Cascarones Color San Antonio Fiesta Events

Each April San Antonio puts on its hometown party of the year, San Antonio Fiesta. San Antonio Fiesta was started 118 years ago to remember the heroes of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto. Year after year the celebration grows as more and more people participate and enjoy San Antonio.

Today the San Antonio Fiesta events have expanded into 11days of music, fun, food and celebrating the people and cultures that make up San Antonio. Though primarily a Hispanic culture, San Antonio has many other groups who have settled in the city and celebrate during the Fiesta season.

San Antonio Fiesta is characterized by fun, food, family and celebration all in the name of raising funds for a large number of community charities. One of the unique parts of the Fiesta is the presence of cascarones.

Cascarones More Than Just Easter Eggs
Cascarones are chicken eggs decorated in a variety of ways. Some are simply dyed with a single color while others become much more elaborate creations. Cascarones have been decorated like flowers, people's heads, some have landscapes or other elaborate artwork painted on them.

The egg decorating of cascarones is a blending of many customs and traditions. But cascarones are not the usual hard-boiled eggs used for many egg decorating customs. The yolk and white of the egg have been drained or blown out. After emptying the eggshell is cleaned, dried and then decorated.

The Origin Of Cascarones
But what's so special about cascarones? They are not just decorated eggshells. The inside of each cascarone has been filled with a special treat. Following a custom thought to have started in Italy, the first cascarones were filled with perfume. Men would throw the hollow eggs at young women they thought attractive. It is thought the wife of Emperor Maximillian brought the custom from Europe to Mexico during her husband's rule in the mid-1800's.

The cascarones you'll find today at Antonio Fiesta events are filled with confetti instead of perfume. If you have a chance during Fiesta drop by some of the local museums such as the Witte and the San Antonio Museum of Art. Some very elaborately decorated cascarones are kept in the San Antonio Fiesta collections of the local museums. The less elaborate cascarones don't end up in the museum collections but are carried by people to the different San Antonio Fiesta events.

What Do You Do With A Cascarone?
The fun comes when a cascarone is broken over a person's head. The confetti showers the person. The confetti is said to spill good luck and fortune over the person receiving the confetti shower.

Cascarones Also Bring Good Luck And Fortune To Community Groups
Many families, clubs, churches and schools make and sell the cascarones as a fund raising event before and during the San Antonio Fiesta events. The cascarones can be purchased at many places throughout the city of San Antonio including the Fiesta store.

You will see people coming with their egg cartons filled with cascarones to the various San Antonio Fiesta events. During the Fiesta especially the evening programs you will see many confetti showered people walking around enjoying the fun, food and partying. After all it is San Antonio Fiesta- the time to have good luck, good fortune and a good time!