The Egg Game…
When I was a child, my parents took us on a holiday to Lanzarote. We were staying with their German friends in their holiday home at Easter time. It was a revelation to me, when on Easter morning we arrived downstairs and the table was decorated with all manner of Easter styled chocolates & flowers, in the centre of the table was a huge bowl of rich shinny brightly coloured real boiled eggs. They had been dyed in boiling water & then polished with bacon fat! To my nearly ten year old mind this was chocolate heaven. I have never particularly liked sweet things as I have told in my story, clink the link below…
But I was partial to the odd Easter egg, the smarties one, although I once had my entire chocolate Easter egg collection given to me by the family for a whole year & a bit without any of the sweet confectionery ever being touched or taken out of its packaging . I do however love eggs, boiled eggs are my favourite, I still have two boiled eggs for breakfast every morning & on special occasions smoked salmon & fried eggs with mushrooms. So this table setting with its beautiful centre piece was right up my street!
You may have a heart of gold - But so does an egg!
On this bright sunny morning in Lanzarote our genial host also introduced us to the new game of an Easter Egg hunt … Childhood bliss, even if the chocolate was a tad on the melted side due to the hot early morning sun. We charged around the garden & collected all the chocolate that had been hidden - In plain sight!… Once this was completed, we entered the house for breakfast …
The table was laden with the normal German fare; beautiful sliced hams & cheeses were on offer, crisp toasts & orange juice all served with scrambled eggs & sweet smelling pickles & jars of what looked like to me small cucumbers which I now know to be called Gherkins! Having consumed our fill, our host introduced us to the egg game. We each chose a couple of eggs from the bowl, turned to the person sat next to us & took it in turns to smash the other persons egg with our egg! There seemed to be no particular rules you just kept picking up an egg & smashing it against the other persons egg? This amused our hosts no end & I enjoyed the strange game too…
Whatever the reason for this behaviour it left an indelible print on me.
The next Easter at home and for every Easter after that, we have played The Egg Game. However I developed my own version of this extraordinary game, & made some rudimentary rules, which you can find below.
My children have grown up with this tradition, we still do it now, & it takes president over the Easter Egg hunt! They have over the years enjoy decorating the eggs, if not cracking a few on the way & trying to choose the winner!
But I warn you!! It does get very competitive…
It is a bit of fun & if you are lucky …
You can enjoy egg sandwiches, later!
You can buy egg dyes on line …
Eggs ready to be decorated …
