📋 Tender Overview
The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine has added the tradition of creating the Boykiw pysanka with a pin to the National List of Elements of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukraine.
Boykiv Easter egg is not just decorating an egg. This is a whole world of symbols, rituals and beliefs. Each line, each color on the Easter egg carries a deep meaning related to nature, space and human life.
The tradition exists in the places of compact residence of the Boiks, in particular in the cities of Turka and Sambir, as well as in some villages of the Sambir district of the Lviv region and some villages of the Zakarpattia region. Abroad are: Israel, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Belgium and Poland.
Traditionally, Easter eggs were written by women and girls on the eve of Easter. Craftswomen, creating Easter eggs with a pin (a needle, a sharpened wooden stick, later a sharpened match), transmit knowledge about the world structure from generation to generation, and also consolidate family traditions. The women boasted: "They baked Easter eggs, churned butter, waxed Easter eggs, everything was prepared for Easter." And about the fighting girls, the people said this: "What a girl, such a Easter egg."
Pysanka is a charm, a symbol of fertility and rebirth of life. Its creation is a whole ritual accompanied by prayers and special conditions. Every detail of the ornament, which is more than 100 varieties, had a special meaning. Many signs on the Boyko Easter eggs correspond to ideas about nature, the universe, the sun, the moon and the stars, as an idea of ??the world structure, spirals or "curves" as a symbol of the interconnection and repetition of life, the interconnection between different generations, the changeability of the annual cycle.
Color is also important: red - the joy of life, yellow and orange - a symbol of natural luminaries, green - the awakening of nature, brown - the roots of the family, mother earth, white - purity of thoughts and actions, dark and black - respect for souls.
Today, the Boyki pysanka is not only a symbol of Ukrainian culture, but also a means of preserving the Boyki identity. It is thanks to the intangible cultural heritage that the community survived and preserved its traditions. The process of creating Easter eggs also serves as a kind of psychological therapy, a means of relaxation and pacification, helps to restore the mental state of people who are currently suffering from the war.
