I have to admit the traditional American Easter celebration with bunnies, egg hunts and such still feels new to me. As much as I grew up with both the U.S. and Salvadoran traditions, in El Salvador Easter week was Semana Santa; and that meant a week of beach and religious celebrations.

This is honestly the first year we’ve gone all out with a visit from the Easter bunny, an egg hunt and, claro, learning how to make cascarones (confetti Easter eggs)! My girl is so privy now of the celebration because of all the input from preschool and she came home last week asking why the Bunny had never visited her house. So this year, it visited.

She also had a blast dyeing eggs, filling them with confetti and smashing them over our heads. I truly love making cascarones because at least I feel the eggs serve some type of purpose. I really have no idea what you’re supposed to do with a batch of hard-boiled, beautifully colored eggs once their use is over? Please enlighten me!

In any case, we’ve had a blast adopting this “new” tradition for our bicultural family and my girl can expect many more years of Easter bunny visits, baskets with chocolate and fun cascarones action.

Speaking of cascarones, last year Roxana wrote a post about her first time making cascaroneswith her kids and taught us how to do them. Well, that post was found by an Associated Press reporter, she interviewed Roxana and wrote a story titled “Cascarones: Latin American tradition of confetti-filled eggs expands in US” which ended up in publications such as the Washington Post and the Houston Chronicle! Now, how’s that for keeping our traditions alive?

Check out more beautiful cascarones by fellow Latina mom bloggers:

Two Good Eggs: Confetti Easter Eggs|Cascarones para Pascua {How to}

Muy Bueno Cookbook: How To Make Cascarones

Mamá Latina Tips: How To Make Cascarones: Confetti-Filled Eggs

Growing up Blackxican (on SpanglishBaby): Amiguitos Conejitos: Cascarones With a Modern Twist

Share: What is your favorite Easter/Pascua tradition?

Truth be told, I didn’t know much about cascarones before. I’d been wanting to do something special with my daughter for Easter (Pascua), so when I heard of cascarones, I decided I’d check them out. While I must report that I’ve absolutely no skills when it comes to arts & crafts, these seemed completely doable even for an inept like myself.

I liked the concept behind the cascarones and I figured it’d be super fun for both Vanessa and Santiago. It’s funny how one of the great things about growing up Latina in the United States is that you have an unique  opportunity to adopt the traditions of Latin American countries other than your own. Even though we are not Mexican, I think we’re definitely adopting this fun tradition!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO MAKE CASCARONES

• A dozen eggs
• Food coloring kits to dye the eggs
• Glitter pens, stickers, jewelry, etc to decorate eggs
• Confetti
• Egg stands
• Tissue paper

SIMPLE STEPS TO MAKE CASCARONES

The first thing you need to do is make a small whole on top of each egg so you can take out the yolk and the white. The idea is to make the whole no bigger than a dime, but mine turned out more like a quarter. Oh, well! Eggs are super fragile so you have to be extremely careful. (I did this part by myself — and my husband used what I took out to make scrambled eggs for breakfast — because I think it would’ve been a disaster with Vanessa as a helper).

After letting the empty egg shells dry, you just dye them with food coloring the same way you would with regular Easter eggs.

I was a bit overwhelmed with all the different options available at Walmart to decorate Easter eggs. We bought the regular food coloring one, another one with some paint rollers so Vanessa could paint the egg shells however she wanted and one with glitter… or course!

Once we were done decorating all our eggs, we left them alone for a while so they could dry. It is particularly important to let not only the paint dry, but also the inside of the egg so the confetti doesn’t stick to the bottom.

Once the eggs are all dried up (we took them outside and let the sun help speed up the process a bit), fill each egg with a few teaspoons full of confetti. My daughter loved doing this part and her little brother was fascinated by the whole process!

Once you’ve filled up all the eggs with confetti, they’re ready to be covered up. Put glue around the hole and then take a small piece of tissue paper (we only had white so I asked my daughter to color some pieces with markers) and attach it to the top of the egg to cover the hole.

Then comes the fun part! The idea is to hide the cascarones like you would any other Easter eggs. According to tradition, when a kid finds a cascarón, he is supposed to run up to a friend and squish the egg on top of his head.

While Santiago was not too happy once he realized what was happening, the good thing — as I explained to my daughter — is that a confetti shower is supposed to bring good luck. It was hard for Vanessa to understand that one, so I just told her good things were going to happen to all of us! She loved it!

Have you ever made cascarones? What do you tell your children about them?

***Photography by José A. Guzmán

Disclosure: We received a gift card and compensation as part of the Walmart Moms program to facilitate this post. As always, all stories and opinions are our own.