evil forces. (Kilimnik S. Ukrainian year. - Book 2. - P.176)

A clean, smoothly painted or patterned egg acquired a symbolic religious and ceremonial meaning long before Christianity. Many peoples have preserved traditions in which the egg is the source of life, light and heat, even the embryo of the entire universe. There are also numerous versions of legends that explain the existence of Easter eggs during the Easter holidays, link the emergence of traditions of painting Easter eggs with the Gospel events (the passion of Christ), etc.

With the introduction of Christianity, the symbolism of pysanka also gradually changes. She became a symbol of joy and faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a symbol of forgiveness. Easter eggs were used as an objectified symbol of love, giving them to the young. In folk medicine, they "pumped out" diseases. The consecrated Easter eggs were buried in the ground /for a high harvest/, put in a coffin, in a manger for cattle. The husks from pysanky were thrown "for good luck" on the roof of the house, etc. It is interesting that pysankarism was characteristic only of those ethnic groups that began to be called Ukrainians.

Given the physical characteristics of the egg shell, medieval pysanky have not survived to this day. However, the mass painting of eggs in Ukraine has existed for centuries. In the 19th century the production of Easter eggs in different artistic versions existed throughout the territory of Ukraine.

Pisanki were made in the spring, before Easter, by rural girls and women, monastery monks and icon painters, city ladies, bakers and others. Therefore, the decoration technique was different. In the village, eggs were dyed in one color, sometimes patterns were scratched out, ornamented with wax and painted in several colors, while in the city they resorted to various artificial methods - they glued pieces of colored paper, foil, fabric, thread, etc. Easter eggs were mostly made for themselves and only occasionally for sale at the fair.

Once upon a time, magical actions were performed with Easter eggs. To ensure the harvest, they rolled them on the spring Yuri over green wheat and buried them in the ground. On Easter mornings, the young people washed themselves with water, in which they had previously laid eggs and silver coins, which were supposed to give strength and beauty. The consecrated pysanky protected the dwelling from thunder and fire, and people and animals from the "evil eye", they were used as a cure for certain diseases. Pysanky served as an object of fun for children and youth. With them they arranged games “cue balls”, “wheelchairs”, etc. From empty Easter eggs, adding a tail, wings and a head of dough from colored paper, they made the so-called “pigeons”. They, as well as Easter eggs strung on a string (usually three), were hung near the icons, thus decorating the home.

Symbolism of pysanka flowers

Krashanki are considered the oldest - these are Easter eggs of the same color. Subsequently, multi-colored Easter eggs appeared, in which various natural dyes were used. Such paints, unlike modern ones, had pleasant soft shades. But the color in Easter eggs appeared not only for the sake of beauty, but also received its symbolic meaning, the origin of which is not accidental.

Yellow, golden, orange colors of pysanka affect a person like the sun's rays, give a joyful, bright mood. In Easter eggs they mean warmth, hope, heavenly bodies, harvest on the farm.

The red color on Easter eggs is probably the most significant. Not without reason, in the folk language, he became close to the concept of beautiful, the words "red" - "good" became synonymous. Red paint symbolizes goodness, the joy of life, for young people - the hope for a happy marriage. It is the red egg that is the main symbol of the Resurrection, sacrifice and heavenly fire.

Green color means the spring awakening of nature, the hope for a good harvest.

Blue- sky, air, and also health.

Brown, brown- the earth and its hidden life force.

Black color - the color of the night, otherworldly, everything unknown and secret. In pysanka, being a background, it shows the power of other colors, just as in life darkness makes it possible to understand what light is. It also symbolizes the infinity of human life, the continuation of life after death.

A multi-colored pysanka is a symbol of family happiness, peace, prosperity.

Dark Easter eggs were painted on the farewells, as an expression of respect for those who had departed to another world.

Separation of the surface of the Easter egg

Remember children's tongue twisters that use numbers? And fairy tales, in which there are certainly either three kingdoms or three sisters? For our ancestors, the numbers were sacred, each had its own meaning and its own power. Therefore, the division of the surface of the egg into a certain number of parts and the steady repetition of certain elements is not accidental.

The division into two conveyed the idea of ​​two worlds. It was divided into three more often vertically, as the three celestial spheres were designated. When divided by four, a cross is formed, which means the four cardinal points.

The classical division of the hemispheres into four parts, each of which is divided into three, conveys the idea of ​​four seasons with three months. According to other ideas, the world was divided into six sides. This spatial orientation is conveyed by a hexagonal star.

Studying Easter eggs, scientists suggested that in ancient times there was an eight-year calendar cycle. In folk mythology, the sky has eight spheres - "clouds": seven are blue, and the eighth is red, on which God himself sits.

A very interesting section into forty parts, the so-called forty-wedges. Each wedge denoted a certain type of human activity or natural phenomenon, and in the Christian vision - forty days of fasting.

The ornament of Easter eggs is symbolic. It is based on three cardinal symbols that reflect the vertical structure of the Universe: it is a circle, a square (or rhombus) and a center, a world axis, in the form of a cross, a tree, an 8-shaped sign. Hence, there are three types of ornament: circular, key, weaving.

The design of the ornament is called a divorce and is a grid formed from the intersection of circles and ovals encircling the egg. Ornamental forms - magical signs-symbols - are placed in the divorce fields.

If the egg is divided vertically in two by a belt and its sides are mainly decorated, then such a pysanka is called a side egg. The main dividing belt can be in the form of a thread, ribbon, decorated or without decoration. It may be absent altogether, but the principle of placement of the main ornamental forms is preserved. Thus, we have Easter eggs "belted" and "unbelted". Divide the egg in two along the meridian, and then into four parts. The signs will be placed in the resulting egg slices, and such a pysanka will be called longitudinal by the type of divorce. The "eight-turn" divorce consists of eight spheroidal segments formed from four equal vertical lobes of an egg surrounded by the equator line.

The mesh is a symbol of fate. Protects from evil spirits, separates evil from good.

The yellow grid is a symbol of the sun and the fate that is being built here.
The dots are a symbol of fertility.

Ornamental forms are placed in the fields along the vertical, diagonal, radius, segment. They alternate in a checkerboard pattern, repeat. The same sign can be placed in opposite directions.

If the ornament as a whole is characterized by rhythm, then the ornaments of Easter eggs allow us to talk about tempo-rhythm. Ornamental forms, based on a broken cross, a swastika, create the impression of movement - the rotation of the two halves of the egg in opposite directions .

The meaning of the symbols on Easter eggs

When the egg is separated, fields of various shapes and sizes are formed. They form the basis for the placement of ornamental elements. Each of these signs came to us from the depths of centuries, but most of them can be read, because even very strange signs basically express objects that are close and understandable to us. We, like our ancient ancestors, rejoice at the first spring leaves, listen in surprise to the singing of the lark, admire the flow of the river. To express the eternal, our ancestors created symbols. Let's look at the main ones.

Sun

The life of ancient people was very difficult. It was difficult to survive the cold winter, to wait for a new harvest. The arrival of the long-awaited spring was perceived as the birth of a new sun, the liberation of the heavenly body from the forces of darkness. Therefore, all the best that is in human life is associated with the symbol of the sun. Among the pagan gods, Dazhbog - the sun god - was one of the main ones. In Christianity, the sun has also become a symbol of God, since God is light.

Cross

One of the solar signs, a symbol of the universe, the four cardinal points, the four winds, the four seasons. It comes from a schematic representation of a bird, in ancient times the sun was represented by a bird flying across the sky.

In Christianity, the cross is a symbol of suffering, death and resurrection, with which the church begins, blesses and sanctifies everything.

Swastika, svarga or broken cross

Sign of holy fire, sun and perpetual motion. One of the oldest characters in general. For the first time, his images are found on the products of primitive hunters, and this is about thirty thousand years ago. According to popular belief, a broken cross foreshadowed good and protected from dark forces. Varieties of the swastika are widely used not only in painting eggs, but also in embroidery, ceramics, and woodcarving.

rose, rosette, star

Symbolizes the sun and the morning dawn. It contains an oblique cross, a straight cross, as well as a left-handed and right-handed swastika. In folk symbolism, it is an unchanging symbol of love. Giving a Easter egg with a star meant a declaration of love.

Infinite or krivulka

The sign of one of the main elements is water. Being necessary for all living things, water could be both evil and inexorable during the spring flood. Surprised by the strength and relentlessness of water, our ancestors denoted eternity with its sign. The wavy line is the forerunner of the cruciform symbolism. Rooted in Trypillia culture, this symbol of perpetual motion and the continuity of life is still an indispensable attribute of Pisankar art to this day. "Meander" is interpreted as a symbol of water, fertility and life cycle.

Rakes, combs, triangles with combs

Belong to the symbols that are associated with water. Depict clouds and rain. Pysanky with rakes were written during a drought, believing that by writing this sign, one could call up the long-awaited heavenly waters.

Deer

Symbol of prosperity, wealth. It has existed since the time of primitive hunters, when the meat of this animal was the main food, the skin was needed for tailoring and building housing, and weapons and jewelry were made from bones and horns. In folk mythology, the heavenly deer carries the sun on its antlers. The running deer was the prototype of longevity and good health.

Horse

The symbol of the horse is also associated with the worship of the sun. According to ancient legends, the sun rides across the sky on a chariot drawn by fiery horses. In Christianity, a horse is an image of a fearless soothsayer of faith, unrestrained, ready for self-sacrifice. The horse meant strength and love for work.

Bird

A symbol of the birth of life, fertility, offspring, prosperity, half earthly, half heavenly creature. The rooster was considered the conductor of God's sun and the watchman against evil, the dove - a symbol of love, fidelity and harmony. In Christianity, the bird is a symbol of ascension to God.

Duck feet, God's pen, glove, grandfather's fingers

The bird's footprint was also a talisman, like the handprint of the pagan God of the Sun, which in ancient times was associated with a bird. Such signs symbolized power, patronage, integrity - everything that was associated with respect for the hand.

