P

PAC: Polish Art Center, a seller of pysanka supplies.  Located in downtown Hamtramck, MI, they also have a large on-line business.  They are a reseller and carry several lines of dyes and pysachky.

Pace egg: English term for a lystovka, a decorative egg made by attaching leaves or flowers to an egg, and then dyeing it.

Paraná: Brazilian state with a large ethnic Ukrainian community.  The Ukrainian diaspora in Brazil is the third largest in the western hemisphere, after the USA and Canada.

aska (паска): a sweet Ukrainian Easter bread, its blessing is an integral art of of the Easter celebration.  The word is sometimes used to refer to the Easter holiday itself, although the correct term is Paskha.

pecharka (печарка): a baked egg. Pecharky (plural) decompose more slowly and are less likely to leak than raw eggs. Pysanky are sometimes written on a baked egg, rather than a raw one, in the hope that they will last longer. Pronounced “peh-CHAR-kah” (all short vowels).

pererva (перева): break, interruption.  In pysankarstvo, this refers to a motif that looks like a hook-like protuberance from a line.  It is found only in pysanky from Bukovyna.

Perun (Перун):  the ancient Slavic god of lightning and war, and the main god of the Slavic pantheon.  His symbol was the oak, which carries his attributes: strength and power. To honor him, the Slavs burned fires of oak logs and branches. The Christian church replaced the cult of Perun with the cult of Saint Elijah (feast day: 2 August, or 20 July OS), to whom all of Perun's qualities were transferred

Pêssanka: Portuguese word for pysanka

phytomorphic: having the attributes of a plant.  Phytomorphic symbols are those shaped like plants, flowers, leaves, branches.

Pidliashia (Підляшшя): western Ukrainian ethnographic region, now a part of Poland.

pisanka: a Polish term, originally it meant the same as “pysanka” (i.e. a wax-resist egg) but, in recent years, has come to refer to any egg, real or artificial, decorated in any manner what-so-ever. It is pronounced “PEE-sahn-kah.”  The plural is pisanki (pee-san-KEE).

Podillia (Поділля): A historical-geographical upland region of southwestern Ukraine, consisting of the western part of the forest-steppe belt. Podillya is bounded in the southwest by the Dnister River.

Pokuttia (Покуття): an ethnographic region extending from the eastern foothills of the Carpathian mountains to the Dniester River. Although the historical centre of the area was Kolomyia, the name itself is derived from the name of the town of Kuty and literally means “by Kuty.”

Pokuttya (Покуття): variant spelling of Pokuttia.

Polissia (Полісся): northern forested region of Ukraine, it includes the Pripyat marshes.  Eastern Polissia is ethnographically separate, while western Polissia is usually included in with Volyn.

Provody (Проводи): the Slavs had a tradition of visiting family members' graves during the springtime and feasting together with them. After their conversion to Christianity, this custom was practiced on the Sunday after Easter, and called Pomynalna Nedilia or Provody.

pysachok (писачок): the most common currently used Ukrainian term for the instrument used to write linear batik style pysanky.  In English, a stylus.

pysak (писак): another Ukrainian term for a stylus, the instrument used to write pysanky.

pysal’tse (писальце): another Ukrainian term for a stylus, the instrument used to write pysanky.

pysanka (писанка): a Ukrainian term used to describe an egg decorated using the wax resist (batik) method.  It applies to eggs written either with a stylus, or using drop-pull (pinhead). The correct pronunciation is “PIH-sahn-kah”  with all short vowels. 

pysankarka (писанкарка): a woman who writes pysanky, pysanka artist.  In earlier times, pysankarstvo was part of the female domain, so the noun is a feminine one.  A male would be called a pysankar.  Pronounciation “pih-sahn-KAR-ka” (all short vowels).

pysankarstvo (писанкарство): the art/craft of writing pysanky. It is pronounced “pih-sahn-KAR-stvo”, with all short vowels.

pysanky (писанки): the plural of pysanka. It is not the name of the craft; the correct term for that is pysankarstvo.  It is pronounced “pih-sahn-KIH”, with all short vowels.  The term “pysanky” is not, never was, nor will it ever be correctly pronounced “pie-SAN-kee.”

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