The tradition of creating Boyko Easter eggs has been added to the national list of Ukraine's intangible cultural heritage, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy said on Monday, UNN reports.
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"The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine has added the tradition of creating Boyko Easter eggs with a pin to the national list of elements of the intangible cultural heritage of Ukraine," the statement reads.
The tradition exists in places where Boyky live compactly, in particular in the towns of Turka and Sambir, as well as in some villages of the Sambir district of Lviv region and some villages of the Zakarpattia region. Abroad - these are: Israel, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Poland, the ministry said.
Traditionally, pysankas were made by women and girls on the eve of Easter. By creating pysankas with a pin (a needle, a sharpened wooden stick, and later a sharpened match), craftswomen pass on knowledge about the universe from generation to generation, and also strengthen family traditions.
Many of the symbols on Boyko pysankas reportedly correspond to ideas about nature, the universe, the sun, moon, and stars, as well as spirals or "kryvulkas" as a symbol of interconnectedness and the repetition of life, the relationship between different generations, and the variability of the annual cycle.
"Color also matters: red is the joy of life, yellow and orange are symbols of natural luminaries, green is the awakening of nature, brown is the roots of the family, Mother Earth, white is the purity of thoughts and actions, dark and black is respect for souls," the Ministry of Culture said.