Tree of life or flowerpot

According to folk beliefs, in the middle of paradise stands a large tree - the Tree of Life. It covers the whole paradise, has leaves and fruits of all trees. It is on it that there are three brothers - the Sun, the Moon and the rain, or their Christian substitutes - the Lord and Saints Peter and Paul. Denotes the axis of the universe, which combines three worlds - underground, earthly and heavenly, the so-called fairy-tale "three kingdoms". A symbol of nature, forever updated.

The tree of life also symbolizes the development of the family - father, mother and child. Therefore, as a rule, a tree has three branches. In Christianity, it is a symbol of God's wisdom.

One of the most common symbols on Easter eggs, as well as towels, wall paintings, carpets, dishes, is the symbol "Tree of Life", or as it is also called - "flowerpot". The oldest Ukrainian carols brought to us the ancient ideas of people about those times when there was neither sky nor earth, but only the open sea, and on it - green sycamore. So, in the form of a tree - poplar, willow, oak, birch, apple, pear - the core of the universe was represented, around which the balance of opposites was established. The world tree is always depicted not natural, but stylized, i.e. simplified, summarized. In such images, it is necessary to divide into three tiers vertically and observe a clear system of right and left sides. The lower part - the roots, entering underground, is often represented as a triangle, a pot. It contains snakes, fish, waterfowl and animals, therefore part of the tree is not only the underworld, but also the sea, river, any water. Also, the lower part of the World Tree is the world of the underground god, the lord of the underground fire and untold riches, the embodiment of ideas about the world otherworldly, the old days. The middle tier represents the earth, the real world, the world of the present. It depicts large animals - bulls, horses, deer, wolves, bears - and humans. The upper part of the World Tree rises to an infinite height - to God. Birds, bees, and celestial bodies settle in the upper reaches. It often happens that the sun shines at the top of the tree. The tree of life is also a family tree, where each flower denotes a relative, and all together is the embodiment of the genealogy of a certain person. The three-term designation of a tree-family is simpler. This is a trunk with three branches: father, mother, child.

An amazing property of the Tree of Life is its ability to turn into a Coastal Woman with her hands raised to the sky. By the way, in the ancient myths of some peoples of the world, a woman was formed precisely from a tree. The image of the World Tree is the image of embodied fertility, is associated with the Mother Goddess, is her symbol and attribute.

The great goddess was considered the mistress not only of the sky, but of all nature. Often, a sign of the earth was depicted on her feet (at the same time, the goddess's feet turned into roots) or she was drawn as a serpent, since the earth is the place where the Serpent resides. A similar image of a female progenitor was widely known among other peoples: among the Egyptians - Isis, among the Babylonians - Ishtar, among the Greeks - Hera, among the Thracians - Semele, among the Scythian farmers - Tabitha.

In Ukrainian ornaments, the "Tree of Life", as a rule, was depicted very realistically. Trees of unsurpassed beauty were embroidered on huge towels from the Kiev and Poltava regions. And on Easter eggs, they gradually acquired the laconic form of the now well-known "vases", "three-leafed". At the same time, even in ancient times, the abstract image of the "Tree of Life" - "trident", which later became the coat of arms of Ukraine, began to dominate.

oak leaves

Oak in Ukrainian traditions has always been associated with strength and power. Oak leaves are a favorite motif in the embroidery of men's shirts. According to pre-Christian beliefs, the oak was the world tree. Oaks are more often struck by lightning, and therefore it is also a symbol of God's thunder.

Tricorn or tripod, triquetra

One of the oldest symbols of the sun, as well as a sign of the holy number "three".

On many folk Easter eggs there is an image of Fire, the Sun, Dawn. Fire, next to water, is a factor of the universe, a symbol of male power. Since Fire and Water are brother and sister, and, having united, they formed love, the earth and everything that is on it, then in many rites Fire is a symbol of love, which is the messenger of the Sun on Earth and gives people light, warmth, bread and any food, helps in crafts (forging), but, like the Sun, it can be good or dangerous depending on the attitude of people towards it. Therefore, Fire, like the Sun, must be respected and not angry - because then it can severely punish. There are strict prohibitions against spitting on fire, throwing garbage, etc. Triquetra- a symbol of fertility, fire, male power.

On Easter eggs, Fire is denoted by the sign “triple” (other names for this sign are “triquetra”, “tripod”). It is believed that the trinity is a sign associated with the Neolithic (Stone Age) god of the earth, and fire was one of his attributes. Also, this sign is a symbol of fertility, since the God of the earth was the bearer of the male, fertilizing factor. a treble hook consists of three rounded or broken hooks coming out of a common center, or from a circle or triangle.

Pines, firs, Christmas trees

They are considered symbols of eternal youth, health, growth and immortality.

Charm symbols

The exhibit, stored in the Kiev Historical Museum, has a symbolic name - "Bereginya". As we know, in pre-Christian times, our ancestors believed in the Great Goddess - Bereginya or Makosh. This symbolic image - a stylized female figure with arms raised up - subsequently turned into a narrative reproduction of the Mother of God.

Sigma is the symbol of the snake. It is found on ceramics of the Trypillia culture. Means water, thunder, lightning. The snake guards the hearth.

Symbols of strength and endurance

In the old days in Rus', as soon as a girl was born, she was washed in a font from a decoction of viburnum and willow leaves. They gave feminine strength, a woman then becomes a good wife and gives birth to healthy children. When a boy was born, an oak tree was planted in his honor and the baby was bathed in an infusion of oak leaves. Oak leaf - so that the strength is not exhausted.

Symbols of love

Since ancient times, the dove has been considered a symbol of love. If you want to have a happy family, then draw doves on an oak tree. Love is also symbolized by spruce (smereka). In order to find out in how many years a girl will marry, they ask the cuckoo about it. Therefore, the cuckoo is a symbol of love. And in order to be always paired with a loved one, they draw flowers with paired petals.

Symbols that promote the birth of children

Symbols of health and longevity

So that no one gets sick, they draw the sun, a rose, a fish, a deer on the testicles. And the endless one helps people live long, so that misfortune comes to them, and so that the beekeepers have a good honey flow.

Symbols favoring a rich harvest

The rhombus is a symbol of the earth, the dots are seeds, and the rake is a symbol of rain.

square and rhombus

Four elements, four seasons, four life stages (birth, youth, maturity and old age), four directions of the world and time of day - were successfully encrypted in the sides of the square. The mesh "square" ornament "sieve" symbolized the eternal separation of the concepts of good and evil.

Spiral

This symbol was a primitive idea about the structure of the universe. The line, twisted in a spiral, also meant water or a coiled snake, personifying the female head. In addition, the spiral was identified with a labyrinth that "confuses" evil forces on the way to a pure soul.

Symbols that heal

Warning Symbols

So that disasters do not happen, take care of your households. And Easter eggs with warning symbols will also help you. “Wolf teeth” and “bear paws” will remind you of predatory animals, “hare ears” will remind you of the need to protect vegetables, and “raven's beak” on pysanka will remind you of the danger of birds of prey. If such Easter eggs are kept at home, they will protect pets and remind them of danger.

Christian symbols

These were Christian symbols. On one was a beautiful church, on the other - 40 wedges, and there were also Easter eggs with crosses surrounded by an infinity, and with the inscriptions "Christ is Risen".

The triangle is often found on Easter eggs and denotes the trinity of the world: sky, earth and water, father, mother and child.

The triple beginning - earth, man and sky - found its expression in this symbol. A triangle filled with net or linear hatching, among our ancestors, meant a plowed field. In the Christian interpretation, forty triangles acquired the meaning of forty days of fasting or forty martyrs.

Plant and animal motifs

Easter eggs constantly drew inspiration for their patterns from the natural world, depicting flowers, trees, vegetables, leaves and whole plants in a highly stylized manner. Such symbols reflected the renewal of nature and life.

The most popular floral ornament is a flowering plant in a pot or a tree that symbolized life. Cherry, a symbol of girlish beauty, was supposed to bewitch love. On Hutsul pysanky, you can often see a stylized pine branch - a symbol of eternal life and youth. There is a belief that those who wash their face with sacred water, in which there were Easter eggs, will always be young, healthy and beautiful. The grape motif symbolized brotherhood, goodwill and long-term, true love.

The ornament of apples and plums was supposed to bring wisdom and health. Among the flowers depicted on Easter eggs were roses, periwinkle, lilies of the valley, sunflowers, tulips and carnations. All of them were supposed to help the plants ripen.

Pine is a symbol of health.
Oak is a symbol of strength.
Plums are a symbol of love.
Hops are a symbol of fertility.
Any berry is a symbol of fertility; mother.
Flowers are a symbol of girlhood.

Wanting an addition to the family, the pysanka was decorated with images of flowers: bluebells, periwinkle, lilies of the valley, carnations. Viburnum leaves meant strength, endurance, faith in justice. Oak leaves symbolized faith in the forces of nature and admiration for the gods.

Although animal motifs are not as popular as plant motifs on Easter eggs, they are still found, especially on Hutsul products. These symbols had a dual meaning: to provide their owners with the best signs of animals, such as health and strength, as well as to assure a long and fruitful life for animals. Animals such as deer, sheep, horses, fish and birds were drawn abstractly; sometimes Easter eggs reproduced only parts of animals - duck necks, hare ears, chicken legs, ox eyes, ram horns, wolf teeth, bear paws.

The rooster and the dove were considered a bird of God that would wake up the sun and the human conscience, keeping everyone living in the house under its wing, the latter were written as a symbol of the soul and the Holy Spirit.

The dove is a symbol of the soul.
Swallow - the long-awaited arrival of spring.

Types of painting Easter eggs. Colorful Easter eggs

Krashenki

Krashenki- from the word to paint. You can color eggs in different ways.
Some housewives boil hard-boiled eggs, and then immerse them in a solution of warm water with food coloring, which can be bought at the store, for 10-15 minutes.
Other housewives like to paint eggs in a decoction of onion husks. To do this, raw eggs are placed in a pot of water, onion husks are added and boiled for 15-20 minutes until the eggs get the desired color.
And earlier eggs were dyed in a special way: they were wrapped with dry leaves of oak, birch, nettle, tied with thread and boiled. It turned out beautiful "marble" eggs.

Drapanki

For drapanki it is better to take brown eggs. The shell of such eggs is stronger than white ones.
First, the eggs are boiled, then painted in some darker color, then dried. The pattern is applied to the shell with a sharp object - a knife, an awl, scissors, a thick needle, a clerical knife. But before scratching out the pattern, it must be applied to the egg with a sharp pencil. During operation, the egg is held in the left hand, and a sharp object in the right.
The openwork pattern on the drape looks good on brown or other dark paint.
The drawing on the drape can be anything, in contrast to the pysanka with its strictly traditional geometric patterns. With the tip of a clerical knife, we scratch the contours of the picture. To create shades inside the contours, we scratch the pattern not with the tip, but with the entire surface of the knife blade. Erase the pencil sketch with an eraser. The drawing is ready. For shine, you can wipe the egg with a cotton swab with a drop of oil. Pysanky are elaborately painted Easter eggs. Ukrainian Easter eggs are real works of folk art.
For the drawing of Easter eggs, elements of the plant and animal world, geometric shapes are used. Each region of Ukraine had its own characteristic ornament and color. In the Carpathian region, eggs were dyed yellow, red and black, in the Chernihiv region - in red, black and white, in the Poltava region - in yellow, light green, white.
Pysanka was not drawn, not painted, but written on a raw chicken egg. Every line on a Easter egg is an arc. The arcs form circles and ovals and, intersecting, divide the surface of the egg into fields, the name of which is the baptismal pisanka.
Easter eggs were supposed to be painted with the first strike of the bell. First, the egg was dipped in yellow paint - “apple tree”, and kept in it for three “otchenash”. Each color of the pattern was protected with wax. By the end of the work, the eggs turned into black gloomy koloboks. They were dipped in hot water or brought to the fire. The wax melted, and the pysanka was born, just as the sun is born from the blackness of the night.
To make the pysanka shine, it was smeared with fat. They put it with a whisk around the Easter cake - for God, on a dish with grain - for people, and krashenki on sprouted oats - for parents. And three candles burned in honor of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Currently, the art of painting Easter eggs is being revived. Forgotten equipment is restored, new masters appear. In the city of Kolomiya, Ivano-Frankivsk region, a museum of pysanka was created.

Malevanka

Malevanka- an egg painted with its own invented pattern.
They do not carry a symbolic meaning, they can be signed with paint (and not with wax).
The name "malevanki" came from the word to paint, Easter eggs are painted with invented patterns using paints.
Artists, painting Easter eggs, often, in addition to patterns, draw plot pictures, flowers, landscapes, landscapes.

yaychata

yaychata- eggs carved from wood and stone, made from porcelain and clay were made in Rus' in the 13th century.
Later, eggs began to be decorated with beads, lace, knitting, etc.
The most famous in the world "Yaychata" was made by the imperial jeweler Carl Faberge.

"I will wrap myself in shells, gird myself with the morning dawn, fence myself in with the moon, cover myself with the sun, stumble with frequent stars - such is the pysanka ... It became the personification of beauty and harmony, the unshakable law of the universe."
"Pysanka: 300 SAMPLES"

To make a Red Egg you will need:
- fresh chicken eggs without defects on the shell,
- pure beeswax, church wax candles, as well as household paraffin candles,
- paints,
- napkins,
- soft simple pencil,
- table vinegar,
- brushes, special tools for painting with wax.

Preparing eggs for painting.
The egg shell should be smooth, matte, but you choose white or fawn - this is already a matter of taste. A medium-sized chicken egg works best, and it is desirable that both ends of the egg be approximately equally rounded. Eggs for Easter eggs should be washed very carefully, in soft warm water. Lay them out on a towel after washing to dry.
You can paint and paint both boiled and raw eggs.
Eggs should be boiled as follows: carefully fold clean eggs into a saucepan, pour water level with them, add salt (1 tablespoon per 2 liters of water) and bring to a boil. Then carefully remove from boiling water and lay on a towel - let cool.
Pysanky masters often recommend soaking chicken eggs in water with vinegar before dyeing. A drop of vinegar will not hurt if you are working with a quail, duck or goose egg, but vinegar is contraindicated in chicken shells.
You can paint not only a full, but also a blown egg. Dip the paper in egg white and seal both ends. Punch holes and drill them to a millimeter diameter. Then, use a straw to blow out the egg. You can also blow out an egg with a medical syringe: slowly inject air into the egg; the white and yolk will flow down the needle. The paper can be peeled off, empty shells can be washed and dried.

Paints
For dyeing eggs, natural, food or aniline dyes are used. Flowers, leaves, grain husks, bark, roots, and berries can be raw materials for obtaining vegetable dyes.
- yellow paint of various shades is extracted from the bark of a young wild apple tree, poplar shoots, birch leaves, nettle root, buckwheat chaff, onion husks, wild elder flowers, chamomile, milkweed, adonis, kupavok, saffron, crocus, St. John's wort, yellow flowers of a bulbous plant dream ;
- blue, blue or purple - from the husks of black sunflower seeds, poplar catkins, mallow flowers, blue flowers of the dream plant, snowdrops, blueberries and elderberries;
- green - from a combination of yellow and blue colors, as well as from moss, buckthorn bark, ash, lily of the valley leaves, primrose, nettle, green rye and wheat;
- red - from chips of sandalwood, bird cherry berries, flowers and seeds of St. John's wort, as well as from dried females of Polish cochineal (an insect from the mealybug family);
- pale pink - from the flowers of Ivan-tea angustifolia;
- brown - from the bark of an apple tree, oak, buckthorn, spruce cones, onion peel, walnut or horse chestnut leaves;
- black - from young leaves of black maple, alder bark, blue sandalwood.
The roots are best harvested in early spring or late autumn, the bark - only in the spring, when the tree "weeps", the flowers - at the beginning of flowering, and the leaves - very young. So that the potion does not lose its color, it is supposed to dry it only in the shade, and store it in a tightly closed container in a dry, dark place. Coloring berries can be frozen.
To prepare paints, you will also need:
- earthenware or enamelware,
- melt or rain water,
- potassium alum.
Pour raw materials with cold water, insist for 5-6 hours, and then boil over low heat: bark - three hours, leaves forty minutes, flowers - half an hour. For 100 grams of dry raw materials - 1 liter of melt water. Strain the broth and add a teaspoon of alum. The paint is ready. Dyeing eggs in natural dyes lasts from 10 minutes to 14 hours. This occupation is painstaking, but redeemed by the healing of natural colors. In addition, they are stronger, dearer and look a hundred times richer than any artificial dyes. Food coloring should be diluted according to manufacturer's instructions.
Aniline dyes are available in the form of powder or tablets and are sold in hardware stores. You need to buy those that are intended for home dyeing of wool products. Prepare the concentrate according to the instructions. Divide half a liter of concentrate into three parts, pour into glass jars, add 150-200 grams of boiled water and 2 tablespoons of 9% vinegar to each of the three parts. If desired, a little paint of a different color can be added to the first two parts to get a wide range of shades. But you can not eat such an egg.

Dyeing
The egg is placed on a plastic spoon and dipped in paint.

The paint contains acid, and if the egg gets wet in food paint for more than five minutes, and in aniline for more than three, the calcium in the upper layer of the shell will be broken, the egg will be painted unevenly and will be hopelessly spoiled. After painting one egg, remove it from the paint, gently blot it with a soft cloth and start painting another. There are food colorings in which eggs are colored only during cooking. They are suitable for the preparation of plain colors. The variety of colors of Easter eggs and Easter eggs is achieved by layering paints on the egg and the obligatory preliminary reservation of each color with wax. This is a famous batik method. Having completed painting and dyeing, the wax on the egg must be melted over a candle flame or in the oven, and then removed from the shell with a napkin.

Aniline or food colorings must be heated in a water bath before use. The paint must be warm, but not hot, otherwise the wax will melt prematurely. For the same reason, pysanka or batik krashenka cannot be boiled in food or aniline paint. The exception is natural dyes. Eggs painted with wax can be kept in a vegetable dye solution until they are completely dyed, and then boiled in the same paint. Remove the finished pysanky from the hot paint and remove the wax from the shell with a napkin.

Dyeing always starts with light tones and ends with dark ones. The traditional colors of pysanka ornaments are white, yellow, red and black. But instead of black, brown, green or purple paint was sometimes used, instead of red - purple. Pysanka, painted in violation of color symbols, was popularly called malevanka. On dyes, the presence of green was allowed. There were even plain green, Trinity, Krashenka. If red paint is applied to green paint, the egg will turn red.

The paint "does not paint" if it is cold, or the vinegar has evaporated, or the egg is stale, or the hen was poorly fed; and also - if the craftswoman left greasy spots on the shell. Take care of your hands. Don't skimp on napkins. After preparing each pysanka, you will have to wash your hands with soap and water. It is impossible to lubricate them with cream, so as not to stain the shell with fat. There is a way out: we paint all thirty eggs with wax on a white field, then paint them one at a time in yellow paint, paint them again - paint them red, etc. You will have to wash your hands only at the end of the work. If your palms are wet, keep the egg in a napkin when painting. A blown egg does not sink in paint, you need to take a deep spoon. Before painting a blown egg, do not forget to seal the holes with wax, otherwise the paint will get inside the shell. And one more thing: if there are small children in the family, try to do without aniline dyes.

Napkins
White napkins are required when performing pysanka. It is good to blot a painted egg with paper napkins, but it is still better to remove melted wax from the shell with a cloth. It’s good if there is cotton rags: old sheets, knitted fabric. A linen napkin soaked with wax subsequently does not completely remove the wax from the egg, but polishes the shell, leaving a pattern under a thin wax film, and then there is no need to varnish the souvenir egg, which, although it protects the paint and slightly strengthens the shell, but deprives the egg of naturalness.

