Pysanky and Prayer: US Churches Use Ukrainian Easter Eggs for Solidarity

Though US churches are trying out the art of making pysanka, Ukrainian Christians say it is not a religious tradition.

To do the ancient Ukrainian practice of pysanky, you need a strong, smooth egg and a lot of patience.

Western churches are taking up pysanky, a delicate Ukrainian egg decorating art from thousands of years ago, as a way of showing solidarity with and raising money for the war-torn country ahead of Easter.

A number of Episcopal churches in the US have hosted pysanky events as a “form of prayer” for Ukraine. A Catholic community in Ontario, Canada said it would begin doing psyanky on Sunday afternoons as “a contemplative activity offered for our suffering world.” A church in Connecticut planned an afternoon of pysanky decorating combined with a prayer vigil.

Several American churches have interpreted the practice spiritually: that it has the power to keep evil at bay, or that the egg symbolizes new life and Christ’s resurrection, or that it is a “Lenten tradition.”

But according to Ukrainian Christians, the art of pysanky does not have spiritual significance on its own. It is a pre-Christian cultural practice from the region. Joan Brander, a Ukrainian Canadian pysanky artist who has written books on the art form, told CT she considers the tradition purely Ukrainian with no religious connotation.

Zlata Zubenko, a Ukrainian American and a Christian, also considers the art of pysanka as more of a folk tradition and a symbol of Ukrainian national identity. Ukrainians noted that it is a cultural practice that can be more associated with Orthodox Easter traditions. Pastor Michael Cherenkov, who grew up in Ukraine and now pastors a Baptist church in Washington state, said evangelicals don’t usually make pysanky as a religious tradition, but it is an Easter symbol in Orthodox Christianity. ...