What is "pysanka"

n. (context Canada English) A hand-decorated Ukrainian Easter egg with intricate designs.

A pysanka (, plural: pysanky) is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated with traditional Ukrainian folk designs using a wax-resist ( batik) method. The word pysanka comes from the verb pysaty, "to write", as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax.

Many other eastern European ethnic groups decorate eggs using wax resist for Easter. These include the Belarusians (пісанка, pisanka), Bulgarians (писано яйце, pisano yaytse), Croats ( pisanica), Czechs (kraslice), Hungarians (hímestojás), Lithuanians (margutis), Poles ( pisanka), Romanians (ouă vopsite, incondeiate or impistrite), Serbs (pisanica), Slovaks (kraslica), Slovenes (pisanica, pirhi or remenke) and Sorbs (jejka pisać).