Wax and paraffin
To protect the color, it is best to use pure beeswax. You can buy it from beekeepers, in the market and in stores selling honey. If you've bought wax and aren't sure if it's filtered well enough, melt it in a saucepan over moderate heat and strain it through a fine sieve. In hot wax, you can add a little dry food paint of a dark color. When painting, colored wax is clearly visible on the egg shell.

Paraffin lines do not hold as well as wax lines; in the course of work they can be destroyed. Paraffin is indispensable if it is necessary to reserve large areas of the egg, when blowing raw Easter eggs, and also to strengthen the shell. Ready raw pysanka is first dipped in molten paraffin and only then holes are drilled in the shell and the contents of the egg are blown out. The blown pysanka is strengthened from the inside as follows: using a glass medical syringe, 5 cubes of hot paraffin are injected into the pysanka, after which the egg is rotated in the hands until it cools. At the same time, paraffin envelops the shell with a film. In the same way, you can strengthen the shell with PVA glue, with the only difference being that after wrapping the shell with glue, sifted sawdust is poured into the egg. Paraffin candles should be pure white and odorless. Thin wax candles are needed to apply specks to the egg shell.

Pencil
A novice master, when making pysanka, first draws a pattern on the egg with a soft simple pencil and only then covers this pattern with wax. If the pencil is hard, then its mark will remain on the finished pysanka.

brushes
You can wax an egg with a pin, a match, a straw, a carnation head, a burning candle, a quill pen, a steel poster pen and, of course, a homemade or factory-made brush. A homemade brush is a funnel-shaped tube rolled up from foil 1–1.5 cm long. The tube is attached with tow or a thin copper wire to a wooden holder 8 mm in diameter, 10–12 cm long. There should be several such brushes. During operation, they need to be dipped in melted wax. While one is writing, the rest are waiting for their turn in hot wax. Excellent are brushes made of brass, the writing tip of which has a hole located strictly in the center. The thickness of the lines of the drawing depends on the diameter of the writing tip and the diameter of its hole. It is desirable to have a set of brushes for bold, thin and medium lines. How to use such a brush: heat the brush head on an open fire (candles, lamps, gas burners) and fill it with wax. To avoid blots, remove excess wax from the brush body with a napkin and start painting the egg.

Your tool does not write if:
- incorrectly hold both the egg and the brush. Take the egg in your left hand and the brush in your right. Press the elbows to the body. The writing hand needs support, otherwise it will tremble. Place the little finger of your right hand on the surface of the egg. With the fingers of your left hand, rotate the egg towards you, and draw the lines away from you, trying, if possible, not to change the position of the writing hand;
the wax has cooled down. Heat the brush head without immersing the spout in the fire;
- the wax is over. Fill the brush with wax;
- clogged brush. Heat the brush head and clean the hole with a thin wire;
- an air pocket has formed. Remove it by piercing the vial with the same wire; - the nose of the brush is strongly pressed against the surface of the egg. Take the pressure off your writing hand;
- your brush has been in the wrong hands. The reason for this is someone else's handwriting.
An important rule: to avoid burns, when heating the brush, do not immerse the holder in the fire and do not bring the wax to a boil. After work, it is not necessary to remove the remaining wax from the brushes.

Krashenka

Warm up food coloring in a water bath. Boil the eggs over low heat and let them cool. Light a thin wax candle and cover the egg with hot drops of wax. Do not forget to rotate the egg and make sure that the droplets do not spread.
Dye the egg yellow and cover it again with drops of wax, and then bathe it in scarlet paint. Blot, cover with drops of wax, then repaint yellow and dip in green paint. On the green shell, also drip wax and paint your future dye in a dark blue final color.
Now place the egg in a warm oven (100°C) or bring it to the fire, but do not immerse it in the flame. You can also use a hairdryer. When the wax on the egg has melted, carefully remove it with a soft linen cloth. Krashenka-kapanka ready.

Repeat all over again, but around the wax droplets, draw petals, curls, rays with a brush, then the sun will shine on the dye, flowers will bloom ... If the wax drop still flows, add wings to it. A moth will flutter on the dye. Draw the fins - the fish will swim.

For flour dye start the reservation not with white, but with yellow. Drop wax droplets with a scale, so that later a red pea peeks out from under the yellow, green - from under the yellow and red ... Instead of the final paint, immerse the egg in table vinegar, diluted in half with water. After 20 minutes, remove the egg from the acid and wash with soap and cold water. Wet thoroughly. Melt the wax. Multicolored polka dots, accurately engraved, will appear in relief on the white surface of the egg.

Dip the egg in yellow paint, and then in red - that's a red egg for you or plain dye. Regardless of whether there is yellow in the pattern or not, the egg is initially dyed in yellow. Monochromatic dye will become "marble" if you add a drop of vegetable oil to the paint or rub the shell with sandpaper before dyeing.

For iconic dye from a wooden stick with a diameter of 0.8 and a length of 10-12 cm and a small "boot" carnation with a round hat, make yourself a signet (poke). Heat the poke hat on fire, dip it in wax and immediately put a dot on the egg. From the points you get a "cross", "circle", "necklace", "grapes", "flower" ...

With the help of a file, a round poke cap can be turned into a triangular one. And then the pattern on the egg will not be from dots, but from tiny wedges. Set the poke aside. With the nose of a properly heated brush, lightly tap the shell once or twice and, as soon as a wax droplet appears on the egg, without letting it cool, immediately turn it into a “comma” ... When painting bird eggs for Easter, the Western Slavs choose a “wedge”, "comma", "dot", eastern and southern - prefer the line. Krashenka, as a rule, has one magic sign. "Circles" or "crosses" are randomly placed on the surface of the egg. The iconic krashenka preceded the ritual pysanka.

Ritual pysanka ornaments
The ornament of Easter eggs is symbolic. It is based on three cardinal symbols that reflect the vertical structure of the Universe: it is a circle, a square (or rhombus) and a center, a world axis, in the form of a cross, a tree, an 8-shaped sign. Hence, there are three types of ornament: circular, key, weaving:

The design of the ornament is called a divorce and is a grid formed from the intersection of circles and ovals encircling the egg. Ornamental forms - magical signs-symbols - are placed in the divorce fields. If the egg is divided vertically in two by a belt and its sides are mainly decorated, then such a pysanka is called a side egg. The main dividing belt can be in the form of a thread, ribbon, decorated or without decoration. It may be absent altogether, but the principle of placement of the main ornamental forms is preserved. Thus, we have Easter eggs "belted" and "unbelted". Divide the egg in two along the meridian, and then into four parts. The signs will be placed in the resulting egg slices, and such a pysanka will be called longitudinal by the type of divorce. The "eight-turn" divorce consists of eight spheroidal segments formed from four equal vertical lobes of an egg surrounded by the equator line.

The main types of structures are connected by transitional divorces. Suppose an ornamented belt divides the surface of the egg into two hemispheres vertically. Each of the resulting fields will be called large. A star, a cross or a tree can be entered in such a field. If large fields are interrupted along the equator, meridian, diagonal or radius, and ornamental forms, alternating or repeating, are placed in each of the formed segments, then we get breaks. And everything here is subordinated to the idea of ​​the Universe, the structure and essence of the Universe.
After the divorce of the circular type through the "fields-interruptions" the divorce "sack bag", the type "weaving" follows.

Ornamental forms are placed in the fields along the vertical, diagonal, radius, segment. They alternate in a checkerboard pattern, repeat. The same sign can be placed in opposite directions.

If the ornament as a whole is characterized by rhythm, then the ornaments of Easter eggs allow us to talk about tempo-rhythm. Ornamental forms, based on a broken cross, a swastika, create the impression of movement - the rotation of the two halves of the egg in opposite directions.

Craftswomen gave pysanky names. The name was also a symbol, a talisman. Sometimes they were scarecrow names. Hiding the true name, the evil spirit could not only be scared away, but also deceived. Prickly plants were among the strongest amulets. Among the names of Easter eggs, “rose” prevails: “rose with scallops”, “rose with rake”, “rose with calytok”, “rose with infinity”, “empty rose”, “full rose”, “cross rose”, “guard rose "," dog rose "," mangy rose "... Over time, when the content of pagan symbols began to be forgotten, images of churches, church utensils appeared in the ornaments of Easter eggs, patterns were written off from the vestments, hence the Easter eggs "throne", "priests' robes" , "Golgotha" (Golgotha), etc.

Ornamental motifs

It happened that the name of a ritual painted egg depended only on the name of one of the leading ornamental forms in the composition that determined the style of the pysanka: "Windmills", "Corners", "Poppy", "Dawns", "Panns", "Pletenka", "Beans" , "Spiders", "Bird's Paws", "Bass Ear", etc. Easter egg ornaments have their own local characteristics, not to mention the fact that each craftswoman had her own style of writing. The style of pysanka is determined primarily by a set of certain expressive means. Ornamental forms were filled in or framed with strokes, dots; in other cases, we see the coloring of the fields, a combination of hatching and a dot, hatching and coloring, hatching and drops - a drop on a shaded field or outside it; simultaneous combination of dots, drops, blots and hatching; filling ornamental forms with a grid, the so-called "squirrel letter", a combination of a grid and a drop, a grid and coloring. A significant role in the style of pysanka is played by color, the selection of colors. The style of Easter eggs is also determined by the way wax is applied to the egg; the pattern can be made with a line, wedge, "comma" ("apple seed").

You can see detailed illustrations of all types of ornaments in the application.

