Easter's coming. Get ready to wish your friends luck by breaking cascarones — colored and decorated eggs filled with confetti — over their heads.
It's an old Mexican and Southwestern tradition that probably originated in Italy, or maybe Austria or France.
It's said that Carlotta, whose husband, Maximilian, briefly reigned as emperor of Mexico, brought the custom of elaborately decorated eggs to the New World. Except those eggs were filled with perfume, usually given to a lady by a gentleman, and were not meant to be broken.
You can make your own cascarones, beginning with (carefully) emptying the eggs of their yolk and albumen, rinsing and letting them dry out. When dry, dye or paint.
Then, using a funnel fashioned from a rolled piece of paper, fill each with confetti or wild-bird seed. Glue a small square of tissue paper over the hole.
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And there you have the basic "how-to" advice on making cascarones for Easter. It's a great art project to do with the kids.
You can attach each cascaron to a narrow, cone-shaped wand made of rolled-up heavy paper and decorated with crepe paper, or just pile the plain filled eggs in a basket.
Just remind the kids that wishing friends or family luck — by breaking a confetti egg on that person's head — is best done outside.
Linda Velazquez contributed to this story.
Fun as it is to make cascarones, emptying and cleaning the eggs takes a fair amount of time.
The filling and decorating don't take as long, says Graciela Tineo, manager of Marymar, 4764 S. Sixth Ave., a party-supply store that stocks piñatas, Mexican candies, tables and chairs, and jumping castles. "About five minutes per egg," she said — if you have all the materials ready.
If your schedule is too busy for the process, you don't have to do without, however.
Marymar sells cascarones — $1.75 for plain ones, $2.50 for costumed eggs.
You can also buy cascarones at Nataly, 3553 S. 12th Ave., another party-supply store specializing in piñatas, tables and chairs, Mexican candies and party-favor bags, jumping castles and balloons.
Cascarones at Nataly, not as elaborately decorated, cost 99 cents each.
No time left? You can buy cascarones
