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Ukrainian Eggs “With this egg, I give you love.”
When Betty was ten years old, she asked her mother
Ever since then, Betty loved to make pysanky because it’s a way to honor her Ukrainian heritage, just like her parents wanted her to do. When Betty decorates eggs, she’s carrying on a long family tradition that started in Ukraine.
Betty’s great-great grandmother made colored eggs to welcome the spring and show she was grateful for surviving the cold winter. Betty’s mom brought this tradition with her when she moved to Wisconsin from Ukraine. Betty learned it and kept the tradition going for many years. Betty taught all her grandchildren to make After many years of making beautiful eggs, Betty was recognized as a master artist of pysanky. In 1996, she received a National Heritage Fellowship, which means that Betty is considered a national treasure!
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Young Betty Pisio sat in St. Michael’s Catholic Church on Easter
morning. She wanted to get home to find her Easter treats. She thought of how she and her brothers and sisters would run out to the barn, climb up to the loft and hunt in the hay for hand-woven
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So then Betty traveled to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada to meet her
relatives and learn how to make pysanky. Her cousins introduced her to an Orthodox priest who taught her about the decorated eggs. He explained that each color has a special meaning, and he
drew all the traditional symbols, explaining each of their meanings. Soon enough, Betty was making the eggs her mother had told her about.
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