Ukraine is the country most associated with the tradition of pysanky Easter eggs.
Pysanky are a distinctive Ukrainian form of decorated egg made with a wax-resist, or batik, technique. Artisans apply hot beeswax to an eggshell, dip it into dye, add more wax, and repeat the process with progressively darker colors. Removing the wax exposes the layered pattern.
The practice developed across Ukrainian ethnographic regions, with villages and families preserving their own combinations of motifs, colors, and meanings. Designs can include stars, crosses, plants, animals, and geometric divisions. Traditionally, pysanky were made during Lent or Holy Week, blessed at Easter, exchanged as gifts, and kept in homes as symbols of protection, fertility, prosperity, or new life.
Belarus, Poland, Russia, and other Central and Eastern European cultures also have wax-decorated eggs and related names. Polish pisanki are especially easy to confuse with Ukrainian pysanky, but the word pysanky and the international cultural association are strongly linked to Ukraine.