Easter/Traditions

**Easter traditions** are ways that people celebrate Easter each year. Some of the most common Easter traditions include egg rolling, Easter eggs, Easter egg hunts, etc. Every Easter tradition has its origin and has always been a time of celebration and feasting. Below are a list of all the well-known traditions for Easter.

## Egg Rolling

**Egg Rolling** (also known as pace egging) has been one of the common Easter traditions, since at least the 19th century. It is mostly a children's game, but has some religious meaning, too. Decorated hard-boiled eggs are rolled down a grassy hill and the winner is whose egg rolls down the furthest with the least amount of cracks. A lot of children paint their eggs before rolling them and egg rolling is usually played on Easter Monday.

## Easter Egg Hunt

This is one of the most common Easter games. An **Easter egg hunt** involves a person hiding decorated or chocolate eggs and children finding them, usually in the garden. Easter egg hunts originated from Germany and goes back to the late 16th century. As society changed, Easter egg hunts became more popular in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Easter Egg hunts symbolise new life and the Easter Bunny or the Easter Hare. Easter egg hunts are commonly held on a Saturday, the day before, or a week or two before Easter, on an open lawn, with parts separated into age ranges so that younger children are not deprived by larger children. When the hunt is over, awards may be earned for the most eggs collected, the most eggs of a certain colour, consolation prizes, and so on.

## Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny is a symbol of Easter and is the bunny that hides and brings eggs to children. Like Easter eggs, the Easter Bunny also symbolises new life. It can be known as the Easter Hare, but is more commonly referred to as the Easter Bunny. It is believed that the Easter Bunny first arrived in America, in the 18th century, with German settlers introducing their tradition of an egg-laying hare known as "Osterhase" or "Oschter Haws" to Pennsylvania. Their children built nests for this creature to lay its colourful eggs in. The Easter morning deliveries of the fabled bunny eventually grew to include cookies and other forms of candy and presents, and the tradition spread throughout the United States.

## Easter Basket

An Easter Basket is a type of basket, mostly used for collecting Easter eggs on an Easter egg hunt. Easter baskets are usually made out of sprigs of boxwood (bukszpan) and are traditionally lined with white linen. Easter baskets can contain food, sweets, chocolate eggs, gifts, etc. Easter baskets usually contain items that are special in one's culture.

## Egg Tapping

**Egg tapping** is a traditional Easter game, which involves a player attempting to break an opponent's hard-boiled egg without causing damage to his or her own. It can also be called egg fighting, egg knocking, egg picking, egg, chucking, etc. The game starts when each individual chooses one egg from a jar. Several players hit their eggs against each other in a knock-out tournament, first bottom-to-bottom, then top-to-top until the bottoms are split. A player is disqualified when his or her egg is broken on both sides.

## Cascarones

A cascarone is an empty egg shell that has been filled with paper confetti and sealed with a piece of colourful tissue paper. A cascarone was named after the Spanish word for shell: "cáscara." and are typically used around Easter and Carnaval time. Cascarones are brightly coloured and used for decoration.

## Easter eggs

An Easter egg (also known as a paschal egg) is a kind of Easter gift. Chocolate Easter eggs are available, as well as colourful decorated Easter eggs. In general, eggs represent Jesus' empty tomb, from which he arose. The egg has long been associated with pagan spring celebrations, since it is an ancient symbol of new life.

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