(Kiev, Ukraine)

Happy Easter from Art of Sojourning! And no, we aren’t in some parallel universe where we missed Easter last week and then suddenly reemerged a week later to bring forth our salutation. In the Ukraine, the main religions are Eastern Orthodoxy and Greek Catholicism and they celebrate their Easter today. This threw us off a little because we were surprised to find a lack of Easter decorations last week and then this week we started seeing hints on the street and decorated cakes in the grocery store implying Easter was this weekend. And perfect timing too, as it looks like Spring has truly arrived – the sun is out and the snow has melted.

Yesterday, Grant and I went to an Easter fair along the street between St. Sophia’s Cathedral and St. Michael’s Monastery. There were lines of local food vendors, crafts for sale, and artist-painted easter eggs and bunnies. These were all well done and colorful. The styles of painting on the eggs range from modern art, traditional folk patterns, to traditional Western painting. Most eggs were smoothly painted but some artists added texture using a variety of materials to create reliefs, or played with illusions making the eggs look like they were made out of wood or copper.

At the end of the row of painted eggs, we came across a square that had painted rabbits displayed in concentric circles around a giant metal egg in the middle crowned with dragonflies. This was interesting as well.

This display is based off of the Ukrainian tradition of egg painting called Pysanky. This process entails emptying a raw egg of its contents through a small hole, drawing patterns on the shell with wax and then dipping the egg into different colors of dye. This is done multiple times, layer by layer, and then the egg is placed near heat and the wax is wiped off, revealing the whole decorative pattern.

This Easter fair was something special and it was a great day to bask in the sun while meandering through rows of beautiful artwork. And we got to try our first ice cream of the season! We hope you enjoy the photos.

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