By Bohdan Mykytiuk
PERTH’S Ukrainian Catholic parish has used the lead-up to Easter to immerse its youth in its rich heritage of which their faith is of central importance.
On 10 April the Ukrainian Youth Association in Perth held its third consecutive monthly cultural-educational session for members, friends and other interested people.
The sessions, held after Holy Liturgy on the second Sunday of the month, are designed to encourage youth participation in our parish and community.
The activities in February and March were dedicated to Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine’s greatest poet, and culminated in Ukrainian Youth participation in the Shevchenko Concert by way of poetry recitals, the performance of two traditional Ukrainian folk songs and a Powerpoint presentation about Taras Shevchenko’s life, poetry and painting.
With the Ukrainian Youth motto “God & Ukraine”, each session begins with Holy Liturgy followed by a half hour educational activity and ends with a sausage sizzle to which members of the parish are invited to catch up over a cup of tea or coffee and view the youth activities.
The session ends promptly at 12 noon so that everyone is good to go to enjoy the rest of Sunday, having been nourished spiritually, bodily, culturally and educationally.
Sunday, 10 April was particularly interesting because the cultural-educational session was based on preparing for Easter by decorating traditional Ukrainian Easter Eggs or Pysanky, an activity which required considerably more than the usual half hour.
Consequently, members of the Association, with the parish priest Fr Wolodymyr Kalinecki, organised a special Youth Liturgy at 8.30am attended by about 20 people, with the readings and homily in English and the rest of the liturgy recited in Ukrainian, using bilingual prayer books.
It was particularly pleasing to see members rock up to the Liturgy and the pysanka activity which followed, with their non-Ukrainan friends, parents with their children as well as Pani Stasiw, a tireless parish and community worker, who came along to pass on her knowledge and experience.
Pysanky (pysanky-plural, pysanka-singular) comes from a Ukrainian word pysaty meaning ‘to write’.
Pysanky are eggs (either whole raw eggs, or hollow) decorated using a wax-resist method where one draws (or “writes,” as Ukrainians would say) those portions of the design which you want to remain the colour underneath the wax. A small, hollow funnel attached to a stick is used to heat the wax and write with. This drawing or writing implement is called a kistka.
Archeologists have discovered ceramic pysanky in the Ukraine dating back to 1300BC linking pysanky designs to those of Egyptian ceramics created in 1500BC, and to symbolism of the Trypillian culture in Ukraine around 6000 – 3000BC.
Unlike most societies which were patriarchal, the Trypillians were a matriarchal society worshipping “mother earth” with little interest in politics, ruling castes, power struggles, taxes and money.
Trypillian symbolism in design and colour reflected the people’s close attachment to the soil and other elements of nature.
Ukrainian symbolic art is based, in large measure, on these early ideograms, most notably the Ukrainian meander or unending line, which denotes the cyclical nature of life.
Other examples include motifs such as the circle, stars, dots, matriarchal symbols, wheat, fir tree, horse, stag, horns and various geometric patterns and designs.
With the acceptance of Christianity in Ukraine in 988AD, pysanky were integrated into the Christian tradition of Easter, especially the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and a new beginning for humankind. The egg was likened to the tomb from which Christ arose and ideograms, including the cross and other Christian symbols became more prominent.
The symbol on a pysanka’ put simply, is a word picture, an ideogram, a special code, embodying key elements of a culture.
It expresses feelings such as love, happiness, hope, sadness, dread … more effectively than words.
For people with some understanding of symbolic art, it tells a story with a deep meaning, remaining a mystery to those who cannot decipher the code.
Each pysanka involves a trinity of symbolisms: the symbolism of the egg itself (life), the symbolism of design, and the symbolism of colour, embodying the sense of mystery in its creation.
Information about pysanky is readily available through Google.
A useful site for writing them is http://www.learnpysanky.com.