World record was set at Ukrainian Easter Egg Festival in Kyiv

As part of the Ukrainian Pysanka (Easter Egg) Festival, which started today in Kyiv, a world record was set for the most massive Easter Egg decoration effort by artists from different regions of Ukraine.

This was announced by the Director General of the Book of World Records, Hanna Krysiuk, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

To set the record, 530 participants decorated 800 Easter eggs within five hours.

"The record is symbolic of the work of those who managed to gather in one location and share their talents with others for free and popularize this tradition celebrating our identity among children, the community, and the world," Krysiuk said, stressing that Easter traditions unite the nation.

The Ukrainian Easter egg festival, hosted by the UNIT.CITY innovation park, is designed to support the element of the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage "Ukrainian Easter Egg: Tradition and Art",

The event was opened by Minister of Culture and Information Policy Rostyslav Karandeiev and co-organizer of the festival, co-founder of the Institute of Culture of Ukraine NGO, Maryna Sobotiuk.

"This year, we filed a proposal to add Pysankas to UNESCO's World List of Intangible Cultural Heritage elements, and based on this initiative, we launched the festival," Karandeiev said.

According to the minister, First Lady Olena Zelenska volunteered to participate in the spread of pysanka traditions around the world. In particular, she will popularize the Ukrainian Easter Egg during international events.

Karandeiev noted that the Festival of Ukrainian Easter Eggs brought together more than 50 decorators, while several hundred visitors attended master classes.

In addition to the presentation of Easter Eggs from different regions of Ukraine, the event includes a charity auction from show biz celebrities, as well as a master class from an acclaimed chef Yevhen Klopotenko "How to assemble an Easter basket".

"We were hoping there would be no airstrikes or missile strikes that would lead to the cancellation of the event. But nothing happened, and we are happy about it, because the ultimate goal is to hand over these Easter Eggs to our soldiers on the front lines. After all, the Pysanka, like the traditional towel and vyshyvanka embroidered shirts, is our heritage and our totem," Sabotiuk said.

She emphasized that every line and symbol on the Easter Egg carries a meaning. That is why, since Cossack times, wives and mothers gave their husbands and sons an Easter Egg as a charm.

"In the same way, they embroider a towel or a shirt that protects a soldier during war," added the co-organizer of the festival.

The event was attended by Estonian Ambassador Annely Kolk, who, together with the Ukrainian side, drew up a dossier and submitted a proposal to UNESCO to recognize the Easter Egg as an element of World Cultural Heritage. After all, the art of decorating Easter Eggs is also developed Estonia, as well as in Ukraine.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Lviv’s Museum of Dignity, together with the families of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred, held a campaign to decorate the Memorial with Easter Eggs ahead of Easter.