In Book 2 of the Rocked in the Cradle of Coal series, Wasyl's family celebrates Easter. It is pretty different from the modern Easter practices we consider traditions today. First of all, there was no Easter Bunny... none. Easter was a religious holiday when the whole family celebrated the risen Lord.
Their Easter basket was not just a receptacle for chocolate eggs and bunnies. In 1917, the Easter basket Wasyl's family had was filled with traditional foods that the family would later eat for their holiday meal. Each item placed in the basket on Easter morning symbolized some aspect of the biblical Easter story and was lovingly prepared and taken to sunrise service at the local church to be blessed by the priest.
Pysanky eggs were one such special item. Pysanky means "to write" in the Ukrainian language, so these beautifully decorated eggs would symbolically spell a message in color and design. The world will soon be celebrating Easter 2023, so I encourage you to look deeper into the meaning of this special holiday.
In the photo above are some pysanky eggs our family made. (As you can tell, we are not professional pysanky artists, but we tried and our eggs do make a colorful centerpiece). Maybe you would like to try your hand at creating these meaningful little works of art yourself. Here is a link to help you:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6wRSZUZ60k