Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: How big is a pysanka?
The Vegreville egg is a giant sculpture of a pysanka, a Ukrainian-style Easter egg. The work by Paul Maxum Sembaliuk is built of an intricate set of two-dimensional anodized aluminum tiles in the shape of congruent equilateral triangles and star-shaped hexagons, fashioned over an aluminum framework. The egg is 31ft (9m) long and three and a half stories high, weighing in at 2.5t (5,512lb).[1] It is the second largest pysanka in the world.[2] The biggest one was built in Kolomyia, Ukraine in 2000.[3]
The museum also presents temporary exhibitions in its galleries, usually collections of folk or original pysanky by local pysankary. Other exhibits are usually related to the pysanka and Hutsul Easter traditions, but can also encompass other folk arts.
The next problem was to find a technical solution for the use of the aluminum in the Pysanka's construction. Paul's first cousin, Dr. John Ruptash had also grown up in the Vegreville Area. Dr. Ruptash was at the time dean of engineering at Carleton University in Ottawa. He was an aeronautical engineer. Dr. Ruptash suggested to Paul that a computer be used to execute the technical drawings of the Pysanka. He made some phone calls and recommended to Paul an old friend of his, Dr. Ron Resch and his team of mathematicians at the University of Utah.
Everyone from the youngest to the oldest received a pysanka for Easter. Young people were given pysanky with bright designs; dark pysanky were given to older people.
The current Pysanka Museum building was built in 2000 in the western Ukrainian city of Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivska Oblast. Previously the pysanka collection had been housed in the Kolomyia church of the Annunciation. The museum is part of the National Museum of Hutsulshchyna and Pokuttya Folk Art.
With the advent of Christianity, via a process of religious syncretism, the symbolism of the egg was changed to represent, not nature's rebirth, but the rebirth of man. Christians embraced the egg symbol and likened it to the tomb from which Christ rose.[4] With the acceptance of Christianity in 988, the decorated pysanka, in time, was adapted to play an important role in Ukrainian rituals of the new religion.[5] Many symbols of the old sun worship survived and were adapted to represent Easter and Christ's Resurrection.[5]
Pysanka Museum Easter egg Egg decorating in Slavic culture Pisanka
Pysanka is often taken to mean any type of decorated egg, but it specifically refers to an egg created by the written-wax batik method and utilizing traditional folk motifs and designs. Several other types of decorated eggs are seen in Ukrainian tradition, and these vary throughout the regions of Ukraine.
The most popular pysanka designs are geometric figures. The egg itself is most often divided by straight lines into squares, triangles and other shapes. These shapes are then filled with other forms and designs. These are also among the most ancient symbols, with the решето (resheto, sieve) motif dating back to Paleolithic times. Other ancient geometric symbols are agricultural in nature: triangles, which symbolized clouds or rain; quadrilaterals, especially those with a resheto design in them, symbolized a ploughed field; dots stood for seeds.
Many superstitions were attached to pysanky. Pysanky were thought to protect households from evil spirits, catastrophe, lightning and fires. Pysanky with spiral motifs were the most powerful, as the demons and other unholy creatures would be trapped within the spirals forever. A blessed pysanka could be used to find demons hidden in the dark corners of your house.
Pysanka is a daughter of a Soviet cinematographer. She started acting as a side career but quickly gained popularity because of her distinct look. She received roles in several well-known films as well as TV anchor jobs on different national channels.
In a large family, by Holy Thursday, 60 or more eggs would have been completed by the women of the house. (The more daughters a family had, the more pysanky would be produced.) The eggs would then be taken to the church on Easter Sunday to be blessed, after which they were given away. Here is a partial list of how the pysanky would be used:
The central part of the museum is in the shape of a pysanka (Ukrainian Easter egg). This is the only museum in the world dedicated to the pysanka, and it has become a calling card of the city. In August 2007 the museum was recognized as a landmark of modern Ukraine.
Flowers are a common pysanka motif. They can be divided into two types: specific botanical types, and non-specific.
