Tag: easter

Maundy Thursday

Helen Polishuk Leave a comment

On the eve of the great spring holiday of Easter, I congratulate you and your families on this important occasion.
I wish you purity of heart, spiritual balance, warmth and happiness for your families, and a good mood.
May the spirit of Easter renew your homes, cleanse them of all that is dark, dirty, and sad, and give you strength and spiritual richness.
At this time, we should all reflect on the eternal, looking at our feet.
Where are we going, with whom are we going, and what are we carrying?
As always, I am working on my paintings and expanding the circle of people familiar with my work, overcoming all the local traditional difficulties we all face in life, and breathing with optimism that everything changes, as do I and my mood.
Spring has struck me like a willow branch, painfully and sharply. She tries to change my plans, making her own. For example, I didn’t make it through the jury competition for several new major festivals in Toronto. And although I believed I would make it, failure hit me hard.
I know there’s interest in me and there will be fall sessions to get to know me, but all this must be endured.
However, my painting was selected for the 50th anniversary celebration of our Etobicoke Civic Centre, and I’m happy to be among Etobicoke’s best artists in a gallery in our district. I love our unique Etobicoke with its luxurious parks, squares, main streets, and shopping centers.

This painting is on display at an exhibition celebrating Etobicoke’s Civic Centre 50th anniversary.


With the morning birdsong, with life among nature thanks to the connections through most of the parks along the rivers. Coyotes, deer, birds, raccoons, foxes, and rabbits—everything comes and lives nearby. And high-rise skyscrapers are being built nearby.

This is why we value our region.
Yesterday, as an April Fool’s joke, the news outlets reported that starting this summer, clean air would be sold in downtown Toronto at a high price, and as a new initiative—in bags and at a discount.
Of course, this promotion is for us, but in Etobicoke, damn it, our air is clean.
Although we’ve had significant air pollution in recent years, too.
But I think raising gas prices will significantly reduce the number of cars on the streets and clean up the air.
I hope so.
Looking ahead, I’d like to believe that many interesting projects await me.
After all, I’ll tell you a secret, I’m once again moving away from traditional Ukrainian folklore toward creating large, fragmented paintings on canvas.
Last winter, I wanted to create structural, 3D paintings, but after creating one, I realized it wasn’t popular, wasn’t appreciated, and wasn’t accepted by the public. So, I’ve returned to 2017, when I was creating large paintings.
If I can and the weather cooperates, I’ll certainly do it in oils. Although, using mixed media is better.
You see, living conditions, terrain, and weather all influence the choice of what and how to paint.

You know, I’m a very open and sunny person.
But I’ve noticed that when I express myself in this way, others don’t always appreciate it. It’s the same with my paintings—creating bright, vibrant images doesn’t get me any encouragement. It clashes with the gloomy, rainy, and snowy surroundings.
Classicism and overcastness are what’s called for.
Walking through the galleries, I noticed that the more abstract, obscure, and washed-out the paintings, the better and more sustained.
Apparently, tone sets the mood.
The sun is shining more often now, which sets the tone for joy and optimism.

But every year, after a difficult and challenging winter, we clean our homes, tidy our houses, dust, throw away old clothes, and renew the soil around the trees in our gardens to make way for the new.
And that’s why Easter is so dear and important to us.
Especially to me.
Happy upcoming holidays to all of you and your families.

Easter is coming soon

Helen Polishuk

I wrote in previous posts that I like to celebrate Easter in Ukraine. It differs sharply in mood from celebrating it in other countries.
For those who do not know what Easter is, a short excursion into antiquity and history.

This majestic action is worth looking for even in pre-Christian times, when our ancestors celebrated the most important day of spring – Easter. Solemnly celebrating the victory of the spring season over the winter season, each family baked Easter cakes and dyed eggs, which later transformed into paska and krashenka, familiar to our ears.

Easter-a great day – and means the arrival of spring, the sun, all the best, the rebirth of nature. So, Great Day, in its fundamental principle, is the celebration of the resurrection of the earth and nature to a new life.

The word “Easter” comes from the name of the Old Testament holiday Pesach (from Hebrew – “transition”), which was celebrated by the Jews in memory of the liberation from Egyptian captivity. Therefore, for the Israelis, this holiday symbolizes the transition from slavery to freedom.

This is the transition from death to life, the liberation of us from the burden of sins, this is the transition of a person from the slavery of sin, evil to the freedom of love, goodness and associated with the person of Jesus Christ as the feast of the Resurrection of Christ.The date of Easter changes every year, but it is always calculated according to the same rule: it is the Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. According to the biblical scriptures, it was on this day that Jesus Christ resurrected after the execution.Today, the Easter holiday in Ukraine also symbolizes the general revival and renewal of the world. Indeed, in the memory of Ukrainians, many customs and rituals have been preserved, which are still carried out, but do not have a direct connection with Christianity.

It is impossible to imagine Ukrainian Easter without pysanky, whose unique ornaments and variety of colors fascinate the eye. Almost all peoples of the world revered the egg for a long time and became a symbol of life and birth, since it contains life as such.

All the symbols that were important for people in different periods and were considered amulets were written on the eggs: the sun, the moon, the stars, fire, water, earth, etc. Of course, in those days when people were just starting to make Easter eggs, they were not as perfect as they are today: they were elementary images of objects, phenomena, patterns, and over the years, painting Easter eggs has become an art.
In the Easter cycle of holidays, there are still Easter games, of which there are a huge number. During these games, young people built various towers, rode on a swing, danced round dances and rolled eggs. Some games were purely entertaining, others showed masculine strength and endurance, and most of the games had a courtship character. However, they all symbolized something in one way or another: for example, if someone managed to build a high tower, it meant that wheat would definitely give birth this year, it would be as tall as the tower. But by beating Easter eggs, people probably wanted to speed up the emergence of a new life, and young people measured who had a more beautiful and stronger Easter egg.


The last week before Easter called Holy Week and especially held every day.Tuesday clothes were chosen forcelebration of the holiday and cleaning og the house began,thought over whar dishes would be cooked and how much,prepared them.On Wednesday,a general cleaning of the house was started and continued on Thursday.On this day people bathed,washed and cooked Easter cakes and dyed eggs.Friday was called Good Friday,fasting was especially performed,a day with thoughts about God and the earthly sufferings of the son of God.
On Saturday evening,an all-night service began at which people took baskets of food .Sunday came with a prayer for coming of the holiday and families gathered at a common table/The fast ended.
Great Sunday symbolizes the cleansing of the soul and deliverance from sins.people celebrate it three days and the first day is dedicated to the family,the second to friends and the third to acquaintances.