R

raion (район): modern-day Ukrainian administrative division, equivalent to a county.

rakes:  ancient pysanka symbol, they are actually clouds with rain.  They are usually found in arrangements of four.  Also called combs (hay combs, not hair combs).

Rakhmany (Рахмани): according to legend, these are holy people who live in live in a far-off, mythical land.  At Easter, Ukrainians throw colored eggshells into rivers and streams so they may be carried to these lands, thus letting the Rakhmany know that Easter has come.  The name may derive from “brahmin,” the Indian priestly caste. 

ravlyk (равлик):  a snail.  This is the name often given to spiral ornaments on pysanky.

resheto (решето): a sieve.  This term is used to describe the cross-hatching commonly found on Hutsul and Bukovynian pysanky.

rhea: large flightless South American bird, known locally and the ñandu.  It produces large white eggs sometimes used in pysankarstvo.

roza (роза): a Ukrainian word for “rose,” taken from the Polish language, although it is also used to describe members of the hibiscus family.  The more correct Ukrainian word for rose is “troyanda.”

rozha (рожа): alternative name for the ruzha.

rushnyk (рушник): a Ukrainian ritual cloth, usually a long pice of linen with embroidery at either end.  These were used decoratively in the house (hung over windows, around icons), and during rituals and celebrations (weddings, holidays, etc.).  Sometimes seen as motifs on more modern pysanky.

Russification: a body of laws, decrees, and other actions undertaken by the Imperial Russian and later Soviet authorities to strengthen Russian national, political and linguistic positions in Ukraine and absorb Ukraine fully into Russia.  The Ukrainian language was banned and the government actively sought to eradicate it and destroy the idea of Ukrainian ethnic identity and nationhood.

Rusyn: an ancient term for Ukrainian, it derives from Rus’ (Русь), the medieval Ukrainian nation-state. This term was in common use through the early 1900s, and is still often used by the Lemkos.

ruzha (ружа): the eight-pointed star motif often found on Ukrainian folk pysanky. It is a sun symbol, and is named after the mallow flower.

ryl’tse (рильце): an term sometimes used for a stylus/pysachok.  The name appears to be that of a tool used in metal engraving that resembles a pysachok.

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