The oldest "real" pysanka was excavated in L'viv in 2013,[9] and was found in a rainwater collection system that dates to the 15th or 16th century. The pysanka was written on a goose egg, which was discovered largely intact, and the design is that of a wave pattern. The second oldest known pysanka was excavated in Baturyn in 2008, and dates to the end of the 17th century. Baturyn was Hetman Mazepa's capital, and it was razed in 1708 by the armies of Peter I. A complete (but crushed) pysanka was discovered, a chicken egg shell with geometric designs against a blue-gray background.[10] The pysanka is currently being reconstructed; when completed, it will allow us to see what sort of ornamentation was in use in pre-1708 Ukraine.
Each region, each village, and almost every family in Ukraine had its own special ritual, its own symbols, meanings and secret formulas for dyeing eggs. These customs were preserved faithfully and passed down from mother to daughter through generations. The custom of decorating pysanky was observed with greatest care, and a pysanka, after receiving the Easter blessing, was held to have great powers as a talisman.
The museum was opened on 23 September 2000, during the 10th International Hutsul festival. Director Yaroslava Tkachuk first came up with the idea of a museum in the shape of a pysanka, local artists Vasyl Andrushko and Myroslav Yasinskyi brought the idea to life. The museum is not only shaped like an egg (14 m in height and 10 m in diameter), but parts of the exterior of and inside of the dome are painted to resemble a pysanka.
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 writing 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 written. 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.[11]
Insects are only rarely depicted on pysanky. Highly stylized spiders (and occasionally their webs) are the most common on folk pysanky, and symbolize perseverance. Beetles are sometimes seen, but rarely look anything like a beetle. What they do resemble, somewhat, is the letter Ж, as in their Ukrainian name "жучок." Other insects are sometimes seen on modern, diasporan pysanky, most commonly butterflies and bees, but seem to be a modern innovation. In Onyshchuk's "Symbolism of the Ukrainian Pysanka" she depicts pysanky with a butterfly motif, but the original design, recorded by Kulzhynsky in 1899, was labeled as being swallows' tails.
Vegreville's pysanka, the largest Ukrainian Easter egg in the world, was created to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1974 and to celebrate Vegreville's ethnic heritage. On July 6, 2009, the pysanka was one of four attractions featured on the first set of the Canadian Roadside Attractions Series of stamps issued by Canada Post.
Another special collection at the museum are pysankas decorated with hand-signatures by all Ukrainian presidents and most of First Ladies, and by foreign politicians who visited the museum.
In modern times, the art of the pysanka was carried abroad by Ukrainian emigrants to North and South America, where the custom took hold, and concurrently banished in Ukraine by the Soviet regime (as a religious practice), where it was nearly forgotten.[6] Museum collections were destroyed both by war and by Soviet cadres.[6] Since Ukrainian Independence in 1991, there has been a rebirth of this folk art in its homeland, and a renewal of interest in the preservation of traditional designs and research into its symbolism and history.
Birds were considered the harbingers of spring, thus they were a commonplace pysanka motif. Birds of all kinds are the messengers of the sun and heaven. Birds are always shown perched, at rest, never flying (except for swallows and, in more recent times, white doves carrying letters). Roosters are symbols of masculinity, or the coming of dawn, and hens represent fertility.
A pysanka (Ukrainian: писанка, plural: pysanky) is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated with traditional Ukrainian folk designs using a wax-resist method. The word pysanka comes from the verb pysaty, "to write" or "to in scribe", as the designs are not painted on, but written (inscribed) with beeswax.
Another ancient symbol is that of the змія or serpent, the ancient god of water and earth. The serpent could be depicted in several ways: as an "S" or sigma, as a curl or spiral, or as a wave. When depicted as a sigma, the zmiya often wears a crown. Depictions of the serpent can be found on Neolithic Trypillian pottery. The serpent symbol on a pysanka is said to bring protection from catastrophe. Spirals were particularly strong talismans, as an evil spirit, upon entering the house, would be drawn into the spiral and trapped there.