You Don’t Have to Be a Russian Czar or Sherlock Holmes to Capture the Eco-Magic of Easter Eggs!

When I think of Easter Fun, I think of Easter Bunnies and Bunny workshops – busily designing and coloring the best Easter Eggs in the world (the equivalent of Santa’s Christmas workshop) – who then wrap their precious cargo inside hand-made (paw-made) baskets – and who then pass them onto Easter Bunny-shaped Gnomes who randomly hide these treasures underground and across the globe!  Our mission then as tradition-bound humans – is to find these precious symbols of rebirth, renewal, and happiness and incorporate them into our own unique springtime sunshine celebrations!  So if you haven’t done so already, here are some eco-friendly, eco-adventurous Easter Egg ideas from the Chief Easter Bunny himself!

1- Book Yourself a World-Class Easter Egg Hunt Vacation!

Easter Egg Hunts are great cultural festivities that come together with religious traditions to add fun and excitement to the Easter Bunny’s appearance for kids and adults alike.  Here then are four of the best Easter Egg Hunts in the world:

The Faberge Easter Egg Hunt in London, England – See www.The-Big-Faberge-Egg-Hunt-London Hosted by Russian jeweler, Faberge, and billed as the “World’s Largest  Luxury Easter Egg Hunt” as well as a major charity event, over 200 Giant Fiberglass Easter Eggs have been planted throughout the city of London decorated by some of the world’s most famous artists, designers, jewelers, actors and architects. Each egg has its own secret code word which finders use to text to a designated number.  The Grand Prize is a diamond encrusted Jubilee Egg made by Faberge in honor of the 60 year reign of Queen Elizabeth II.  Hunt organizers hope to raise 3 million dollars with the proceeds going to two charities – “Action for Children” and “The Elephant Family”.

The Beatrix Potter Easter Egg Hunt in Cumbria, England – See www.The-Great-Peter-Rabbit-Easter-Egg-Hunt Located in the Lake District of North Western England and covering 2600 square miles of terrain, this year’s annual Easter Egg Hunt will be celebrating the 110th anniversary  of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” written by English natural scientist and conservationist, Beatrix Potter.  One hundred and ten ceramic eggs have been hidden all over the countryside and once all the eggs have been found the great Peter Rabbit Easter Egg Hunt of 2012 will be over.

The Annual Easter Egg Hunt at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, USA – See www.VisitNC-Annual-Easter-Egg-Hunt-at-Biltmore This year’s Easter Egg Hunt coincides with the opening weekend of the 27th annual “Festival of Flowers”.  Three hunts are scheduled beginning at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm.  Magic shows, Children’s music and stories and Photo opportunities with the Easter Bunny are included as well.

The High Altitude Egg Hunt at Copper Mountain, Colorado, USA – See www.Copper-Mountain-Easter-Egg-Hunt Located between the ski resorts of Vail and Breckenridge and billed as the largest Easter Egg Hunt in Colorado with 50,000 eggs to find, there will be an “all-new Egg Putt-Putt – 9 holes of “greens” on the snow with Easter eggs for golf balls.

2- Get Tickets for an Easter Egg Rolling or Tapping Contest!

You don’t have to have a spoon or an invitation to the “White House” in Washington, D.C. to participate in an Easter Egg rolling contest nor do you have to fly to Russia to compete in an Easter Egg-knocking contest.  The tradition of egg rolling competitions goes back centuries across the globe – in England and Scotland, in Germany and Denmark, in the Netherlands and Lithuania and even ancient Egypt.   And if you want to see some serious egg-tapping, check out Marksville, Louisiana which holds its internationally recognized “Easter Egg Knocking Contest” on the courthouse square every year on Easter morning.  Note: All chicken, duck, turkey, and guinea eggs are allowed.

3- Go High-Tech with Easter Egg Geocaching!

They are doing it in La Vergne, Tennessee and in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin – in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania and from Cape Cod Massachusetts to the Sacred Rocks Reserve in southern California – Families across the nation are using their GPS devices to locate the coordinates of hidden Easter Egg treasures.  After finding each cache, the Easter Egg hunter signs a log or takes a picture to prove that he or she has completed this part of the search.  Prizes are awarded at the end or with each cache found.

