How decorated eggs connect generations, honour farming roots, and carry messages of hope from the Canadian prairies to Ukraine
As spring returns and Easter approaches, kitchens across Canada are once again filled with the scent of beeswax and the careful scratch of stylus’ across eggshells.
The tradition is called pysanky—the Ukrainian art of decorating Easter eggs—and it carries deep ties to agriculture, cultural resilience, and community life.
For Ukrainian immigrants and their descendants in Canada, pysanky are more than just symbolic ornaments. They are intricate links to a rural past, a prayer for fertile fields, and, now more than ever, an act of cultural perseverance amid global upheaval.
Pysanky, from the Ukrainian word pysaty, meaning "to write," are created by applying melted wax to eggshells in detailed designs, then dyeing the eggs in vibrant layers of colour.
Traditional symbols include wheat for abundance, livestock for prosperity, and the sun to bless crops—all signs of an agricultural life tied closely to the rhythms of the land.
When waves of Ukrainian immigrants arrived in Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s, many settled in the fertile plains of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. There, pysanky continued to serve their traditional role—offering blessings for strong crops, healthy herds, and harmony in the home—as settlers broke new ground in a harsh and unfamiliar landscape.
Today, many Ukrainian-Canadian families, including those still working the land, continue to pass down these designs, linking generations through the shared language of agriculture and artistry.
The tradition has taken on even deeper meaning in recent years.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sent shockwaves through Ukrainian communities worldwide, including the nearly 1.4 million Ukrainian-Canadians living across the country.
In response, pysanky-making has seen a renewed sense of urgency and importance.
Workshops in cities and small towns alike have become acts of cultural preservation and peaceful resistance. According to a report from Yahoo News Canada, people across Canada—Ukrainian or not—have come together to decorate pysanky as a way to show solidarity and raise funds for humanitarian efforts.
Meanwhile, New Haven Arts documented how Ukrainian artists and families use pysanky to process grief, express hope, and keep ancestral traditions alive.
Each egg becomes a canvas for storytelling. While many still feature classic agricultural symbols like trees, stars, and vines, newer designs include hearts, flags, or messages of peace and freedom.
The act of creating these eggs—layer by layer, with time, patience, and care—mirrors the resilience of the Ukrainian people themselves. Even in the face of war, displacement, or diaspora, their cultural identity is not erased. It is written, dyed, and sealed into something beautiful.
Nowhere is the importance of pysanky more visibly celebrated than in the Alberta town of Vegreville.
In 1975, the community unveiled the world’s largest pysanka—an enormous steel egg adorned with geometric designs meant to symbolize harmony, protection, and growth.
It stands as a monument to the contributions of Ukrainian immigrants to Canadian farming life and serves as a reminder that tradition and agriculture are deeply intertwined.
Across Canada today, pysanky are still being made in rural homes and community halls. On farms, in schools, and around family tables, the tradition continues not just as a cultural relic, but as a living practice—one that connects past and present, land and people.
For many, decorating a pysanka is a spring ritual as familiar as planting seeds or mending fences; and in uncertain times, it offers something essential: a quiet moment of connection, reflection, and hope.
For Ukrainian-Canadian farmers and rural communities, pysanky remain a vivid expression of heritage. They honour the land beneath their boots and the legacy in their hearts. In every dyed egg lies a message: that culture, like crops, grows best when it’s nurtured with care, resilience, and love for the land.
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