Tamara Konczal holds a tray of eggs decorated in the art of Pisanki. Sofia Aldinio/Staff Photographer
Children and adults gathered at St. Louis Church in Portland on the last full day of winter to prepare for a rite of spring – learning the intricately delicate, traditional Polish method of decorating Easter eggs known as “pisanki.”
“Pisanki” which means “to write” in Polish, is a tradition in Poland, Ukraine and other Eastern European countries that dates back more than 1,000 years. Archaeologists have found remains of decorated pisanki eggs in medieval cities.
Tamara Konczal of Scarborough, a parishioner at St. Louis, Maine’s only Polish Catholic Church, brought the tradition to life Sunday for a class of youngsters, and then another of adults.
Konczal confessed she is not Polish. “I’m an Aroostook girl. My husband is Polish.” But she’s in love with Poland and Polish culture. “It’s a big part of my life.”
Eggs are decorated by Ryan Kaneche, 7, and Ania Slawiec, 8, at St. Louis Church in Portland during a workshop Sunday. Sofia Aldinio/Staff Photographer
She first showed off eggs that she and her son had decorated, and as the class began, she described how to follow suit.
The technique uses real eggs, but they’re fragile. The decorated eggs can last for years, she said, as long as they are not broken.
On a long table in the church hall, students each sat with a plate of beeswax, a candle and a tool called a kitsky, which has a small cup on one end and a spike on the other. Each student took a raw egg, heated the kitsky over a candle flame, then scraped beeswax into the tiny cup. Soon the wax was liquified and the students were ready to draw.
The process is repetitive. Because the kitsky holds just a small amount of wax, the students had to continually scrape in more, then liquify it over the candle to draw a bit more before repeating the process.
Every year, Tamara Konczal hand paints eggs in the Polish tradition of pisanki. At left, she holds a tray of eggs from previous years. At right, Vivienne Vo, 8, decorates eggs Sunday during a workshop at St. Louis Church. Sofia Aldinio/Staff Photographer
It takes about an hour, sometimes more, to complete one egg, Konczal said. “This takes patience.”
Students began to draw designs on their eggs with the wax before dipping them in colored dyes. Colors included poppy red, hot pink, sunflower yellow, blue, purple and emerald green. In Polish culture, the colors have meaning. White represents purity, red signifies love, pink represents success. Green is for wealth, blue for strength and health, and black symbolizes the dead.
The eggs were removed from the jars of dye, and students continued to draw with the beeswax before dipping them in a different color dye. Some eggs were dipped three to six times.
In Konczal’s workshop, students worked on a traditional Polish Easter egg pattern that features a cross, lines that resemble flowers, and curves that represent ram horns and eternity.
The pattern looked intimidating, but she guided students with step-by-step diagrams, starting with what she called “guide dots.” Then lines and curves were added and finally colored in, all between dips.
Tamara Konczal holds a hand-painted egg. Sofia Aldinio/Staff Photographer
One of the last steps was the “wax burn off.” Carefully, Konczal held the egg near enough to the candle flame until the black wax dripped away. She wiped off the liquified wax to reveal a beautiful pattern of different colors.
The last step, after about an hour of work on the raw egg, was to blow the inside of the egg out.
“It’s the scary part,” Konczal said. “You can have it break on you. If it breaks, you say goodbye and realize that life is indeed fragile. It’s a spiritual lesson,” she said with a smile.
She used a spoon to tap small holes at the top and bottom of an egg. She then gently blew through one end and the yoke and white dripped into a bowl, leaving the decorated egg as light as a feather.
The Polish egg was finished.
The eggs are made not just for Easter day, “they’re for the Easter season.” Traditionally, the eggs are made during the weeks of Lent, which this year is from Ash Wednesday on Feb, 23 until Holy Thursday on April 6.
Konczal said making the eggs “is an embodiment of our faith.”
After working for an hour, Jakub Slawiec, 14, of Waterboro, was happy with his egg.
So was Maria Maiaroto of Portland. “This was easier than I had anticipated,” she said. “I really enjoyed the diagrams at the beginning. It made it easier.”
Beth-Anne Kanecke of Portland, whose children also attended the workshop, said her family is of Polish descent. “I love that we’re continuing and passing the culture down to the next generation.”
Victoria White of Saco watched her grandchild, Natalie White, 7, learn the tradition. She said her parents were born in Ukraine. “I spoke Ukrainian until I went to school at five.”
Growing up, her family decorated eggs the traditional way. “My uncle was an artist. He made incredible eggs.” She’s talked about the tradition with her grandchildren, explaining what all the symbols mean.
“I remember my mother talking about making beautiful eggs, then (we would) exchange the eggs with other people after Easter Mass,” White said. The special eggs would be given “to your best friend or some particular boy or girl you wanted to impress.”
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