POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL - April 12, 2003
Polish Pisanki in the Nation's Capital
By Robert Strybel

ORCHARD LAKE, Mich. - For two months, hundreds of Polish-style Easter eggs will be on display at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. The man behind the exhibition is Niagara Falls, N.Y. native, Rev. Czeslaw Krysa. A theology professor at SS. Cyril & Methodius Seminary here, he is believed to be America's foremost authority on Polish Easter traditions, including the folk craft of egg-writing and the food-blessing custom.
Father Krysa is probably the first person in history to have written a doctoral dissertation on the subject of "Swiecone," Polish blessed Easter fare. He received his Ph. D. at the Vatican's Pontifical Liturgical Institute after defending a thesis entitled: "The Easter Meal in Polish Tradition: A Cultural, Textual and Pastoral Analysis."
The exhibition entitled "Faith and Culture: The Art of Egg-writing in Poland" runs from March 5 to May 4 of this year. In addition to admiring this unique collection of "Pisanki" (Easter eggs), visitors to Washington will be able to meet Father Krysa in person on March 29-30. On those two consecutive days, he will be presenting a special slide show highlighting Polish Holy Week customs and the family Easter meal.
Not only an expert on the art of pisanki-making, Father Czeslaw is a master egg-writer in his own right. He himself has created 80 percent of his private collection of some 2,000 "written-eggs" - a passion he inherited from his ancestors in Poland. The Polish American theologian has received the Polish government's highest ethnographic distinction, the Oskar Kolberg Prize, in recognition of his commitment to this unique folk art.

The Orchard Lake-based priest has received more than one apprenticeship from the Michigan State University's Traditional Arts Program to pass his egg-decorating art down to others. This year his apprentice is Susan Kret of Wyandotte, Mich., a Detroit suburb. In 1983, Father Krysa had received a similar apprenticeship grant from the N. Y. State Council on the Arts.

"There are funds available in most states for people who practice ethnic folk crafts and are interested in teaching them to others," Father Krysa told the reporter. "Any Polish American who does pisanki, wycinanki, Polish embroidery, woodworking, pottery or other traditional crafts would do well to look into the availability of grants to promote these fast-disappearing grass-roots art forms."

But more than an art or craft, to Father Krysa Polish traditions have a meaningful spiritual dimension. "Most Polish Americans bless and share eggs as symbols of Christ rising from the tomb," he explained. "For us they have more to do with Jesus, than the Easter bunny!"

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