The most common designs found on pysanky are those associated with plants and their parts (branches, leaves, flowers and fruit). In the past, the women who wrote pysanky–pysankarky–drew their inspiration from the world of nature, depicting flowers, trees, fruits, leaves and whole plants in a highly stylized fashion.

Such ornaments symbolized the rebirth of nature after winter, and thus life, growth, strength and renewal.  Some specific symbols had additional meanings.

These traditional symbols can often be found on modern pysanky.

Back to MAIN My Pysanky page

Back to MAIN Modern Pysanky page