I have always thought of cascarones as a poor person’s ingenious improvement of a foreign tradition. I grew up making and breaking Easter cascarones.
It is an Easter custom similar to the Easter egg hunt but as far as I know, it is strictly a South Texas custom. I personally did not encounter it in California or New Mexico or Mexico. I didn’t even encounter it in North Texas although I understand it is slowly migrating north.
When I was little, my mom saved eggshells all year. We did not waste precious good eggs on egg hunts. So we ate the eggs and saved the shells all year long. The shell are better when they are dry. I’ve tried to hurry the process by using a warm oven but it did not work very well and sometimes baked them enough to give them a toasty color. I save the shells from this year for next year.
The week before Easter, we
children would color the eggs. Again, food coloring was for rich folks. We would use our crayons and very carefully draw designs or color the eggs. We would then fill them with confetti we made by cutting the Sunday comics and the colored grocery ads into tiny pieces. Finally, we covered the hole with small pieces of tissue paper and paste (either from school or flour and water). On our Easter picnic, we would divide the eggs and then chase each other trying to crack the eggs on the other kids while dodging the egg attacks.
It was lots of fun but it was a mess, biodegradable but still a mess mom did not want at home. So it was a real bummer when Easter was rainy … that also ruined the outdoor sunrise service or made it very uncomfortable, but that’s a different story.
Nowadays, they sell cascarones at the grocery store in South Texas. A couple of years ago, HEB was selling them for 99 cents a dozen. And I, I still save the egg shells but I use Easter egg dye kits and either buy the confetti or make it with the shredder. My daughter has added her own twist ... the Easter egg hunt element. Since no one likes boiled eggs, she hides the cascarones and the grandkids kids search for them before the chasing fun begins. The kids still have great fun both when they are helping me make the cascarones and when they are chasing each other.
A man who always had to analyze and justify things said said it was a great way to get out your aggressions, better than a pillow fight. For me and my kids and grandkids and friends, it’s just plain fun.
Traditions change and adapt. Do you have fun traditions you are passing down through the generations?