Eggs for Easter ready! (photos from the workshops on painting eggs, Gładyszów 2017)

For the commemoration of the Entrance of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem, one of the 12 main feasts of the liturgical year, according to the tradition, yesterday in churches willow was blessed, or other green branches and traditionally – the Ruska Bursa Association organized workshops on painting Easter eggs on the Palm Sunday. The eggs, apart from paskas, horseradish, butter, salt and other stuff, in less than a week will get to the Easter baskets. As the blessed food it will come back to the houses where the joy of the Resurrection of Christ will be shared. According to the Lemko tradition, for good luck until the following Easter, the whole farm has to be rung around three times with the basket. Before we get to the ringing around, we need to prepare the eggs, and not only.

There is a method of decorating Easter eggs characteristic for Lemko culture called batkania. This is about putting a hot wax on an egg with an idle, then the egg needs to be coloured. And this was the technique used yesterday by the participants of the meeting in Gładyszów. This year, contrary to the previous ones, for the invitation of the village administrator, Mirosław Pełechacz, the workshops, organized in Ruska Bursa in Gorlice so far, took place in the village centre in Gładyszów. More than 100 eggs were painted, different patterns. The participants were mainly Gładyszów inhabitants, from juniors to seniors, as well as the inhabitants of neighbouring villages. Also, people interested in Lemko Easter eggs form Gorlice and Jasło came. They promised to be there the following year.