Pysanka craftsmanship
Cooking Easter eggs is an activity that requires solitude and peace of mind. It is most pleasant to paint a raw chicken egg. Its defenselessness and fragility make every movement of the craftswoman's hands gentle, her touch gentle. And if you believe that the Universe is in your palms, that it is just as fragile and defenseless... Rotating the egg, you lightly massage the fingertips of your left hand, and the warmth of your soul penetrates into the future pysanka. Dreams take wings. A wax line runs along the shell, braiding, girdling, protecting the egg. If the hand disobeyed, do not scrape, trying to correct the mistake. Pysanka is spoiled, without grieving, cook fried eggs from it.
Before painting with wax, learn how to apply a drawing with a simple pencil and not on raw, but on boiled eggs. And remember that lines on a spherical surface are arcs. Lead them constantly in the same direction, rotating the egg, either towards you or only away from you. A table for the design of the Easter eggs ornament is also in the appendix to this article. So that the work does not seem boring to you, count the dividing belts. An odd number of belts gives an even number of fields.
If the drawing is written off correctly, try covering its lines with wax. The wax line should be long, then there will be few joints and they will be less noticeable. Grid lines can be bold, the outlines of ornamental forms, unless they include construction lines, should be done with a #2 brush, medium size. And for hatching, brush No. 1 is suitable. It is better to start hatching the wedge from the base and finish at the top. So that the strokes do not "fall", the girdle must first be divided into squares. The same applies to meshes. We cover the fields with wax, but not with strokes, but with a spiral, and with the size of the brush that framed the field, otherwise the wax will lie unevenly on the shell, sometimes barely noticeable individual sections of the field will remain unprotected, and therefore unpainted in the color you need.
When you learn to divide the surface of the egg into fields and place a pattern in them, when the brush becomes submissive, take a raw fresh chicken egg and start eating pysanka. At the next stage of mastery, try to make the same pattern in different styles. Avoid a compass, an eraser, try to do without a pencil and do not put a rubber band on the egg. The support of the writing hand, the rotation of the egg in one direction, the brush nose at right angles to the work surface - and the line will be excellent. If the hand trembles a little with excitement - it's not scary and even not bad: the drawing will be alive, because dry cold geometry tires the eye.
Pysanka - magic or science? Pysanka is, first of all, an art. But the one who created the pysanka knew brilliantly

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Rites associated with the production of Easter eggs.
The time of writing Easter eggs. Most Easter eggs are painted for Easter. Therefore, it was believed that they are painted only for this holiday. Previously, they were painted for all spring holidays, and each of them had its own patterns.
On Candlemas - February 12, when winter meets summer, three Easter eggs with a simple, broken and oblique cross (swastika) were painted in the Cherkasy region. This is a sign that the Sun will send more and more heat to the earth.
For the holiday of Kolyada when the Sun was honored during the transition from winter to spring, a full, side, half rose was depicted on Easter eggs. Girls gave such Easter eggs to guys as a token of their affection and love.
Forty saints had to reveal their skill - forty Easter eggs had to be drawn with different patterns. If a woman coped with this, she was considered a real egg. Pysanka with the motive "Forty wedges" was obligatory.
On the Annunciation they already drew trees with flowers, different leaves, pines, leaves with ram's horns, hops - everything that is associated with growth.
Palm Sunday brought a colorful and intricate variety of Easter eggs. There were suns, and twigs, and trees.
For Easter and Seeing Easter eggs are filled with sunny beauty. Here they are already writing out in the full breadth of the creative soul. Only on the Wires the colors are darker and sadder.
Summer patterns are already coming to Mironositskaya (May 10). There are more diamonds, peas, lamb horns.
On Ascension, they painted everything they knew. And the suns, and the stars, and the endless, and the trees, and various hops. They were presented to each other, carried to the cemetery and laid on the graves. It happened that they painted for the Green Week, painted in onions and laid on the graves of those who died a violent death.
So for almost four months they painted Easter eggs, glorifying spring and its holidays.
In distant provinces, for example, Podolsk, they began to write Easter eggs for the Kolyada holiday. In the Kuban, Kharkiv region - from Maundy Thursday, sometimes from the 5th week of Great Lent or from half of Lent. In Chernihiv region - from 3, 4, 5.6 weeks of Great Lent, and on holidays and Sundays, writing Easter eggs was considered a sin. In the Poltava region - sometimes on Pure Thursday, sometimes on the Annunciation (March 25), they continued on Palm Sunday. In the Kyiv region - no later than Clean Week, sometimes earlier. In the Kherson region - from Maundy Thursday. 40 saints were written by "Sorokaklintsy".
A special day for writing Easter eggs, as we see, was Maundy Thursday. Thursday has long been dedicated to the Divine Thunder and Lightning. Among the Slavs it was the god Perun, among the Greeks - Zeus, among the Romans - Jupiter. There is a close connection between the worship of the spring sun and thunderstorms. The return of spring is accompanied by thunderstorms, which finally bring the Sun out from under the winter clouds. These two phenomena were combined in the representation of man, and therefore Thursday took a special place in the celebration of the veneration of the Sun God. There is a belief that spring comes at midnight on Maundy Thursday. If at this time you scoop up water from the river before the kite dips its wing in it, then such water will bring beauty and health. If you bathe before sunrise, the water will cleanse not only the body, but also the soul. Clean Thursday also has a connection with fire, that is, with the earthly manifestation of the heavenly Sun.

The symbolism of Easter eggs.
The most ancient motifs that are found on earthenware, ceramic Easter eggs are lines, circles, crosses, rhombuses, squares, dots. One of the oldest motifs is considered to be a rhombic meander pattern, which was a symbol of the mammoth-good in Late Paleo art (displays a pattern of dentin on a cut of the tusk of this animal). An example of such a pattern can be seen on a found bone bracelet from the Mezen site in Chernihiv region (18-20 thousand years BC. Fig. 1).

When choosing drawings for Easter eggs, they preferred agricultural motifs, customs and rituals of honoring the earth, heavenly bodies, and water. Pysanka ornaments are connected with local nature and mythology. Stars, crosses, the Sun, which now generously decorate Easter eggs, have a specific meaning; among different peoples they symbolize happiness, prosperity, good luck. The sun is drawn in the form of a circle, swastikas, roses, a star - in the form of rays, water - in the form of waves.

Let's take a closer look at the symbols that are depicted on Easter eggs.

Fig. 2 - motive "endless". Among the variety of ornaments of Ukrainian pysanky, a special place is occupied by an unusually peculiar element in the form of a wavy strip. It is called "bezkonechnik" and is very common in Easter eggs of the Hutsulshchyna, Bukovyna, Volyn, Kherson, Poltava. An analysis of the ornaments of the modern folk art of Ukraine and archaeological sites clearly shows that our modern masters inherited the wavy ornament "endless" from ancient times and that it comes from the art of the Trypillia culture - the Neolithic period. Taking into account that the “infinite” in the art monuments of the Trypillia culture was widespread much earlier than it was discovered in the cultural monuments of ancient Greece, we can conclude that the Greek masters borrowed a stylized image of the sea from our ancestors as the basis for the famous meander of Hellas. This, by the way, confirms the fact that it was the Aryan peoples, during their migration to the south, that laid the foundation for the culture of the peoples of the Mediterranean. Other names are “wave”, “snake”, “meander”, “krivulka”. It symbolizes the thread of life, the eternity of solar movement. The “endless” on the pysanka has neither beginning nor end, which means that the evil that gets into the house and into this trap will not be able to get out of it and will never bother the owner of the pysanka again. Varieties of the Ukrainian meander:
1, 2, 3, 4 - Hutsul region.
5 - Northern Bukovina
6 - Transcarpathia,
7 - Volyn
8 - Kherson region
9 - ancient Greek meander.
Fig 3 - "Diamond". It is a symbol of fertility, a general symbol of the feminine in nature.
Fig 4 - "Square", divided into parts with dots was a symbol of the sown field. "Polka dots" - dots, symbolized the grain that should germinate, or the stars in the sky, or the cuckoo egg - a symbol of spring. In Christianity, dots have become a symbol of the tears of the Mother of God.
Rice. 5 - "Triangle". A very interesting example of the use of the "triangle" motif is Pysanka, which is called "forty wedges" and should consist of forty-eight triangles. In ancient times, each triangle was intended to fulfill one wish. The triangle also means three dimensions, three natural phenomena - fire-water-air, thunder-water-earth, sky-earth hell, Yav-Nav-Right, Man-Woman-Child. In Christianity, "forty wedges" have become a symbol of forty days of fasting, forty martyrs, or forty days of Jesus' stay in the wilderness, and the triangle symbolizes the Holy Trinity.
Rice. 6. - Staircase. Symbol of the search for a better life
Rice. 7 - Sieve. A symbol of separation of good and evil.
Rice. 8 - Wheel, circle. This is a symbol of immortality, which manifests itself in nature by the continuous repetition of the cycles of the rebirth of life.
Rice. 9 - Symbols of the Sun. The most common and diverse group of signs are solar, ancient cosmogonic signs that depict heavenly bodies, primarily the Sun. The sun is an eternal source of heat, the greatest force that defeats the cold of winter and returns spring awakening to all living things. The movement of the Sun is represented by spirals (Fig. 9-1). This sign appeared on the altars 10 thousand years ago. It is also a sign of fertility. In the ideas of our ancestors, the spiral was a sign of the Universe, and on earth it was a sign of a snake that lived near the water and was its guardian. The sun is depicted by various signs (Fig. 9-2) Very often the Sun is depicted as a rose (Fig. 9-3) A rose can be “full”, “empty”, “mangy”, “protruding”, “lateral”, “truncated” , “lapataya”, etc. Another sign of the supreme deity of our ancestors was the swastika (Fig. 9-4). Other names for this sign are “four-legged”, “svarga”, “broken cross”. The swastika is a symbol of holy fire, a protective sign from evil spirits, a symbol of the Universe, a sign of the four cardinal points, four winds, four seasons. If the swastikas are rounded, then they are called “lamb horns”, “spiders”, “horns”, “goose necks”, “rams”.
The swastika is found on the ancient monuments of all Indo-European peoples. It was found among the Mongolian peoples, among the Phoenicians, Etruscans, Finns, among the Gauls and Germans, among the Romans in the 3rd century of our Era. This is a favorite symbol of the ancient Aryans.
A variation of the swastika is the "trirog" (Fig. 9-5). Three hooks of the "trirog" are located at an angle of 120 degrees. Other names for this sign are “tripod”, “triquetra”, “rue”, “nut leaf”, “spiders”, “horns”. This sign is known from the Tripoli culture and, like the triangle, symbolizes some kind of trinity.
The cross was found as a decoration on clay vessels on the islands of the Aegean Sea (10th century BC). The most common is the "Greek cross" - four equal ends. (Fig. 9-6), sometimes "Latin" - with an elongated lower end. (Figure 9-7)
Fig.10. Another ancient symbol that is used on Easter eggs is the Goddess-Bereginya - a symbol of life and fertility, the mother of all living things. She is depicted as a full-length woman with her hands up. She is depicted surrounded by flowering vegetation, fish, stars. Often in one hand she holds a branch of a tree, and in the other - a radiant Sun.
Rice. 11. Tree of Life. One of the most popular plant motifs is a flowering plant in a flowerpot, or a tree that symbolizes life. The Tree of Life embodies the past, present and future, (Nav, Rule, Reality). The symmetry of the World Tree of Life meant the establishment of links between the parts of the world, in the heavenly, earthly and underground spheres, the destruction of chaos.
Rice. 12. Plant motifs. They were widely used on Easter eggs. Plants were depicted in full, or parts of them (leaves, flowers, branches). Oak (Fig. 12-1) viburnum (Fig. 12-2) leaf symbolized great strength and undying beauty.
Oak is a sacred tree, the embodiment of Perun, the god of solar male energy, development, life.
Kalina is a tree of our Ukrainian kind. Once, in ancient times, she personified the rebirth of the Universe, the fiery trinity - the Sun, the Moon and the Star. Therefore, its name comes from the ancient name of the Sun - Kolo. Viburnum berries have become a symbol of blood and the undying Family.
Cherry - a symbol of girlish beauty, helped to attract love.
On Hutsul Easter eggs one can often see a stylized branch of smereka (Fig. 12-3) - a symbol of eternal youth and life.
Grape motif symbolized brotherhood, benevolence and true love.
An ornament of Apples and plums brought wisdom and health.
Hops symbolize the flowering of youth and young love.
Mallow, periwinkle, lilies of the valley, sunflowers, tulips, carnations, pine, violets, rue, periwinkle wreaths, walnuts, leaves were also depicted. (Fig. 12-4, 12-5).
Rice. 13. Animal motifs not as popular as vegetable ones, but we still meet them. And this is evidence that our Slavic ancestors were vegetarians and did not eat meat. Animals in their lives occupied a much smaller place than plants. This is a rooster, cancer, bee, fish, horses, sheep, deer, spiders, snails. Most often Easter eggs draw them abstractly, sometimes only parts of animals: duck feet, ram's horns (Fig. 13-1), chicken feet, crow's feet, ox's eye, hare's teeth, bear's feet.
A certain place in Ukrainian everyday art is occupied by the image of a horse. (Fig. 13-2). It is associated with the cult of the Sun. The sacred horse moved the Sun across the sky.
Fish (Fig. 13-3) - a symbol of health, a sign of water, fertility, an ancient Ukrainian symbol of life and death. The other world is connected with fish, the one where the souls of our ancestors go.
The deer (Fig. 13-4) represented long life and wealth, and its antlers were associated with the rays of the rising sun.
Birds (Figure 13-5) were considered the harbingers of spring
The bee symbolizes the purity of the soul, the butterfly represents joy, a carefree childhood, the transition of the soul to an eternal happy life.
Spider - a symbol of perseverance, patience.
Figure 14. Another interesting group of Easter eggs - pysanky with household motifs in ornament. Such Easter eggs depict rakes, scallops (Fig. 14-1), axes, umbrellas, a cradle, "wolf teeth" - a detail of a weaving workbench in Podolia, boats, boots, a violin, a reel. The motif "Rabelka and scallops" is a security sign from evil forces, from death. Rakes with dots - protection from the storm.
With the advent of Christianity, Easter eggs with religious themes appeared. Easter eggs with a cross are the most common, although the cross is an ancient sign of the Sun. Most often they draw a four-beam equilateral cross with thickenings at the ends. There are Easter eggs “shroud”, “church”, “ringing”, “priest robes”, “God's hand”, “Sunday”, etc.

