I was chatting with Cambria today, and talking about the stuff my family does for Easter. We laughed so hard . . . and I promised I’d post pictures here. I don’t think she believed all of it, to tell y’all the truth! I guess if I hadn’t grown up with all of these traditions, I’d doubt me, too!
We’ve been going to the same uncle’s house for a Good Friday Fish Fry since, oh, before forever. No matter where we lived (always in Texas), we’d go back home for Easter. Since Mom and Dad both grew up in the same town, the whole weekend was always a whirl of family visits, tons of delicious food, and lots of fun. So, after church, we walk over to my uncle’s and CHOW DOWN! Fried fish and shrimp, tartar sauce, cole slaw, french fries, onion rings, hush puppies (Cami, I can’t believe you don’t have those, either!), salads of all kinds, and oooh, the desserts! Everyone sits outside and enjoys the food and friendly company, and the party goes on well into the night.
Early on Easter Sunday morning, a bunch of my uncles and cousins get together at the farm my dad grew up at, and start the BBQ pits. Once again, tons of food is prepared (notice the theme we have goin’ on?), and everyone shows up. Lunch is an amazing affair, and it’s consumed under the biggest Live Oak tree on the property. There are plenty of picnic tables and lots of much needed shade. It’s our family tradition for all the kids to eat first, and then the men, and then the women. Dad’s one of 12, so you can imagine why that came about!
All of the kids run off to play baseball in the big open fields, or a game of horseshoes, poker, or even dominoes. Once the adults finish eating, the kids are rounded up, and eggs (many of them stuffed with cash!) are hidden by the older cousins. In the past, eggs have been hidden under cow patties (dry!), in the skulls used for roping practice, stuck in knot holes and the “v” of trees, even under ball caps and cowboy hats.
And after all of that excitement, the eggs are emptied and put aside for the next big egg hunt. It never fails. . . after this, people start drifting towards their cars. They come back with cardboard or styrofoam egg cartons much like this.
Check ’em out, Cami: Real eggs. Hollowed out, filled with confetti, and topped with tissue paper.
Here’s what’s inside in a nice, controlled environment:
And what do you do with them? SMASH them on the nearest head! My cousins will WRESTLE each other down, shove the eggs down pants, and chase you all over the place to get you! I am a fan of the large confetti pictured above. There’s a lady in our hometown who uses fine glitter and super fine tissue paper (hand cut!) instead of confetti. That stuff is in your scalp and body folds for what seems like forever! Especially if you’ve been sweating. . .
(By the way, this is in my backyard. I don’t dare have my camera out when my cousins come out with the cascarones for fear of getting it smashed. They’re brutal!)
Here I am, circa sometime in the 70s:
If you want to know more about cascarones (confetti eggs), check out this link on the PBS site that explains how to make them, and a little bit of history.
What kind of Easter traditions do you have in YOUR family?
35 Comments
OMG… I SO want to be mexican! Dang Jenn… that is SO cool. I think I am sheltered…. what do you think? I need to come to TX and eat with ya all. I totally want these eggs…. do you know how much fun my boys would have smashing eggs on each other? Do you think your family will adopt me?
So… you don’t hard boil the eggs right? I seriously want to come to your house for Easter!
Thanks for the shotgun call! I totally miss laughing with you! Your phone call made my day!
Love ya babe,
~C
OMG… look at you! You are SO cute! Man….. I’ve been jipped at Easter! I’m gonna have a talk with my parents! 🙂
I feel like I have been under that tree. All the times you talked about it. What a wonderful way to spend Easter.
Those eggs were definitely something I didn’t know before I moved to Texas. The kids love them though.
We don’t have any special Easter tradition like that.
Thanks for sharing, Jenn. Hmm… who says one has to be Mexican or that it’s too late to start a tradition? I see some serious potential for those eggs!! Hey – why even limit it to Easter? I’m sure we could think of some other excuse – er, I mean celebration – for them. Like when friends visit in the summer… Maybe I should keep an eye out for some pink confetti???
Jenn ~ I know that you *know* how blessed you are to have these traditions. That makes it all the sweeter. I love your photos and explanations! What an incredibly awesome family! Gosh, your whole family just ROCKS!
What a wonderful story and what an amazing time you have. Our Easter egg hunt looks so staid in comparison, lol. But over here in the UK we have the most enormous chocolate easter eggs, they are the size of your head and as a child you get 5 or 6, you eat them and feel incredibly sick for the rest of the day! 🙂
Thank you for the wonderful stories and I so love that pic/scrap page of you! What a cutie!
Oh, thank you for sharing that. That was really cool to read about your family traditions and then see the neat pics to go with it! How cool!
Awesome family traditions Jenn! Oh, you told the story so well. Those will be memories that will live on forever. Thanks for sharing!
What fun traditions, Jenn! Thanks for sharing!
That sounds like so much fun!
We really didn’t have any traditions, so to say, in my family growing up for Easter.
But in Don’s family they have an Egg Roll tradition. It kinda died the past two years because of family moving away, but I’m hopefull that it will only be a minor lapse in the event.
Each person has a hard boiled egg, and you decorate by simply drawing a face on it. You make the face intimidating, scowling, frowning, etc. After the faces are drawn, my MIL busts out the competition list.
You are then paired up with the sibling closest to your age and you await your turn. When it’s your turn to go, you count to three then roll your eggs at each other so that they collide. After the collision there is the inspection of the eggs to determine the winner of the round.
The winner is the one with the least amount of damage. It then continues by having the winners of each round pair up for another round until there is one person left.
