I can’t write a post about coloring Easter Eggs without writing about the Easter Egg Bust. This is where it’s at people!! I mean, what else are you supposed to do with a dozen eggs (each)?!
Since most people outside of my little Santa Clara radius have never heard of an Egg Bust, here’s how it works.
On Easter Morning, we (meaning several families here in Santa Clara, most of which are related) meet on the corner by the church. You bring your eggs with you. (And your cameras). ;o)
You grab one of your eggs and go find anyone with an egg (which is usually everyone, so you just go walk up to someone to start busting with). One person holds their egg in their hand and tells the other person if the pointy end or the round end is up. The other person takes their egg, matching the same end, and taps on that person’s egg. One of the eggs will crack. Then you switch. The one who did the tapping, now holds their opposite end of the egg in their hand. The other person taps that end with their matching end. If you break both ends of the egg, you get to keep it. If each of you bust one end, then you tap unbroken ends until one has both ends broken and the winner gets to keep the egg.
Here’s the short video of how this works.
In some cases, you will have what is intelligently termed as a “one ender.” Some of the most fierce competitions come from people who have “one ender’s” dueling it out to see who wins. There have been some years when a “one ender” has won over 20 eggs.
Those people are accused of cheating in some way– feeding the chickens rocks (my cousins have chickens and use their eggs instead of store bought ones), putting shellac on them, boiling them extra long, etc. It’s all in good fun.
In the end, you still come home with a LOT of broken eggs. You will eat egg salad sandwiches, potato salad, and deviled eggs for a week or more.
Here’s a picture of my little cousin’s haul last year. Those shells on the lid are proof that he ate one of those cracked eggs for breakfast while at the bust. ;o)
And just a tip here, while the red root eggs are a pretty color, the onion shell eggs have good flavor. Read here if you missed the whole story about coloring Easter Eggs.
One of the best parts of the Easter Egg Bust is that kids of all ages can do this. As you could see in the video, my teenager was having as much fun as his younger cousin. The two year olds can bust with their grandmas and grandpas– and in some cases, the GREAT grandma’s and grandpa’s. (We are long life-d bunch here in Santa Clara. My Grandma will be 96 in May.) The video below is of my granddaughter, age 2 and her cousin, age 3. They’re brand new at this– my granddaughter’s first year of being able to do it– so it’s fun to see them learn and how cute they are with each other. The video is in two parts because we got stopped part way through the bust to put a shoe on. ;o)
I love watching all ages just having fun with each other. I also love that some distant cousins that you don’t see as often will show up. My kids get to meet distant relatives. But best of all, we keep a dying tradition alive.
Even some of these kids that serve missions for our church and are gone for two years, will boil eggs and teach their companions how to have an Egg Bust. It’s so much fun!
So if you’ve been wondering what to do with all those eggs you’ve colored, now you know how to have some fun with them!