Wooden Church & Easter Pysanky

I noticed a gorgeous wooden church from the road today, so took a detour to have a better look and learn more.

It was St. Elias Toronto Ukrainian Catholic Church a waaaaaay out on rural Heritage Road.

And, it turned out they were selling pysanky Saturday 12pm - 3pm!

In Eastern Europe

Elijah was described as ascending into heaven in a fiery chariot, the Christian missionaries who converted Slavic tribes likely found him an ideal analogy for Perun, the supreme Slavic god of storms, thunder and lightning bolts. In many Slavic countries Elijah is known as Elijah the Thunderer (Ilija Gromovnik), who drives the heavens in a chariot and administers rain and snow.

And, in Eastern-European folklore, Elijah is portrayed in his "Thunderer" persona:

It was said; Jesus, the prophet Elijah, and St. George were going through Georgia. When they became tired and hungry and wanted to eat. They saw a Georgian shepherd and decided to ask him to feed them. First, Elijah went up to the shepherd and asked him for a sheep. After the shepherd asked his identity, Elijah said that he was the one who sent him rain to get him a good profit from farming. The shepherd became angry at him and told him that he was the one who also sent thunderstorms, which destroyed the farms of poor widows. (After Elijah, Jesus and St. George made attempts to get help and eventually succeeded).

As in many ancient cultures, Ukrainians worshipped a sun god (Dazhboh). The sun was important - it warmed the earth and thus was a source of all life.

Eggs decorated with nature symbols became an integral part of spring rituals, serving as benevolent talismans.

A pysanka Ukrainian: писанка, plural: pysanky) is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated using a wax-resist (batik) method.

The word comes from the verb pysaty, "to write", as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax.

Pysanky were thought to protect households from evil spirits, catastrophe, lightning and fires.

The Hutsuls––Ukrainians who live in the Carpathian Mountains of western Ukraine––believe that the fate of the world depends upon the pysanka. As long as the egg decorating custom continues, the world will exist. If, for any reason, this custom is abandoned, evil––in the shape of a horrible serpent who is forever chained to a cliff–– will overrun the world. Each year the serpent sends out his minions to see how many pysanky have been created. If the number is low the serpent's chains are loosened and he is free to wander the earth causing havoc and destruction. If, on the other hand, the number of pysanky has increased, the chains are tightened and good triumphs over evil for yet another year.

Many other eastern Europeans, including the Belarusians (пісанка), Bulgarians (писано яйце, pisano yaytse), Serbs (pisanica), Czechs (kraslice), Lithuanians (margutis), Poles (pisanka), Romanians (ouă vopsite or incondeiate), Slovaks (kraslica), and Slovenes (pisanica or pirh) decorate eggs for Easter.

Happy Easter

Traditional & Modern Ukrainian Pysanky