Barylka

White chicken egg; yellow, red and black chemical dyes; electric kistka.

Barrel style designs have a wide ornamented belt around the waist of the egg, and are usually decorated with the rozha (rose - symbolizing Christ’s mother Mary.) The net pattern, here rendered in pale yellow and white, is an example of how pre-Christian symbols were adapted when Christianity reached the Ukraine. The net, formerly associated with water and the mother goddess, developed a new meaning as a reference to Christ’s invitation to the apostles to become “fishers of men.”
 

© 2002 The Fletcher School, Tufts University