PAAS: A Colorful Tradition

Although I have two young children, I try to stay far away from too many "fun", messy, home projects due to the clean up that has to ensue shortly after. However, as I stood in the checkout line at the supermarket I noticed a stack of PAAS egg-dyeing kits. Without thinking about what a yucky scene it would make, I grabbed the box because how could I not. Then a woman next to me in line asked me to pass her one and explained that her children were now, all in their twenties but she bought a PAAS egg-dyeing kit every year because to her it wasn't Easter unless she had a PAAS kit.

In the 1800s, Williams Townley, a pharmacist from Newark, NJ, stumbled upon an egg-dyeing recipe among other home products that he developed at the time. His neighbors loved that dye and purchased the first dye tablets for five cents a pack. The magic recipe was not the tablets themselves but the addition of white vinegar which made the five colors pop. With this great idea and demand, Mr. Townley started the PAAS egg-dyeing company. PAAS comes from the Pennsylvanian Dutch word for Easter, which is "Passen".

125 years after PAAS was invented, a few fun features have been added to heighten the enjoyment of the tradition. In the traditional kit, there is an egg holder for eight, egg dipper, six colored tablets (denim, red, teal, yellow, purple and orange), Easter stickers, and a few egg-a-rounds. Specialty kits include a bunch of creative ideas for egg decorating.

Decorating activities include "coloring, painting, drawing, stickering, stamping, striping, wrapping, beading, glittering and shrink-wrapping". There is a glow-in-the-dark kit that has fluorescent-like paints and stickers for a nighttime experience that children are sure to love. "Egg-A-Rounds" are little slipcovers for eggs that make the eggs not only look very decorative but very cute too. New to the paints, dyes and stickers are popular brand named kits such as Barbieâ for girls. This kit includes the standard dyeing effects with a little extra girly component. You can also give your eggs a personality with "Egg Heads" which is a kit that includes hats and faces. The "Tye-Dye" egg-dyeing kit is another great way to give eggs a great, unique look. Then you can "EGGspress Yourself" with the stickers that can be created from your own computer to personalize your eggs?

Every Easter, over 180 million eggs will be dyed with PAAS egg-dyeing kit. Easter Egg hunts all over the world will be in full swing on Easter weekend with stickered, glittered, slip covered, glow-in-the-dark eggs hidden in crevices in the house and about the yard. We could all have fun anyway but why not have some good old PAAS fun.