Coloring Easter eggs usually is followed by peeling and eating the hard-boiled contents. Tasty, but not exactly fun. What if, instead, you and your friends ran around the yard and smashed colored eggs over one another’s heads? Egg-cellent, right?
OK, the eggs aren’t hard-boiled; they’re filled with confetti. Known as cascarones, they have a long history. They may date to Marco Polo’s travels to China in the 14th century. The idea spread to Mexico in the 19th century and more recently to the American Southwest.
At traditional cascarones parties, the eggs are hidden. Once found, they are crushed over the heads of partygoers. Getting an egg broken over your head is supposed to mean good luck. It also means confetti pieces in your hair, a small price to pay for the added Easter egg-citement.
Materials
• Sturdy pin or a pointed-tip bottle or can opener.
• 12 uncooked eggs in their carton (or more, if desired).
• Bowl.
• Toothpick.
• Straw.
• Bleach.
• Something to color the eggs (dye, marker pens and watercolors work best).
• Multicolored paper confetti
• Small funnel (optional).
• White glue.
• Colored tissue paper, cut into 1-inch-square blocks (1 or 2 for each egg).
Steps
With a pin or pointed can opener, poke a tiny hole in one end of an egg. (You might need a parent’s help to do this.) Hold the egg over a bowl. Then poke a hole about the size of a dime in the other end. Insert the toothpick partway into the larger hole, and break the yolk. Cover the tiny hole with a straw, and blow until all of the egg’s contents fall through the big hole into the bowl.