The symbolism of flowers.
Red - joy, life, hope, love, for young people - hope for a wedding.
Yellow is a symbol of the Moon and stars, and in the economy - the harvest.
Blue - sky, air, magical meaning - health.
Brown - personifies the earth, the gifts of the fields.
Combination of several colors- family happiness, peace, love, success, etc.
Green - spring, the resurrection of nature, the wealth of flora and fauna.
White + black - a symbol of the earth, fertility.

While they are bathing the egg in paint, they read “Our Father” three times, the Easter egg “to health” - it is advisable to read while you write too - so that there are no extra thoughts and thoughts in your head, because what we think about is what we write down on a Easter egg.

The waning moon is the time to write Easter eggs that help solve problems of various kinds - writing off the evil eye, ailments, failures ... The main symbols on such Easter eggs are "wolf teeth", "rake", "Svarga" ("swastika", "four-legged") with direction against the sun.
From the new moon to the full moon, Easter eggs are written for what one dreams of. Especially good - on the night of the new moon. Pysanky "for profit" - new moon or full moon. "for love" or "women's" - write on the growing young moon.

Funeral Easter eggs are white and blue, they are of two types, those that write on the Trinity and are sent on rafts along the river, they are written on a living egg and Easter eggs that are taken to the grave are written only in boiled.

"wolf teeth" - a talisman against evil forces (they write to write off karmic debts or hang over a baby's bed as a charm)
"ram's horns" - a piasnka for prosperity, since a sheep is a nurse: it will feed and clothe
"bear paws" - a charm "in the garden" so that wild animals do not fight cattle
"duck feet" / "chicken feet" - for prosperity

This type of folk art is widespread in many Slavic peoples, including Ukrainians.

Pysanka//galunka// - symbol of the Sun; life, his immortality; love and beauty; spring revival; goodness, happiness, joy.

In the myths of many peoples of the world, it is the egg that is the peacekeeping principle. Among the pagan Slavs, Easter eggs already existed in the time of the Ants - our great-ancestors / III - VIII centuries. n. e./ and were a symbol of the solar cult. Birds are the messengers of spring resurrection, the Sun, and their testicles are the emblem of the sun - life, birth.

The egg of a bird in general is the germ of life, a symbol of the sun god; in ancient times it symbolized - goodness, joy, happiness, love, wealth, success, the location of good forces, the protection of a person from evil forces.
Kilimnik S. Ukrainian year. - Book 2. - p.176

Researchers believe that Ukrainian pysanka has over 100 symbolic drawings.

With the introduction of Christianity, the symbolism of pysanka also gradually changes. She became a symbol of joy and faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a symbol of forgiveness. Easter eggs were used as an objectified symbol of love, giving them to the young. In folk medicine, they "pumped out" diseases. The consecrated Easter eggs were buried in the ground /for a high harvest/, put in a coffin, in a manger for cattle. The husks from pysanky were thrown "for good luck" on the roof of the house, etc. It is interesting that pysankarism was characteristic only of those ethnic groups that began to be called Ukrainians.

The ornament of Easter eggs is symbolic. It is based on three cardinal symbols, reflecting the structure of the Universe vertically: it is a circle, a square (or a rhombus) and a center, a world axis, in the form of a cross, a tree, an 8-shaped sign. Hence, there are three types of ornament: circular, key, weaving.
The design of the ornament is called a divorce and is a grid formed from the intersection of circles and ovals encircling the egg. Ornamental forms - magical signs-symbols - are placed in the divorce fields.

If the egg is divided vertically in two by a belt and its sides are mainly decorated, then such a pysanka is called a side egg. The main dividing belt can be in the form of a thread, ribbon, decorated or without decoration. It may be absent altogether, but the principle of placement of the main ornamental forms is preserved. Thus, we have Easter eggs "belted" and "unbelted". Divide the egg in two along the meridian, and then into four parts. The signs will be placed in the resulting egg slices, and such a pysanka will be called longitudinal by the type of divorce. The "eight-turn" divorce consists of eight spheroidal segments formed from four equal vertical lobes of an egg surrounded by the equator line.
Mesh- a symbol of fate. Protects from evil spirits, separates evil from good.
yellow mesh- a symbol of the sun and the fate that is being built here.
Dots is a symbol of fertility.

Ornamental forms are placed in the fields along the vertical, diagonal, radius, segment. They alternate in a checkerboard pattern, repeat. The same sign can be placed in opposite directions.
If the ornament as a whole is characterized by rhythm, then the ornaments of Easter eggs allow us to talk about tempo-rhythm. Ornamental forms, based on a broken cross, a swastika, create the impression of movement - the rotation of the two halves of the egg in opposite directions.

Meanings of symbols used when painting Easter eggs

Sun

One of the most common elements in Easter egg ornament is the image of the Sun in the form of various solar signs. The sun is a heavenly fire, about which people at different times had their own idea, but always respected and exalted. It was represented as a hole through which one can see the real bright sky, a spark, it is not known how it stays in the sky, like the Eye of God, a candle worn by angels, like a big wheel that can be obtained even by hand when it falls to the ground in the evening. Sunrise revives, awakens the whole world, gives warmth, light and strength to all living things. spring The sun destroyed the cold, broke ice bridges, opened heaven and earth with its rays (golden keys), released birds from warm lands, green grass, spring wheat. Easter eggs Sun marked with signs a circle, a circle with dots, a circle with a cross inside, circles with rays, as well as in the form of six- and eight-beam rosettes, stars.
Easter eggs with the image of the Sun are often called "roses", "roses", which can be full, simple, half, vertical, in the form of "spiders". Under the name "Stars" we also meet the image of the Sun as a bright star, but in folk poetry the image of the morning and evening dawn of Venus is sung. Dawn is a red-haired girl who opens the heavenly gates with keys in the morning and releases the Sun, chasing after her. The dawn is scattered on the ground with dew, and the bees collect God's dew and give people honey. The dawn is compared to a good, beautiful girl. "Spiders" were often called and are now called "sleeves", "woman's sleeves", "grandfather's sleeves"; asterisks - "roses", "full roses", "Ruzhechka".

