The time for Easter amusement is during the week which follows Easter
Day, and it would be a pretty idea at such a season to give a short
tableau entertainment in connection with music and games, the tableaux
indicating the superstitions of various countries.
When the tableau is shown, announce what it is intended to represent;
for example, in Russia the Easter festival might almost be termed the
“kissing festival,” for beginning with the Emperor, who on Easter Day
kisses various generals and even privates in his army, the singular
contagion spreads throughout the empire, apparently affecting both
aristocrat and plebeian.
_Tableau._—A boy representing the Russian Emperor kissing a member of
the army.
In the olden days of France it was the custom for a Christian to give a
Jew an Easter box.
_Tableau._—Two boys, one representing the Christian; the other, the
Jew. The Christian must be in the act of boxing the Jew’s ear.
Follow this with the France of to-day.
_Tableau._—An interior of a church, extravagantly trimmed with flowers,
and brilliant with lighted candles. It should be crowded with boys and
girls, mothers and fathers, all in brand-new clothes.
Show Spain as a dark-haired girl, with a mantilla over her head,
kneeling in a church before a mammoth candle—the Paschal candle, nine
feet long. In order to make it seem taller, stand it on a marble
pedestal.
Rome, with a procession of gayly attired children, and a boy
representing the Pope, in the most elegant of robes, carried in a
crimson chair, over which is a canopy. This chair must be preceded by
two boys, each carrying white ostrich-feather fans.
Germany, with a group of dancing girls and boys, the girls wearing
small, close-fitting white caps, full white aprons over dark
gold-braided skirts and white sleeves; the boys with knee-breeches,
white stockings, showy vests and gold buttons. Or show a hare running
from a nest filled with colored eggs, before which two little children
kneel. The nest should be placed under a bush, and one of the children
should wear a laughing face, for she holds up an egg.
England, with a crowd of boys and girls returning from Hampton Court,
Kew Gardens, or Stoke Pogis with their arms literally filled with
willow-boughs and branches of blossoms—yellow, pink, and white—with
which they will decorate the church for Easter Sunday.
Switzerland, with a band of musicians carrying guitars, and going from
house to house singing some sweet carol, their hats and caps wreathed
with flowers.
A very pretty way to amuse children of all ages is to hide eggs in the
grass or under bushes, and then have an egg-hunt. All eggs found may,
of course, be carried home. Give five minutes for the hunt, and it will
prove great sport for lookers-on also.
For another game, raise a tent decorated with flags, cheese-cloth
streamers, or ribbons. Opposite the tent in which the guests are to
be seated, and ten feet distant, is a post or tree on which to put
a prize. At the base of the post put a basket of thin china eggs or
glass balls, and also one at the tent door, only fill this basket with
excelsior. The game is to find the person that will throw the largest
number of eggs from one of the baskets into the other and not break
them. Whoever wins is rewarded by the prize.
For little children, form a ring, and pitch to the centre of the ring
a hard-boiled egg, and let them scramble for it. For larger children,
let them pair off, a boy and a girl; thus alternating, they form a
ring. Then start thirteen china or glass eggs, one after the other,
from hand to hand, taking the egg in the right hand, passing it to the
left, and so on round the ring. If an egg drops, it must stay where it
falls until the other eggs have gone around the ring three times. It
may chance by that time that all the eggs have dropped. When the third
time around is complete, immediately a grand chain is formed, and the
children dance, and go back to position, picking up the eggs as they
dance. If the egg is not picked up, keeping time to the music which is
being played throughout the game, that person cannot retain it, but
must give it to the one following. Sometimes no eggs fall, then the
game is kept up until all the eggs have passed rapidly around three
times. But when dropped and picked up, they must then go around once,
and after this final circuit the game is concluded.
Boil a dozen or more eggs in logwood of different strengths of dye;
they will then be colored violet or purple. Give these eggs, with a
large pin or pen-knife, to young people to decorate. Offer a prize for
the best decorations within fifteen minutes.
Still another game is to knock eggs. Hold an egg so that the small end
is shown between the forefinger and the thumb. Sit or stand opposite
to the person with whom you are playing. Then knock each other’s eggs.
The knock should be swift and hard, and whoever’s egg is the first to
crack must now be given to the opponent. When starting, each should
have an equal number. Whoever has the most eggs after playing ten
minutes has won.
_Finding the Hare._
The hare is nothing more nor less than a box made in exact copy of a
hare, about six inches long. When opened it shall be found full of
rose-colored and rose-flavored confectionery.
The company are told that a hare is hidden and whoever finds it is the
owner. It is a bewitching sight to see the merry hunt and great sport
for those engaged.
_The Parlor Egg Hunt._
Buy confectioners’ eggs, which come in all sizes, from the ostrich
size to a humming bird’s, made of chocolate or icing, and trimmed with
flowers or tiny ribbons. Hide the small eggs, and state in which rooms
they are hidden. Allow five minutes for the hunt, each striving to find
the most. Ring a bell to start and end the game.
_Ostrich Egg Search._
This is played exactly like the thimble game. Put a confectioner’s
ostrich egg in full sight, and at a signal every one begins to look for
it. When it is seen, the finder signifies the fact by sitting down,
and this continues until all are either seated or give up. The hostess
inquires of the first one who sat down where the egg is, and the answer
is given in a whisper. If correct, it may be retained as a favor, if
not, the egg must be drawn for.
The hiding must be cleverly managed, so that while the egg is in sight,
it is, however, in an unexpected spot, and where it cannot be handled.
Then, too, there should be a bogus egg, made from tissue paper, closely
resembling the confectioners egg. Many will mistake the egg.
_Basket Eggs._
Put two baskets at the end of a room, each basket lined with wadding,
and containing a dozen of eggs. Opposite these baskets on the other
side of the room, have two empty ones lined in a similar manner. Two
persons step forward, and at the ringing of a bell start to put the
dozen of eggs, without cracking, into the empty basket, the one who
succeeds first being victor.
_The Game of Cluck._
Perhaps this is the jolliest game of all, and it is essentially for
boys. Whoever gives the party should ask each of his friends to bring
a chicken—a real live chicken—and if he is sure he would not recognize
her when with a barnyard of others, he must tie a ribbon around her
neck; he must also bring some hard-boiled eggs. The court used should
be surrounded with a high netting, and the centre of the court marked
with a cross.
At a signal all the players, each with his fowl in his arms, must enter
the court, and the host, going to the centre, now becomes auctioneer,
and taking each offered fowl in turn, he loudly calls, “How many eggs
am I bid for this chicken?”—two eggs, three, or whatever the number may
be; no one must bid what he cannot pay, and the chicken is given to the
boy offering the largest number, and the eggs are given to the previous
owner of the chicken. He may put them wherever he pleases, only they
must be somewhere within the netting.
The sale being over, the “cluck” commences, for it is now each one’s
aim to recover his chicken, which can only be done by finding the
requisite number of eggs given for her. This is much easier said than
done, for the boys will have hidden them in their pockets and other
peculiar places. Meanwhile the chickens, running in every direction,
are very apt to “cluck” loudly.
_The Bird’s Nest._
Put a bird’s nest in a room; hunt for it as you “Hunt the slipper,”
only, instead of saying “warm, warmer,” and so on, you cluck, cluck,
cluck soft or loud as the party goes towards or from the nest. Only one
person hunts at a time; everybody else clucks.