Cascarones or confetti eggs are festive, hollow chicken egg shells, filled with confetti, meant to be thrown or broken over some one's head (usually as a surprise from behind), scattering confetti all over the person. This tradition is most often carried out among friends and family. Cascarones derived from Mexico and have recently regained popularity in the southwestern United States. They are used for many different occasions but, especially Easter. Having one broken over your head is said to bring good luck.
I've been making cascarones around Easter time since as long as I can remember. It was just part of what we did...for months ahead of time, we'd be careful and crack just the tops of the eggs when cooking with them, then rinse the shells out, let them dry, put them in a cartoon and then on top of the fridge for safe keeping. The Saturday before Easter, we'd sit down and either dye or color the egg shells with crayons. The coloring was for the older kids...at least 4 or 5 because the shells were so delicate. Then we'd stuff them with confetti, rub a little bit of paste (made with flour and water) around the edge of the hole and then top with colorful tissue paper.
On Easter morning, we found that the Easter bunny had hidden the cascarones outside! We all ran around with our baskets to grab as many as possible. Then it all broke loose when all the cousins and friends would hit each other over the head with the cascarones and confetti would fly through the air! We LOVED sneaking up on the adults, who sitting around the bbq with a beer in hand, and smashing their heads as well. Now that I look back, we probably weren't as stealthy as we thought we were :)
This year, Mia and I saved, dyed and stuffed egg shells. Our first family cascarones on Easter were postponed until the late afternoon because it rained all morning....after she found them all outside, we smashed them on daddy's head...we each got some confetti ..even Niles and lil Lily got a little sprinkle of confetti, too :) Daddy and Mia were all sweet crushing the eggs in their hands and then sprinkling the confetti on each other's head....um, I guess I'm a little old school and crashed them right on their noggins...Mia said, 'Mama, you play too hard...be gentle'. So I did :) Happy Easter!