Christ is called the Sun of Truth. The Savior said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever comes after me, do not blukatime in darkness, but will have the light of life" (Yo. 8, 12). His light is internal, spiritual. God is the light, and truth, Freedom. So, the Sun is the sign of God. Solar light - It is a symbol of unity, the order of the world.It is also a symbol of a clear and sober vision, Justice.

Cross and svarga (swastika)

Cross symbolizes the creation of the world. The vertical line of the cross means heaven, spirituality, the horizontal - the earth, its feminine. The cross is eternal life because it is infinite.

To the oldest signs symbolizing the universe, belongs "Cross". Known since the Stone Age, it is a sign of the three-dimensionality of the Universe The full cross is a three-dimensional, spatial symbol, since it is formed by the intersection of two planes. The vertical line of the cross is a heavenly, spiritual, active, masculine line. This is the sign of Fire. The horizontal line is earthy, passive, feminine. This is the sign of Water. At the intersection (combination) of these two factors, a third force arises - the force of Love, Life, Creation. The cross is able to expand infinitely in any direction, therefore, it denotes eternal life. In the ancient beliefs of the Stone Age, the cross was associated with the God of the Earth, denoted the 4 cardinal points, and later, in the Bronze Age, it became the emblem of the Sun. The graphic designation of this sign comes from the schematic designation of a flying bird, since in ancient mythology the Sun was identified with it. "Svarga" is one of the varieties of the cross. Other names for this sign are “swastika”, “chotirinig”. This graphic symbol, found in almost all ancient or primary cults of the world, is found on ancient monuments of the Indo-European peoples.

The word "swastika" is of ancient Indian origin (Skt.) and means "celestial rotation".

The basis of the graphic image of this sign can be a cross (a symbol of the Earth, and later the Sun in the center), a circle (a symbol of the sky), a square (a sign of the Earth). In the Bronze Age, the svarga was already associated with the solar cult, and the rounded spurs symbolized the movement of the Sun. There are two types of svarga: direct (right-handed) and reverse (left-handed). A straight svarga with rounded spurs to the right, clockwise, symbolizes the sunrise, creation, the movement of the sun in spring and summer, good, positive, male energy (Yang). The reverse svarga with rounded spurs to the left, counterclockwise, symbolizes the sunset, destruction, the movement of the Sun in autumn and winter, evil, negative, feminine energy (Yin). Svarga is also a sign that promotes the birth of children, a symbol of good wishes, good luck, longevity, fertility, health and life. In Ukrainian Easter eggs, svarga is also called “broken” or “hooked cross”, “leeches”, “cock combs”, “duck necks”.

The tree of Life

One of the most common symbols on Easter eggs, as well as towels, wall paintings, carpets, dishes, is tree of life symbol, or as it is also called - "vase". The oldest Ukrainian carols brought to us the ancient ideas of people about those times when there was neither sky nor earth, but only the open sea, and on it - green sycamore. So, in the form of a tree - poplar, willow, oak, birch, apple, pear - the core of the universe was represented, around which the balance of opposites was established. The world tree is always depicted not natural, but stylized, i.e. simplified, summarized. In such images, it is necessary to divide into three tiers vertically and observe a clear system of right and left sides. The lower part - the roots, entering underground, is often represented as a triangle, a pot. It contains snakes, fish, waterfowl and animals, therefore part of the tree is not only the underworld, but also the sea, river, any water. Also, the lower part of the World Tree is the world of the underground god, the ruler of the underworld fire and untold riches, the embodiment of ideas about the other world, the old days. The middle tier represents the earth, the real world, the world of the present. It depicts large animals - bulls, horses, deer, wolves, bears - and humans. The upper part of the World Tree rises to an infinite height - to God. Birds, bees, and celestial bodies settle in the upper reaches. It often happens that the sun shines at the top of the tree. The tree of life is also a family tree, where each flower denotes a relative, and all together is the embodiment of the genealogy of a certain person. The three-term designation of a tree-family is simpler. This is a trunk with three branches: father, mother, child.

An amazing property of the Tree of Life is its ability to turn into a Coastal Woman with her hands raised to the sky. By the way, in the ancient myths of some peoples of the world, a woman was formed precisely from a tree. The image of the World Tree is the image of embodied fertility, is associated with the Mother Goddess, is her symbol and attribute.

The great goddess was considered the mistress not only of the sky, but of all nature. Often, a sign of the earth was depicted on her feet (at the same time, the goddess's feet turned into roots) or she was drawn as a serpent, since the earth is the place where the Serpent resides. A similar image of a female progenitor was widely known among other peoples: among the Egyptians - Isis, among the Babylonians - Ishtar, among the Greeks - Hera, among the Thracians - Semele, among the Scythian farmers - Tabitha.

In Ukrainian ornaments, the "Tree of Life", as a rule, was depicted very realistically. Trees of unsurpassed beauty were embroidered on huge towels from the Kiev and Poltava regions. And on Easter eggs, they gradually acquired the laconic form of the now well-known "vases", "three-leafed". At the same time, even in ancient times, the abstract image of the "Tree of Life" - "trident", which later became the coat of arms of Ukraine, began to dominate.

Triquetra or tripod

On many folk Easter eggs there is an image of Fire, the Sun, Dawn. Fire, next to water, is a factor of the universe, a symbol of male power. Since Fire and Water are brother and sister, and, having united, they formed love, the earth and everything that is on it, then in many rites Fire is a symbol of love, which is the messenger of the Sun on Earth and gives people light, warmth, bread and any food, helps in crafts (forging), but, like the Sun, it can be good or dangerous depending on the attitude of people towards it. Therefore, Fire, like the Sun, must be respected and not angry - because then it can severely punish. There are strict prohibitions against spitting on fire, throwing garbage, etc. Triquetra- a symbol of fertility, fire, male power.

On Easter eggs, Fire is denoted by the sign “triple” (other names for this sign are “triquetra”, “tripod”). It is believed that the trinity is a sign associated with the Neolithic (Stone Age) god of the earth, and fire was one of his attributes. Also, this sign is a symbol of fertility, since the God of the earth was the bearer of the male, fertilizing factor. a treble hook consists of three rounded or broken hooks coming out of a common center, or from a circle or triangle.

Charm symbols

The exhibit, stored in the Kiev Historical Museum, has a symbolic name - "Bereginya". As we know, in pre-Christian times, our ancestors believed in the Great Goddess - Bereginya or Makosh. This symbolic image - a stylized female figure with arms raised up - subsequently turned into a narrative reproduction of the Mother of God.

Sigma- the symbol of the snake. It is found on ceramics of the Trypillia culture. Means water, thunder, lightning. The snake guards the hearth.

Symbols of strength and endurance

In the old days in Rus', as soon as a girl was born, she was washed in a font from a decoction of viburnum and willow leaves. They gave feminine strength, a woman then becomes a good wife and gives birth to healthy children. When a boy was born, an oak tree was planted in his honor and the baby was bathed in an infusion of oak leaves. Oak leaf - so that the strength is not exhausted.

Symbols of love

Since ancient times, the dove has been considered a symbol of love. If you want to have a happy family, then draw doves on an oak tree. Love is also symbolized by spruce (smereka). In order to find out in how many years a girl will marry, they ask the cuckoo about it. Therefore, the cuckoo is a symbol of love. And in order to be always paired with a loved one, they draw flowers with paired petals.

Symbols that promote the birth of children

Symbols of health and longevity

So that no one gets sick, they draw the sun, a rose, a fish, a deer on the testicles. And the endless one helps people live long, so that misfortune comes to them, and so that the beekeepers have a good honey flow.

Symbols favoring a rich harvest

The rhombus is a symbol of the earth, the dots are seeds, and the rake is a symbol of rain.

Symbols that heal

Warning Symbols

So that disasters do not happen, take care of your households. And Easter eggs with warning symbols will also help you. “Wolf teeth” and “bear paws” will remind you of predatory animals, “hare ears” will remind you of the need to protect vegetables, and “raven's beak” on pysanka will remind you of the danger of birds of prey. If such Easter eggs are kept at home, they will protect pets and remind them of danger.

Christian symbols

These were Christian symbols. On one was a beautiful church, on the other - 40 wedges, and there were also Easter eggs with crosses surrounded by an infinity, and with the inscriptions "Christ is Risen". Triangle often found on Easter eggs and denotes the trinity of the world: sky, earth and water, father, mother and child.

Plant and animal motifs

Easter eggs constantly drew inspiration for their patterns from the natural world, depicting flowers, trees, vegetables, leaves and whole plants in a highly stylized manner. Such symbols reflected the renewal of nature and life. The most popular floral ornament is a flowering plant in a pot or a tree, which symbolized life. Cherry, a symbol of girlish beauty, was supposed to bewitch love. On Hutsul pysanky, you can often see a stylized pine branch - a symbol of eternal life and youth. There is a belief that those who wash their face with sacred water, in which there were Easter eggs, will always be young, healthy and beautiful. The grape motif symbolized brotherhood, goodwill and long-term, true love. The ornament of apples and plums was supposed to bring wisdom and health. Among the flowers depicted on Easter eggs were roses, periwinkle, lilies of the valley, sunflowers, tulips and carnations. All of them were supposed to help the plants ripen. Pine is a symbol of health.
Oak- a symbol of strength.
plums- a symbol of love.
Hop is a symbol of fertility.
Any berry- a symbol of fertility; mother.
Flowers- a symbol of girlhood. Although animal motifs are not as popular on Easter eggs as vegetable motifs, we still meet them, especially on Hutsul products. These symbols had a dual meaning: to provide their owners with the best signs of animals, such as health and strength, as well as to assure a long and fruitful life for animals. Animals such as deer, sheep, horses, fish and birds were drawn abstractly; sometimes Easter eggs reproduced only parts of animals - duck necks, hare ears, chicken legs, ox eyes, ram horns, wolf teeth, bear paws. Rooster and dove- were considered a divine bird that would wake up the sun and human conscience, keeping everyone living in the house under its wing, the second was written as a symbol of the soul and the Holy Spirit.
Horse meant strength and love for work.
running deer was the prototype of longevity and good health.
Pigeon is a symbol of the soul.

