Easter egg – a word that evokes the feeling of approaching the holiday. From our ancestors, pysanka patterns convey to today the encoded meanings of life, help to understand who we are, what we value, what we believe. Easter painting with its symbolism of patterns and colors encouraged and inspired scientists, writers to study and decode the messages. Well-known Ukrainian historian and anthropologist Khvedir Vovk wrote about the importance of studying Easter painting, and the writer Olena Pchilka published a book «Ukrainian folk ornament» based on the results of a trip to Novohrad-Volynskyi district. Zhytomyr researchers also made a huge contribution to the study of Easter painting

To create a real Polissya pysanka, you should be inspired by the incredibly valuable collection of the Zhytomyr Museum of Local Lore, which consists of 1525 exhibits. The oldest pysanka is over 120 years old – it is dated 1902.

The basis of this amazing museum collection during 1902-1929 was laid by members of the ethnographic section of the Society of Researchers of Volyn and directly by ethnographer Vasyl Hryhorovych Kravchenko – the main scientific generator of the ethnographic section of the Society. The researcher lived in Zhytomyr for over 30 years, and during this time made an extremely significant contribution to the formation and development of Ukrainian studies. The future professor of ethnography became one of the best researchers of Volyn folklore. One of the important aspects of his activity were works in which the author explores Volyn songs, signs, beliefs, legends, proverbs and even spells.

An outstanding Ukrainian dialectologist and folklorist not only collected ethnographic materials, but also created methodological recommendations for a wide range of scholars and amateurs, whom he encouraged to study Volyn’s original culture. Vasyl Kravchenko became the developer of more than 100 different programs that were used by teachers and students to conduct research work. It was thanks to his efforts and the collecting work of caring people that in 1913 the collection of the Volyn Central Museum (the predecessor of local lore) already numbered more than 1,000 Easter eggs. To replenish the collection, Vasyl Kravchenko even developed special questionnaires – practical tools for collecting information about new acquisitions of the museum collection. The active work of ethnographers contributed to the fact that text messages, sketches and samples of Easter eggs continued to arrive in the museum even after the turbulent revolutionary events of 1917-1920.

Thanks to the tireless work and enthusiasm of Vasyl Kravchenko and his student Nikanor Dmytruk, the ethnographic collection of the Volyn Research Museum (then called the Zhytomyr Museum of Local Lore) was constantly replenished with new samples of Easter eggs until the 1930s. However, Stalin’s policies aimed at ethnocide of the intelligentsia, repression, poverty and hunger caused the physical destruction of many members of the Volyn Society of Researchers, and research activities of local lore and ethnography were stopped at that time. A valuable museum collection was also damaged: some of the exhibits could not be preserved, information about Easter egg painting and the origin of Easter eggs in Polissya disappeared.

In 1990, after a long break, the ethnographic department of the museum resumed its work. Thanks to the efforts of museum workers and folk artists, the collection began to be restored and expanded, copies of many unique Easter eggs were created, and ancient Polissya traditions and local Ukrainian culture were revived. Looking at the centuries-old Easter eggs, we see a variety of code-patterns. Here are geometric and floral ornaments on Easter eggs made in the village of Sands in 1913.

Extremely interesting are Easter eggs with the so-called anthropomorphic ornament – the drawings resemble a human figure and are often a stylized image of a female figure. There are also Easter eggs with solar signs – the image of the Moon, stars.

There are almost no religious or church motifs on Polissya pysanka patterns, which required special skills and abilities. Instead, everyone wanted to have their own Easter egg, so they depicted something more familiar and easy to make.

Each of the ornaments had its own special informal name: «acorns», «incomplete rose», «flowerpot», «wedges», «ram’s horns», «cucumber», «rake», «spider».

The colors of the paints used in the coloring of Polissya Easter eggs also differ from those typical of other regions: for our Easter eggs most often used red, black, yellowish-brown and very rarely – green.

Today, not only Ukrainian ethnographers, but also researchers, art critics, and Easter eggs painters from other countries seek to work with the collection of Easter eggs of the Zhytomyr Museum. We, the people of Zhytomyr, also have the opportunity to see unique exhibits from the stock collection at exhibitions, which are usually exhibited in the halls of the Museum of Local Lore on the occasion of Easter.

Valuable Easter eggs from the museum’s collection could tell a lot. And not only about the patterns themselves – our national code, but also about the asceticism of local historians, thanks to the tireless work of which today we can see the festive Easter eggs, which centuries later carry a bright sense of celebration.