Easter in Pictures

Having now spent two Easters in Ukraine, I am pretty convinced that it is my favorite holiday here. The coming of spring, of course, adds to how festive and celebratory this holiday is. Easter season is full of feasts, so here is a feast of photos for you all!

Вербна Неділя (Verbna Nedilya) - Palm Sunday

Easter celebrations start to really kick in the week before Easter, on Palm Sunday. Since there are no palm trees in Ukraine, people instead gather pussy willow branches. Pussy willow grows along the riverbanks, and is the very first thing to bloom in springtime. On Palm Sunday, the sidewalks are dotted with people selling bundles of branches for 5 hryvnia (less than 25 cents USD). People bring their bundles of pussy willow branches to be blessed at the Palm Sunday church service, and then put them in a vase at home. If you are lucky, they will bloom in the week between Palm Sunday and Easter! Mine didn't, but oh well.

Великодні яйця (Velykodni yaitsia) - Easter Eggs 

Easter eggs are a huge tradition in Ukraine, with many different traditional styles. The style closest to American Easter eggs is the крашанка (krashanka): a hard-boiled egg dipped in dye. However, the most famous style of Ukrainian Easter egg is the probably the писанка (pysanka), which is painstakingly made using a process called batik. The egg is hollowed out and dried, and beeswax is used to draw a pattern on the egg. Then the egg is dipped in dye, and the beeswax covers certain areas of the egg from the dye, creating a pattern. The beeswax and dye process can be repeated to make multiple layers of different colors. You can read more about making pysanky here. 

As you can see, it is traditional to hang Easter eggs from trees! In my city, different schools and community groups each decorated their own tree, and the pathway in front of my apartment was lined with them. These eggs weren't all traditional pysanky - some where decorated with stickers, sleeves, or papier-mâché, some were painted, and some were even "eggs" made of recycled materials! 

It is also common for many Ukrainian cities to have a public display of giant Easter eggs, perhaps in front of a church or in a main square. I'm not sure what they are made out of, but they are gorgeous! These ones in my city were made by different universities, museums, and other community institutions.

On this egg, the college that made it cleverly incorporated their school's initials into the design - ЧДБК, written in blue:  

My favorite eggs paid homage to Ukrainian history. The one in the foreground below features ancient Trypillian designs, and the other shows Ukrainian people from three eras: Trypillia, the Cossack Hetmanate, and today. Humanity has a long tradition of visual history and storytelling, and these eggs are a prime example of how we can use art to pass on knowledge. The girl in the picture below was tracing her fingers along the different designs, peering closely at all the different people shown portrayed taking part in their traditional daily activities. 

For those who feel like nerding out on Ukrainian history a little bit: Trypillia was a significant civilization present in Ukraine around 4000 BCE, and a number of its largest settlements were located in what is now my oblast (administrative region) of Ukraine. Wikipedia has a pretty good overview about Trypillian settlements and culture. Fast-forward a few thousand years, and like Trypillia, the Cossack Hetmanate of the 1600s and 1700s also had key centers in Cherkasy region. The famous Cossack leader Bohdan Kmelnytsky is everywhere, with statues, plazas, and parks devoted to him throughout the city. 

Пасхальна служба (Paskhalna sluzhba) - Easter Service 

I unfortunately don't have many pictures from the Easter service that started at 11 PM on Saturday night and carried on until almost 5 AM, but that's because I was singing with the choir! The women's choir had a little nook on the right side of the church, while the men's choir stood in the loft area above the entrance. It was a bit of a challenge coordinating which choir sang when, and the two conductors were often communicating with hand signals. The juxtaposition of the furious and sometimes confused gesturing against the solemn and traditional service was pretty humorous. Toward the beginning of the service, we walked a circle around the church three times while singing. (Хресний хід - translates to something like "sacred walk"). We did this ritual once again at the end of the service, surrounded by people who had come with their glowing, candlelit Easter baskets of bread, eggs, and wine to be blessed.

 Прогулянки та пікніки (Prohulyanky ta pikniky) - Sunday Stroll and Picnics

Those who read my blog from last Easter may recall that in Ukraine picnicking is extremely popular on Easter Sunday. While last year was a bit grey and drizzly, this year Easter Sunday brought with it stunning blue skies and the most perfect warm weather one could dream of. Everybody was out picnicking, fishing, playing sports, and walking their dogs. After a morning nap to recover from the all-night church service, I spent my entire Easter afternoon strolling about, soaking up the sunshine and enjoying people-watching. I think people-watching is at its best when folks are so happy. 

Happy Easter, everybody! I am lucky that the timing of my service is just so, that I will get to spend three Easters here in Ukraine.


(This blog reflects my personal views and experiences only, and is not indicative of the views or policies of Peace Corps or the governments of the US or Ukraine).