Start learning Ukrainian, improve your language skills and discover Ukrainian culture with Anna Ohoiko and the weekly Ukrainian Lessons Podcast episodes.
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Home > Ukrainian Easter Symbols and What They Mean
Ukrainian Easter Symbols and What They Mean
From decorated eggs to ancient spring dances — Ukrainian Easter traditions, running deep and worth knowing.
Milana Sribniak
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Ukrainian Easter symbols don’t include a bunny. What we have instead are traditions so old that some of them were already ancient when Christianity first arrived in Ukraine.
Decorated, ritual spring dances, games that go back further than anyone can trace — Ukrainian Easter symbols are many things at once.
And if there’s one image that captures Ukrainian Easter, it’s this: a wicker basket, lovingly packed with food, wrapped in РУШНИК (embroidered cloth), and carried to church on Holy Saturday night or Sunday morning to be blessed.
ВЕЛИКОДНІЙ КОШИК (Easter basket) and what goes inside it is anything but random. Every item has its place, its meaning, its story. Let’s unpack it!
Traditional Easter greetings in Ukrainian are completely different from our usual Добрий день. In this short article, you’ll find a way to greet your Ukrainian family and friends.
1.
Паска — paska
ПАСКА is the undisputed centerpiece of the Easter basket — a tall sweet bread, rich with eggs and butter, crowned with ГЛАЗУР (white icing) and decorated with sprinkles or sugar flowers.
The bread and the holiday almost share a name. Apart from ВЕЛИКДЕНЬ, the older Ukrainian word for Easter is ПАСХА; the bread is ПАСКА. One letter apart — which is why you’ll often hear Ukrainians use ПАСКА to mean the holiday itself.
For centuries, its baking was a serious undertaking. Traditional recipes called for an extraordinary number of egg yolks, butter, and ШАФРАН (saffron), which was an expensive spice. These weren’t everyday ingredients; they were saved for this one occasion.
Today, ПАСКИ are mass-produced, but plenty of families still bake their own at home every year — and if you’ve ever tried, you know it’s a labour that takes real skill and patience.
Want to see how ПАСКА is made? Watch this video with Ukrainian captions, and you might just be tempted to try it yourself!
These intricately decorated eggs are one of the most recognizable symbols of Ukrainian culture and one of the most popular souvenirs visitors bring home from Ukraine.
The art of ПИСАНКАРСТВО (egg decorating) is ancient, predating Christianity in Ukraine. The technique uses beeswax and dyes applied to a raw egg: wax is applied to the egg with a stylus, blocking the color underneath, layer by layer, until the full pattern is revealed.
Every color and symbol carries meaning. A few of the most common:
Colors:ЧЕРВОНИЙ — red (joy, love), ЖОВТИЙ — yellow (sun and harvest), ЗЕЛЕНИЙ — green (spring and hope), БІЛИЙ — white (purity), ЧОРНИЙ — black (eternity).
Symbols:РИБА — a fish (Christianity), МЕТЕЛИК — a butterfly (resurrection), ПІВЕНЬ — a rooster (fertility), ТРИКУТНИК — a triangle (the Holy Trinity), and many others.
And in Ukraine, we have an entire museum dedicated to ПИСАНКА in the western Ukrainian town of КОЛОМИЯ (Kolomyia). It is the only one of its kind in the world.
Watch this video to take a peek inside and see how a pysanka is made — Ukrainian captions included!
3.
Крашанка — krashanka
While the писанка is all about intricate patterns, КРАШАНКА keeps things simple: a boiled egg, dyed a single solid color.
The egg has always been a symbol of new life in Ukrainian tradition. Traditionally, they are dyed on the Thursday of Holy Week and then brought to church on Holy Saturday to be blessed.
Here are some natural ingredients to dye them:
onion skins for a warm red-brown;
beetroot juice for pink;
blueberries for pale blue;
turmeric for yellow.
And what about some authentic Ukrainian Easter traditions that are favorites of both children and adults? Let’s find out below!
4.
Навбитки — navbytky
Easter in Ukraine has never been just about church — there are games too.
One of the oldest is НАВБИТКИ (also known as БИТКИ or ЦОКАНЄ): an egg-cracking contest where two players tap their hard-boiled eggs together, first tip to tip, then blunt end to blunt end. Whoever’s egg survives intact wins — and takes the loser’s cracked egg as the prize.
Turns out competitive Easter egg cracking could bring out a certain creative dishonesty, as in the past, some players could fill their eggs with wax or cement to get an uncrackable edge.
The game is traditionally popular with children, but adults join in as well. Want to see what other games Ukrainian children play at Easter? Then we highly recommend this video.
5.
Гаївки — haiivky
These are traditional spring songs and dances performed outdoors after the Easter liturgy — ХОРОВОДИ (circles) of people (mostly girls) moving, singing, acting out little dramatic scenes about nature waking up, love, family life, the rhythms of the farming year.
ГАЇВКИ came in two main forms: circular dances, where participants moved in a ring, and chain dances, where the line wound and twisted through space. Each was essentially a miniature performance, part song, part theatre, part ritual.
The tradition is older than Christianity in Ukraine — many of them carry traces of ancient agricultural magic, prayers for a good harvest dressed up as a dance.
They really need to be seen and heard. Here’s a short video of a traditional celebration to give you a feel for it.
6.
Дзвіниця — dzvinytsia
And then there’s the one that sounds almost impossible. ДЗВІНИЦЯ (literally the bell tower), also known as БАШТА (tower) was a young men’s traditionwhere participants built a human pyramid: five or more on the bottom, then four, then three, then two.
But they didn’t just stand there. The whole structure would move, processing around the church, requiring incredible coordination and trust. It often marked the grand finale of ГАЇВКИ.
This tradition is linked to ancient solar and agricultural rituals — the pyramid reaching upward, the movement around a sacred space.
Watch the video with this impressive stunt from one of the Ukrainian villages!
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If this got you curious, there’s more where that came from. Check out these two Ukrainian Lessons Podcast episodes on ВЕЛИКДЕНЬ (Easter), complete with everything you need to understand every word:
