[Sca-cooks] Pysanky Eggs

[jehan.yves]

Kiri-san,
Teofilia tried to send this to you directly, but we got a bounce message 
back, so I decided to send it here:

>Date: Sun, 05 Jun 2005 22:17:09 -0400
>To: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net
>From: Nancy Karat-May <Nancy.May at signofthetiger.com>
>Subject: Pysanky eggs
>
>Heard you were looking for documentation for Pysanky eggs.
>"POLISH CUSTOMS, TRADITIONS, & FOLKLORE " BY Sophie Hodorowicz Knab , 
>Hippocrene Books, New York, revised edition , 1996
>page 100 "Pisanki were batik style eggs on which wax was carefully 
>supplied in patterns with a stylus before they were placed in colored 
>dyes.  Other styles were known as Oklejane and Naleplanki, when the 
>outside of the egg was decorated with a variety of materials such as 
>colored paper or straw.
>Their origin can also be attributed to the early mystery plays, which 
>began in Italy and spread slowly throughout Europe, and were especially 
>popular in Poland during the time of Zygmunt III (1566-1632) "
>page 105 "As a symbol of fertility, the egg played a critical role in 
>almost all customs and traditions throughout the year.  Up until the 
>middle 1800,s the elaborately decorated and ornamental eggs called Pisanki 
>served as gifts in the Polish wooing and courtship process."
>Page 107"The oldest written knowledge of Pisanki at the grave side was 
>documented in the life of St. Hedwig, which was penned after her 
>canonization in 1267.  The many miraculous healings attributed to this 
>saint were documented by the wife of King Henryk Brodaty. who told the 
>following story:  When the son of a prominent judge was still unable to 
>walk at  eight years of age, his mother brought the boy to the grave of 
>St. Hedwig in her arms and was praying to St. Hedwig to heal him when, 
>lo!, a miracle happened.  In the presence of the priest who baptized him 
>and the abbess of the monastery,  the boy suddenly; stood up, took an egg 
>that lay before him and walked around the saint's grave.  The abbess took 
>other decorated eggs and threw them at the feet of the young boy, 
>compelling him to walk further from the tomb.  This miracle is said to 
>have happened  near Easter between 1274 and 1287."
>
>Author Rev. Czestaw Krysa, who is Associate Professor at the SS.Cyril and 
>Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan, is an authority on Polish 
>folklore and winner of the Oskar Kolberg award for 1991, Poland's most 
>prized award in ethnography and folklore.
>Teofilia Karatkiewicz (Nancy Karat-May)

JehanYves