Miscellaneous
Fact-checked

At WiseGEEK, we're committed to delivering accurate, trustworthy information. Our expert-authored content is rigorously fact-checked and sourced from credible authorities. Discover how we uphold the highest standards in providing you with reliable knowledge.

Learn more...

What is an Easter Egg Hunt?

Carol Francois
Carol Francois

An Easter egg hunt is an event held on Easter Sunday each year. Decorated, hard boiled eggs, chocolate or plastic eggs filled with candy are hidden overnight. Children are given colorfully decorated baskets the next morning and allowed to hunt for these eggs. The person who collects the most eggs wins.

Decorating and eating Easter eggs is an old Christian tradition. In the period of Lent, 40 days before Easter, no eggs are eaten. On Easter Sunday, to celebrate the end of lent and the beginning of spring, eggs are a featured item.

Hardboiled eggs may be used for an Easter egg hunt.
Hardboiled eggs may be used for an Easter egg hunt.

The Easter egg hunt is a combination of Christian and spring celebrations and is popular in North America. Depending your location and the weather, the eggs are hidden in the house or outside. It is very common to use chocolate or plastic eggs in the place of hard boiled chicken eggs. The context of the event is that the eggs have been hidden by a mischievous Easter bunny for good children to find.

An Easter egg hunt is an event that consists of the hiding and finding of colored Easter eggs.
An Easter egg hunt is an event that consists of the hiding and finding of colored Easter eggs.

Easter egg hunts vary widely in size and complexity, ranging from a small celebration to the annual Easter egg roll on the White House front lawn. Easter egg hunts are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, with multiple attempts to break the record each year. In April 2007, Cypress Gardens theme park in Winter Haven, Florida hit 510,000 candy filled eggs on the grounds as 9,700 people participated in an Easter egg hunt. The entire event tool months to plan and less than an hour to complete.

The White House hosts an Easter egg-rolling contest every year on Easter Monday.
The White House hosts an Easter egg-rolling contest every year on Easter Monday.

In order to allow visually impaired children to participate in this tradition, beeping Easter eggs were created. These eggs make a repetitive noise or play a short melody so that the child can locate Easter eggs independently. These types of eggs are also very popular for Easter egg hunts for children with disabilities.

To organize an Easter egg hunt, coordinate with friends and family who have small children. Determine the ideal location for the Easter egg hunt. Purchase chocolate and plastic eggs, as well as chicken eggs. The Saturday before Easter Sunday, hard boil the eggs and encourage the children to decorate them. Provide bowls with food coloring and water baths so they can dye their eggs.

Dyes are typically used to color eggs that are hidden for Easter egg hunts.
Dyes are typically used to color eggs that are hidden for Easter egg hunts.

During the night or early morning, hide all the eggs so that they are not in plain sight. Ensure that you keep track of how many eggs you started with and where you put them so that they can be located later if the children don't find them all. When the children are ready for the hunt, provide each child with a decorated basket and let them hunt.

Discussion Comments

Agni3

We just love Easter egg hunts around my house, but it seems like everybody holds several a year now. We actually couldn’t make it to all that we were invited to! My daughter’s pre-K class held one for them. We went. Our church held a Easter egg hunt and game night the Wednesday before Easter. We went.

My parent’s church invited us to their's on that Saturday, as well as our town’s community hunt. We did not make either of those because the kids had fevers. Not to worry, though, because on Easter day they had another hunt at our house and their grandmother’s house! That’s a lot of Easter egg hunting, folks!

blackDagger

It really is super important to keep up with the Easter eggs that are hidden. I remember the year that we lost one of the eggs. I was just a kid then, and we searched high and low for this one egg. And during that time we didn’t use plastic eggs like we are prone to do today.

We did find that hard boiled egg…eventually. A few days later, a strange and pretty bad smell was just pouring off of my granddad’s truck. The reason we couldn’t find this egg was that it had rolled somehow and gotten lodged where you couldn’t see it at all. That’s okay – that smell tipped us off pretty well! We all remember that as the great Easter egg hunt that went on for days!

Post your comments
Login:
Forgot password?
Register:
    • Hardboiled eggs may be used for an Easter egg hunt.
      By: aoates
      Hardboiled eggs may be used for an Easter egg hunt.
    • An Easter egg hunt is an event that consists of the hiding and finding of colored Easter eggs.
      By: Tomashko
      An Easter egg hunt is an event that consists of the hiding and finding of colored Easter eggs.
    • The White House hosts an Easter egg-rolling contest every year on Easter Monday.
      By: jiawangkun
      The White House hosts an Easter egg-rolling contest every year on Easter Monday.
    • Dyes are typically used to color eggs that are hidden for Easter egg hunts.
      By: Diana Vyshniakova
      Dyes are typically used to color eggs that are hidden for Easter egg hunts.
    • Every egg that a person finds during an Easter egg hunt can be stored in their Easter basket.
      By: svetamart
      Every egg that a person finds during an Easter egg hunt can be stored in their Easter basket.