Easter Egg Hunt 2010

By this time, I suppose the kids (well, the bigger ones) have the idea that the Holy Week somehow starts with Palm Sunday and ends on the Easter Sunday.

Growing up, it actually took me a while to realize that! There was even a time when I thought Ash Wednesday was in the middle of the Holy Week!

But did you know there's a link between Palm Sunday and Ash Wednesday? This year's leftover palm fronds will be kept and burned next year. The ash from the burning will be used for next year's Ash Wednesday.

As in the past, we bought "palaspas" (palm fronds) before going to church. It is the second year now that DH bought two fronds. It may be because our dog, Poochie, was able to get a hold of one the last time and tear it up into shreds.

After the mass, it has been a tradition for parishioners to march to the altar while shaking (not waving as I thought the Bible mentions it) the fronds. The priest then sprinkles holy water to the parishioners (or is it the fronds?).

The common belief of the many churchgoers is that the fronds, after being blessed, become some sort of amulets to ward off lightning. So many of the churchgoers hang these near windows and doors.

Once, in a different church we attended, the priest was hesitant in giving the blessing after the mass. He argued that they give the blessing before the mass, not after.

What the parishioners did was to shake their fronds even more vigorously, as if demanding the priest to reconsider. Sometimes I suspect that not a few parishioners go to Easter mass just to have the palm fronds blessed.

In this year's Egg Hunt, everyone was for him/herself. No teams were formed as it was deemed Renz was big enough. So there was no "Survivor"-style tribes this year. It was more like "The Merge" in Survivor tradition.

Unlike last year's Easter egg hunt where we had it at the backyard, we had the game this year at the front garden. We had it after the sun has gone down.

Forty quail eggs were up for hunt. To collect eggs, Che used a "tabo" (dipper), Karen used a small basket, Sandra used a hat, and Renz used the open end of a Pluto hand puppet.

In the end though, Che got the most number of eggs at 16, although Sandra nabbed the bonus chicken egg. Rather than peel and eat them immediately, it was decided to make "kwek-kwek" eggs out of them.

Here are the last few remaining "kwek-kwek" eggs from the original forty.

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