Do you know what Pisanki Eggs are?  Do you know what all the bright colors mean?  Today is your lucky day, this post will tell you about the history of the eggs and what the colors mean! 

At Peacock Pottery, we are now selling hand painted wooden Pisanki Eggs, they are all brightly colored, perfect for your Easter basket.

The word Pisanki mean Easter Egg.  This is a very old tradition of painting the eggs and then exchanging them with friends and relatives, along with good wishes on Easter Sunday. 

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:

1. One or two would be given to the priest.
2. Three or four were taken to the cemetery and placed on graves of the family.
3. Ten or fifteen were given to children or godchildren.
4. Ten or twelve were exchanged by the unmarried girls with the eligible men in the community.
5. Several were saved to place in the coffin of loved ones who might die during the year.
6. Several were saved to keep in the home for protection from fire, lightning and storms.
7. Two or three were placed in the mangers of cows and horses to ensure safe calving and colting and a good milk supply for the young.
8. At least one egg was placed beneath the bee hive to insure a good harvest of honey.
9. One was saved for each grazing animal to be taken out to the fields with the shepherds in the spring.
10. Several pysanky were placed in the nests of hens to encourage the laying of eggs.

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.

A bowl full of pysanky was invariably kept in every home. It served not only as a colorful display, but also as protection from all dangers. Some of the eggs were emptied, and a bird’s head made of wax or dough and wings and tail-feathers of folded paper were attached. These “doves” were suspended before icons in commemoration of the birth of Christ, when a dove came down from heaven and soared over the child Jesus.  *Wikipedia.org

The Colors of Pisanki - The eggs are painted bright colors, but the base color has specific meanings, please check out what each means.

• White - Signified purity, birth, light, rejoicing, virginity.
• Yellow - The symbol of light and purity. It signified, youth, love, the harvest and perpetuation of the family. It is the color consecrated to the light deities, and the sun, stars, and moon. It is the Christian symbol of reward and recognition.
• Gold - Spirituality, wisdom.
• Orange - The symbol of endurance, strength, and ambition. The color of a flame represented passion tempered by the yellow of wisdom. It is also the symbol of the everlasting sun.
• Pink - Success, contentment.
• Green - The color of fertility, health, and hopefulness; of spring, breaking bondage, freshness, and wealth. In the Christian era it represented bounty, hope, and the victory of life over death. Green is the color of Christmas, Easter, and the Epiphany.
• Red - The magical color of folklore signifying action, charity, and spiritual awakening. It also represented the sun and the joy of life and love. Pysanky with red fields or motifs are often given to children. In the Christian era it represents the divine love and passion of Christ, hope, passion, blood, fire, and the ministry of the church.
• Blue - Represented blue skies or the air, and good health, truth, and fidelity.
• Purple - Represented fasting, faith, trust, and patience.
• Brown - Represented Mother Earth and her bountiful gifts; earth, harvest, generosity.
• Black - Represented constancy or eternity, the center of the Earth, the darkest time before dawn. Black also signified death, fear, and ignorance.     *Wikipedia.org

For me personally, I have a few of these brightly colored eggs displayed in my curio cabinet all year long, just as a reminder of the beauty and passion of the Polish People.