4- Go Underwater with Easter Egg Diving!

Billed as an “Easter Eggstravaganza”, children are being encouraged to dive, splash, and swim for eggs at the ‘5th Annual Easter Egg Dive’ at the Fairmont Aquatic Center in Salt Lake City next month.  And in Key Largo, Florida, adult divers and snorkelers are getting “egg-cited” about the upcoming “12th Annual Underwater Easter Egg Hunt” headed up by Captain Spencer Slate of the Atlantis Dive Center who dresses up each year in a giant bunny costume with dive gear. Participants are taken out to a secluded location on glass-bottom boats to one of the Keys’ pristine reefs “where revelers plunge for the hard-boiled hoard during the two-tank trip.”  The proceeds from this popular hunt acts as a fundraiser for handicapped and needy kids within the area especially during this holiday season.

5- Go Gaga Egg Watching at an Easter Egg Drop Near You!

Easter Egg Celebrations are now ‘High-Flying’!  All across North America, Easter Egg Hunts are now beginning with ‘Easter Egg Drops’ where thousands of plastic Easter Eggs filled with candy and prizes are dropped from Helicopters or Hot Air Balloons.   Many are church-sponsored or parks and recreation-sponsored. They are doing it in small town places to big city places – from Alachua, Florida to Montgomery, Alabama, from Glen Mills, Pennsylvania to North Las Vegas, Nevada, from Burlington, North Carolina and Bluefield, Virginia to Owasso, Oklahoma and The Twin Cities of Minnesota and from Marion, Illinois and Rochester, New Hampshire to Laguna Hills, California and Portland, Oregon.

6- Host An Easter Egg Tea Party!

In keeping with an organically-themed Easter Egg tea party, offer your invited guests eco-rich reminders of  sensory verdancy with springtime favors, décor, and food items including: 1-Pastel-colored recyclable napkins, a hand-stitched tablecloth with ribbon-accented designs and handmade soy and beeswax candles; 2-Reusable papier-mache eggs and bunny and chick figurines made from recycled wool sweaters or leftover milk jugs and juice cartons; 3-Freshly-picked floral cuttings and garland arrangements straight from the garden along with twig-decorated candle rings; 4-Homemade-styled Easter basket or Easter bonnet place settings filled with a selection of real grass, organic lollipops, nuts, tea bags, carrot and celery sticks, all-natural jelly beans, and ‘fair trade’ dark chocolate candy; 5-Freshly-made finger sandwiches and dips with deviled eggs, scones and crumpets and locally produced whipped cream, butter, jam, and honey; and 6- After-party keepsakes – an Easter Egg-Dying Starter Kit containing cage-free chicken eggs, red cabbage leaves, spinach and turmeric leaves, lemon peels, yellow onion skins, blueberries, beet juice, and a few unused crayon nubs – and – perhaps a personalized Easter Egg Tea Party Photo Memento set inside an eco-friendly recycled magazine picture frame.

So in conclusion, you may not be a Russian czar or czarina, rich enough to own a bejeweled Faberge Egg yet! – OR – be a world-famous super sleuth like a geeky Sherlock Holmes, able to find even the smallest clues in any Geocaching Easter Egg Hunt! – BUT – you now have creative ideas of your own to making your own Easter Fun eco-magical!

Reference Footnote: Easter Fun for me is also a special reminder of my ancient celebratory family heritage- – I can trace my own unique “Holmes “ ancestry back to one Francis Holmes, a 17th century English Puritan and Early Settler and Co-Founder of Stamford, CT. in 1640 America, who is my 9th great-grandfather – – and my unique Russian heritage can be traced back to the 10th and 11th centuries – a time period in which the first Christian monarchs of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe were suddenly bursting upon the scene including: 1- Prince Mieszko I, First Christian Ruler of Poland, my 35th great-grandfather; 2- Saint Stephen I of Hungary, my 31st great-grandfather; 3- Saint Ludmila of Bohemia, my 38th great-grandmother; and 4- Yaroslav I the Wise, Prince of Novgorod and Kiev, my 33rd great-grandfather and 5- Saint Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great, my 34th great-grandfather.  However, I am still looking for an Easter Bunny in the family tree.