The symbolism of Easter eggs. What do the patterns on Easter eggs mean? We all already know that Easter eggs are encrypted messages. Let's try to read together what our Slavic ancestors wrote to each other on Easter eggs.

The most ancient motifs that are found on pottery, ceramic Easter eggs are lines, circles, crosses, rhombuses, squares, dots. One of the oldest motifs is considered to be a rhombic meander pattern, which was a symbol of the mammoth good in Late Paleo art (displays a pattern of dentin on a cut of the tusk of this animal). AD Fig. 1).

When choosing drawings for Easter eggs, they preferred agricultural motifs, customs and rituals of honoring the earth, heavenly bodies, and water. Pysanka ornaments are connected with local nature and mythology. Stars, crosses, the Sun, which now generously decorate Easter eggs, have a specific meaning; among different peoples they symbolize happiness, prosperity, good luck. The sun is drawn in the form of a circle, a swastika, a rose, a star - in the form of rays, water - in the form of waves.

Let's take a closer look at the symbols that are depicted on Easter eggs.

Fig. 2 - motive "infinite". Among the variety of ornaments of Ukrainian pysanky, a special place is occupied by an unusually peculiar element in the form of a wavy strip. It is called "bezkonechnik" and is very common in Easter eggs of the Hutsulshchyna, Bukovyna, Volyn, Kherson, Poltava. An analysis of the ornaments of the modern folk art of Ukraine and archaeological sites clearly shows that our modern masters inherited the wavy ornament "endless" from ancient times and that it comes from the art of the Trypillia culture - the Neolithic period. Taking into account that the “infinite” in the art monuments of the Trypillia culture was widespread much earlier than it was discovered in the cultural monuments of ancient Greece, we can conclude that the Greek masters borrowed a stylized image of the sea from our ancestors as the basis for the famous meander of Hellas. This, by the way, confirms the fact that it was the Aryan peoples, during their migration to the south, that laid the foundation for the culture of the peoples of the Mediterranean. Other names are “wave”, “snake”, “meander”, “krivulka”. It symbolizes the thread of life, the eternity of solar movement. The “endless” on the pysanka has neither beginning nor end, which means that the evil that gets into the house and into this trap will not be able to get out of it and will never bother the owner of the pysanka again. Varieties of the Ukrainian meander:

1, 2, 3, 4 - Hutsul region.

5 - Northern Bukovina

6 - Transcarpathia,

7 - Volyn

8 - Kherson region

9 - ancient Greek meander.

Fig 3 - "Rhombus". It is a symbol of fertility, a general symbol of the feminine in nature.

Figure 4 - "Square", divided into parts with dots, was a symbol of the sown field. "Polka dots" - dots, symbolized the grain that should germinate, or the stars in the sky, or the cuckoo's egg - a symbol of spring. In Christianity, dots have become a symbol of the tears of the Mother of God.

Rice. 5 - "Triangle". A very interesting example of the use of the "triangle" motif is Pysanka, which is called "forty wedges" and should consist of forty-eight triangles. In ancient times, each triangle was intended to fulfill one wish. The triangle also means three dimensions, three natural phenomena - fire-water-air, thunder-water-earth, sky-earth hell, Yav-Nav-Right, Man-Woman-Child. In Christianity, "forty wedges" have become a symbol of forty days of fasting, forty martyrs, or forty days of Jesus' stay in the wilderness, and the triangle symbolizes the Holy Trinity.

Rice. 6. - Staircase. Symbol of the search for a better life

Rice. 7 - Sieve. A symbol of separation of good and evil.

Rice. 8 - Wheel, circle. This is a symbol of immortality, which manifests itself in nature by the continuous repetition of the cycles of the rebirth of life.

Rice. 9 - Symbols of the Sun. The most common and diverse group of signs is the solar, ancient cosmogonic signs, which depict the heavenly bodies, primarily the Sun. The sun is an eternal source of heat, the greatest force that defeats the cold of winter and returns spring awakening to all living things. The movement of the Sun is represented by spirals (Fig. 9-1). This sign appeared on the altars 10 thousand years ago. It is also a sign of fertility. In the ideas of our ancestors, the spiral was a sign of the Universe, and on earth it was a sign of a snake that lived near the water and was its guardian. The sun is depicted by various signs (Fig. 9-2) Very often the Sun is depicted as a rose (Fig. 9-3) A rose can be “full”, “empty”, “mangy”, “protruding”, “lateral”, “truncated” , “lapataya”, etc. Another sign of the supreme deity of our ancestors was the swastika (Fig. 9-4). Other names for this sign are “four-legged”, “svarga”, “broken cross”. The swastika is a symbol of holy fire, a protective sign from evil spirits, a symbol of the Universe, a sign of the four cardinal points, four winds, four seasons. If the swastikas are rounded, then they are called “lamb horns”, “spiders”, “horns”, “goose necks”, “rams”.

The swastika is found on the ancient monuments of all Indo-European peoples. It was found among the Mongolian peoples, among the Phoenicians, Etruscans, Finns, among the Gauls and Germans, among the Romans in the 3rd century of our Era. This is a favorite symbol of the ancient Aryans.

A variation of the swastika is the "trirog" (Fig. 9-5). Three hooks of the "trirog" are located at an angle of 120 degrees. Other names for this sign are “tripod”, “triquetra”, “rue”, “nut leaf”, “spiders”, “horns”. This sign is known from the Tripoli culture and, like the triangle, symbolizes some kind of trinity.

The cross was found as a decoration on clay vessels on the islands of the Aegean Sea (10th century BC). The most common is the "Greek cross" - four equal ends. (Fig. 9-6), sometimes "Latin" - with an elongated lower end. (Figure 9-7)

Fig.10. Another ancient symbol that is used on Easter eggs is the Goddess-Bereginya - a symbol of life and fertility, the mother of all living things. She is depicted as a full-length woman with her hands up. She is depicted surrounded by flowering vegetation, fish, stars. Often in one hand she holds a branch of a tree, and in the other a radiant Sun.

Rice. 11. Tree of Life. One of the most popular plant motifs is a flowering plant in a flowerpot, or a tree that symbolizes life. The Tree of Life embodies the past, present and future, (Nav, Rule, Reality). The symmetry of the World Tree of Life meant the establishment of links between the parts of the world, in the heavenly, earthly and underground spheres, the destruction of chaos.

Rice. 12. Plant motifs. They were widely used on Easter eggs. Plants were depicted in full, or parts of them (leaves, flowers, branches). Oak (Fig. 12-1) viburnum (Fig. 12-2) leaf symbolized great strength and undying beauty.

Oak is a sacred tree, the embodiment of Perun, the god of solar male energy, development, life.

Kalina is a tree of our, Ukrainian kind. Once, in ancient times, she personified the rebirth of the Universe, the fiery trinity - the Sun, the Moon and the Star. Therefore, its name comes from the ancient name of the Sun - Kolo. Viburnum berries have become a symbol of blood and the undying Family.

Cherry - a symbol of girlish beauty, helped to attract love.

On Hutsul pysanky, one can often see a stylized branch of smereka (Fig. 12-3) - a symbol of eternal youth and life.

The grape motif symbolized brotherhood, benevolence and true love.

An ornament of Apples and plums brought wisdom and health.

Hops symbolize the flowering of youth and young love.

Mallow, periwinkle, lilies of the valley, sunflowers, tulips, carnations, pine, violets, rue, periwinkle wreaths, walnuts, leaves were also depicted. (Fig. 12-4, 12-5).

Rice. 13. Animal motifs are not as popular as vegetable motifs, but we still meet them. And this is evidence that our Slavic ancestors were vegetarians and did not eat meat. Animals in their lives occupied a much smaller place than plants. This is a rooster, cancer, bee, fish, horses, sheep, deer, spiders, snails. Most often Easter eggs draw them abstractly, sometimes only parts of animals: duck feet, ram's horns (Fig. 13-1), chicken feet, crow's feet, ox's eye, hare's teeth, bear's feet.

A certain place in Ukrainian everyday art is occupied by the image of a horse. (Fig. 13-2). It is associated with the cult of the Sun. The sacred horse moved the Sun across the sky.

Fish (Fig. 13-3) is a symbol of health, a sign of water, fertility, an ancient Ukrainian symbol of life and death. The other world is connected with fish, the one where the souls of our ancestors go.

The deer (Fig. 13-4) represented long life and wealth, and its antlers were associated with the rays of the rising sun.

Birds (Figure 13-5) were considered the harbingers of spring

The bee symbolizes the purity of the soul, the butterfly represents joy, a carefree childhood, the transition of the soul to an eternal happy life.

Spider - a symbol of perseverance, patience.

Fig. 14. Another interesting group of pysanky are pysanky with household motifs in the ornament. Such Easter eggs depict rakes, scallops (Fig. 14-1), axes, umbrellas, a cradle, "wolf teeth" - a detail of a weaving workbench in Podolia, boats, boots, a violin, a reel. The motif "Rabelka and scallops" is a security sign from evil forces, from death. Rakes with dots - protection from the storm.

With the advent of Christianity, Easter eggs with religious themes appeared. Easter eggs with a cross are the most common, although the cross is an ancient sign of the Sun. Most often they draw a four-beam equilateral cross with thickenings at the ends. There are Easter eggs “shroud”, “church”, “ringing”, “priest robes”, “God's hand”, “Sunday”, etc.

The symbolism of flowers.

Red - joy, life, hope, love, for young people - hope for a wedding.

Yellow is a symbol of the Moon and stars, and in the economy - the harvest.

Blue - sky, air, magical meaning - health.

Bronze - personifies the earth, the gifts of the fields.

The combination of several colors - family happiness, peace, love, success, etc.

Green - spring, the resurrection of nature, the wealth of flora and fauna.

White + black - a symbol of the earth, fertility.