On this page I have links which I find useful and/or interesting, but don’t really fit in any of the other categories.

WEB-BASED RESOURCES:

First of all, there are four invaluable resources that everyone should know about and use––the Ukrainian Weekly archive, the on-line version of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, the on-line Ukrainian-English dictionary, and Wikipedia.

1. 1.The Ukrainian Weekly has been published since 1932, and has recently digitized its archives and made them available on line for free.  It is a great resource; not only can you read articles about the history of the Ukrainian community in North America, and news from Ukraine, but you can find numerous essays about Ukrainian ethnography and traditions, many by Orysia Paszczak Tracz.
   An interesting article about Shevchenko and pysanky can be found here, in the html version of the archive.  There are two versions of the archives––a more limited, html version, and a complete DjVu version.  To access the latter, you need to install a free DjVu reader (follow the links on the archives site).
   There are lots of interesting articles about Ukrainian Easter and pysanky in the archives, so it’s worth doing a search (and installing the reader).
   

2. 2.Have a question about something Ukrainian?  Try the Encyclopedia of Ukraine.  It is not as extensive as the print version (only 17% has been digitized to date), but it is an incredibly valuable resource.  The articles are scholarly and complete.  The print version, although fantastic, is quite expensive, so it is wonderful that CIUS has made this work available to everyone in this manner.
   

3. 3.I have several Ukrainian-English dictionaries, but none of them are as up to date or extensive as the one provided by CyberMova for free here.  Having it always at my fingertips is invaluable (especially when working on this site, reading Ukrainian texts, or translating.) There is also an English-Ukrainian version available here.  (While I appreciate its convenience, there are many good, recently printed E-U dictionaries available; the same is not true of U-E dictionaries, which generally date back to the 50s and 60s.)
   

4. 4.Google now offers translation services on line.  You can use Google Translate either as a dictionary, by typing in (or copy-pasting in) foreign words, or as a translator, by pasting in urls or blocks of text.  It does not produce high quality translations, but will allow you, in most cases, to get the gist of what is written. 
   

5. 5.Wikipedia is a wonder.  It has a huge amount of information on just about any subject you can imagine.  The articles on Christian holidays, saints and traditions are quite good, and have extensive information about the Eastern church. I have learned a lot about these subjects while writing material for this site. It also has an OK article about pysanky (which I need to work on).  The Ukrainian version of Wikipedia is generally quite good; you can find it here.
   
   
   

UKRAINIAN EASTER TRADITIONS: 

You can read all about Ukrainian Easter traditions on the Brama site, and find many articles in the Ukrainian Weekly Archives.  There are now lots of Ukrainian ethnographic sites providing information about traditional holiday celebrations, but you need to know Ukrainian to access them:

        УКРОП: many articles and hahilky; Voropay excerpted extensively

        Українські Традиції:  Ukrainian traditions, including songs, demonology and other topics

        Великдень у Карпатах:  Easter traditions of the Carpathians

        Гаївки і Риндзівки:  Spring songs, pagan and christian

STAMPS: 

Plast, a Ukrainian scouting organization, created a series of 45 pysanka stamps in the 1960s.  They were based on traditional patterns.  A good history of the stamps, as well as large photos of them can be found here. Photos of the individual stamps, with translation, can be found here as well as here, on my site. (This is a good source of simple traditional patterns.)  There is a fascinating article about them on the Ukrainian Weekly site, but you’ll have to search the archives.

Ukraine issued a block of postage stamps with pysanky on them in 2000, and a pre-stamped envelope in 2001. Both show authentic traditional pysanky.  You can see them here or here.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

A good bibliography of books and articles about pysanky, in English and Ukrainian, can be found here, at the UCNS library.

TRYPILLIAN CULTURE:

If you’re interested in learning more about he Trypillians, you can visit the e-museum here.

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