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The symbolism and significance of the time-honored labor of love.

By Audra Grigus

Easter is fast approaching and if you’re in tune with Central and Eastern European traditions, you have probably seen or heard of pysanky. A pysanka is an egg, a symbol of life and fertility, that is decorated in bright colors and an ornate wax design. While many countries have their own version of it, pysanky is best known for coming out of Ukraine. The name comes from the Ukrainian word pysaty which means “to write.” The oldest pysanka found was excavated in Lviv in 2013 in a rainwater collection system from around the 15th century. 

There is an abundance of folklore and superstitions surrounding pysanky. In Ukraine, many believe that a pysanka can protect people and households from evil spirits and chaos. An old myth states that older people should be given gifts of pysanky with darker colors and rich designs, as their life had been fulfilled. Adversely, young people should be given eggs with white as the main color, as there is still much to be written in the story of their lives. 

Geometric symbols are widely used today and can have many meanings. For instance, the triangle can represent the Holy Trinity; the elements of air, fire and water; a traditional family (man, woman, and child); or the cycle of life (birth, life, and death). Pysanky with spiral motifs are the most powerful, demons and other monsters are said to get trapped within the spirals forever. Other important symbols include spiders, meaning patience and happiness; flowers, to represent wisdom and beauty in life; birds, the messengers of good news and springtime; and butterflies to signal transformation.

Colors also play a large part in the symbolic nature of the eggs, blue for good health, black for remembrance and respect, red for love and friendship, and periwinkle for everlasting love.

Ukraine is not the only country that has their own traditions with ornately embellished and symbolic eggs…

• Belarusians (пісанка, pisanka)
• Bulgarians(писано яйце, pisano yaytse)
• Carpatho-Rusyns (писанкы, pysankŷ)
• Croats (pisanica), Czechs (kraslice)
• Hungarians (hímestojás) 
• Lithuanians (margutis)
• Poles (pisanka)
• Romanians (ouă vopsite, încondeiate or împistrite)
• Serbs (pisanica)
• Slovaks (kraslica)
• Slovenes (pirhi, pisanice, or remenke)
• Sorbs (jejka pisać)

The Sorbian people, a Slavic community that is generally concentrated in the Spree River Valley in Eastern Germany, have a style that is also often simply called Sorbian Easter Eggs. While there are a few similarities in symbolism between Ukrainian and Sorbian eggs, such as how triangles can represent the father-mother-child trio and the Holy Trinity, there are also some significant differences. For the Sorbian people, circles generally represent the sun or sunshine and triangles can also represent wolf teeth, which drive away evil.

While writing on these eggs takes many hours and is certainly a labor of love, the tradition lives on with as much significance today as it did far back in time.

With a few minor setbacks, support continues to flow into Ukraine from D-A-CH.

By Günther Jahnl & Audra Grigus

 

Germany has a long standing tradition to not export military weapons to other countries. This has been a commonly accepted fact of German procedure, until voices criticizing Germany’s abstaining from involvement became loud enough that the country historically changed its course.

Annelena Baerbock, the newly minted Minister or Secretary of Foreign Affairs and a member of the Green Party, and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said, “After Russia’s shameless attack, Ukraine must be able to defend itself. It has an inalienable right to self-defense. The German government is therefore supporting Ukraine in providing urgently needed material. The federal government is therefore supporting Ukraine in providing urgently needed material.”

This is a significant shift that resulted in the German government sending weapons and other supplies directly to Ukraine. Germany has also supported restrictions of the SWIFT global banking system, which disabled the largest Russian banks from inter-bank transfers, practically cutting off the flow of money. Outside of finances, weapons are being moved into strategically accessible positions, as Germany sent 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 “Stinger” surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine.

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point. It threatens our entire post-war order,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement. “In this situation, it is our duty to help Ukraine, to the best of our ability, to defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s invading army.”

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy virtually stood before the Bundestag on March 17, however, to let them know that Germany’s efforts were not enough. In a scathing critique, Zelenskyy accused Germany of putting its economy before his country’s security, weakly enforcing sanctions, 

Zelenskyy pressed the Bundestag to not let a new wall divide Europe, urging support for his country’s membership of NATO and the European Union.

In a statement paralleling U.S. President Ronald Regan’s 1987 appeal to Mikhail Gorbachev, Zelenskyy implored, “Dear Mr Scholz, tear down this wall.”

Die Welt called it a “black day for [Olaf Scholz’s] coalition” and “a disgrace for parliament.”

In a rather unprecedented move, the usually neutral, secretive, and uninvolved Swiss have also changed their stance, freezing Russian assets in Swiss banks. Switzerland has announced 35 tons of humanitarian and medical aid that they will provide to Kiev. They have activated the S-Permit, which allows people to live and work in Switzerland for a year. Ukrainian refugees are otherwise permitted to stay for 90 days without a visa in the country and will be supplied with emergency aid, including clothes, and cash. Mere days after the initial invasion, Swiss transit networks announced anyone fleeing the conflict could travel free on long or short-distance trains, along with many other countries around Europe.

Switzerland has set aside $86 million as an act of solidarity with Ukraine. Three-quarters of these funds will go to the Red Cross, UN agencies, and international and local NGOs and projects implemented by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Ukraine. The last quarter will go toward helping refugees in neighboring countries of Ukraine. 

In the State of the Union address on March 1, U.S. President Joe Biden fondly noted that “even Switzerland” was holding Moscow accountable for the invasion. This statement was polarizing for right-leaning, neutrality seekers and left-leaning, hopefuls who want to aid Ukraine.

Poland declared that they would loan the country their entire fleet of Mig-29s, a type of aircraft that is mostly labeled with Russian instruments that are understood by Ukrainians pilots. The transaction would have led them through Rammstein Air Force base, which the U.S. government quickly denied them access to. This comes on the heels of Putin saying that any direct support could be seen as an act of war itself.

According to Reuters, Putin has accepted 16,000 foreign volunteer soldiers from middle-eastern countries to aid Russian forces on their invasion. Ukraine has done the same, however the number of available military personnel between both nations and the firepower differs greatly between the invading Russian forces and Ukrainians who are steadfast in defending their home. 

Many countries, such as Austria, prohibit its citizens from taking up arms in a foreign conflict. If any Austrian were to enlist with Ukrainian, or unfathomably Russian, forces, the Austrian government would rescind this person’s citizenship.

As a member of the EU, but not a member of NATO, Austria’s neutrality is challenged by the EU’s commitment of $500 million in weapons and aid packages to Ukraine. Austrian Chancellor Nehammer tweeted, “Austria was neutral, Austria is neutral, Austria will remain neutral,” bringing up the ethical question of whether being a member state in an organization that now supplies military equipment and other aid impacts the foundations of neutrality? 

A version of this post was released in the Hier & There podcast in the S4E13 “Language Learning and Grammar Journey” episode.