Posted by I am a Greek Catholic Byzantine on April 28, 2001 at 14:01:32:
In Reply to: Re: Pysanky posted by Peter on April 27, 2001 at 11:25:49:
What are you talking about, Greeks? In my church they have always taught us that we are Byzantines. My great grandparents come from Carptahian Mountains of Austria Hungary and were Greek Catholics (Byzantine), but not Greeks.
We make pisanky, just like the Slovaks. I think our country today is Slovakia. There are Byzantine settlements in the mountains in the northeast.
We don't go to a Ukrainian church (we are Byzantines) because like baba said they are nationalistic and we are more religious.
But we sing "Kristos voskrese" too??
: Ukrainian pysanky decorating dates back to pre-Christian times. In fact, pysanky originally were not connected with Christianity at all because their origin predates the arrival of Christianity in Ukraine in 988. It's only then that they began to be associated with Easter. Therefore, it's correct to state that pysanky are an ancient pre-Christian Ukrainian art form. As for icons, they definately are a form of Christian art, adopted from the Byzantine Greeks.