The second place winner is determined from the loosers pairing up and competing against each other. By the end, we have some pretty messed up eggs. The children’s are typically the first to get really smashed up because they roll the egg as hard as they can.
Hopefully next year nobody will be returning home from vacations or leaving for trips so we can do this again. It’s really funny how competitive my BILs get over rolling eggs at each other!
Happy Easter, Jenn!!
That is such a beautiful tradition! We maybe have Easter egg hunts and food and family, but nothing like your tradition! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
That is so cute! I never knew the name of them, but they are very popular in El Paso. 🙂
How fun this sounds! Thanks for sharing your pictures! We may be building snowmen this year! 😉
Jenn–You have quite a rich heritage and you give it a beautiful voice. Your scrapbook journaling must be quite something!
I didn’t have many Easter traditions growing up, but one I took for granted until I moved this past August was going to church on Good Friday. Amazing to me as a newcomer to the “Bible belt”, I couldn’t find a Protestant church in our area that has an observance, so this year our family started our own! We read the account of Jesus’ betrayal, trial, and crucifixion and said prayers of thanksgiving for what was done for us by Him.
My husband’s mother and my only son had their own tradition of coloring eggs, and this is the first year since he was 18 months old that they haven’t done it! So, I’m subbing in for Grams.
Revel in the fabulous wealth you have, Jenn! With family like that, you are truly, deeply, mightily blessed.
Oh my goodness! We do the confetti eggs, too! I’m from AZ! Aren’t they fun?! One year my browther went after my sis with an egg and she just kinda let him knowing she couldn’t avoid it. Well, he tricked her with a full yolk egg! Boy, was she ticked! LOL!
I hate hate living away from my family. In Hawaii, families are always looking for reasons to get together. “OH the baby got an “A” on her test, we should have a party!” That is totally my dad. So Easter is another reason. But my best memories are when my parents use to hide our baskets some place. My baby brother and I look for eggs that hold clues to it’s location. The hunt was always the fun! I miss my baby brother!..Okay tear tear..thanks for the reminder Jenn..
Happy Easter!
Wow – it was fun reading about all that tradition!! We don’t have any big special thing like that.
What an unbelievable environment to get to enjoy as a family! You are so blessed! Can we come too??
Wow! That’s really interesting, Jenn, TFS all the information! My kids at school were telling me about those confetti eggs and I was clueless. I’m going to check out that PBS link. Hope y’all have a great time!
Wow! Your Easter traditions are awesome…tons of family fun! My Dad is one of 12 also, the oldest.
My family traditions are the standard basket from the Easter Bunny, egg hunts and lots of delicious food at my parents house.
Happy Easter!
Jenn, Thanks for sharing your Easter traditions. It sounds really awesome and fun!! Love the pics!!
Wow, wow, wow!!!!! I love those confetti eggs….reallllllllly, how stinkin’ fun is that??????? I’m learning to speak Spanish and I can say y’all (thanks to the in-laws). Do you think that could get me a ticket to your family shindig?
Wonderful tradition and super cute pic, Balcer. TFS!
Love ya Jenn… Happy Easter! I didn’t get any of these eggs made, but I was thinkig about you today! I’m sure you had a wonderful time with your family! I smashed a hard boiled one on my head in your honor. 🙂 It was pink.
Later girlie,
~C
How FUN! I’ve never heard of that tradition either, but what a fun time it must be!
Hi Jenn! We are also in Texas and every year we go to a family friends ranch close to Centerville. As you may have guessed it actually snowed this year!!!! My girls had never seen snow like that before and made thier first snowballs and had thier first snowball fight! We always have a game of Survivor with obstacle courses, eating something yucky and solving a puzzle. The winning team gets a medal. Everyone enjoys hot dogs, salads, beans, and an abundance of desserts. I always make chocolate covered strawberries which are a huge hit. There is fishing and 4 wheeling. It is a lot of fun and my girls look forward to it every year! Happy Easter to all!
Angie
Love your story and the great pic’s Jenn! What a wonderful tradition you have. Those eggs and your family gatherings look like so much fun!
Wow…I’m not Mexican but I grew up in Southwest Louisiana and other than the confetti eggs, we had the same kind of traditions. Big Good Friday celebration….fried catfish and hush puppies…followed by a huge gathering for Easter. I no longer live near my family but Easter is always the holiday that makes me miss them the most.
Hey Girlie Jenn ..Are you alright ? I miss you on your blog .. Hint hint !! Hope your Easter was Great and cant wait to see your next blog project ~( are you picking up what I am laying down GF ?) wink wink !!
xoox
Dawn Griffith
Oh JENN! That is just AWESOME! Simply awesome – I told Todd that I am going to Texas next spring to see the bluebonnets. But I may just stick around for Easter – will ya have room for me and the crew? LOL
Wow! That looks like fun! I’ll have to suggest that for our Easter next year, just as long as it isn’t in my yard!
These are so much fun. I couldn’t believe it, but my mom found the confetti eggs premade in the store. So you know we had more than the usual share this year. Thanks for sharing a bit of your family with us.
Charmaine G
So fun! sounds like you have a great time on Easter weekend.
I LOVE YOU JENN BALCER!! My kids LOVED those eggs! You are SO sweet to EXPRESS them to me! OMG… okay, my kids are are officially hispanic now… right? Does this mean we are adopted into your wonderful family? I’m saving to cartons for next Easter! THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!
omgosh I LOVED LOVED LOVED doing those in Mexico!! Man I will have to make some next year for sure!