Preparation for this contest has turned into a serious science. Nowadays guinea egg knocking is a separate contest category. In the past some cheaters used guinea hen eggs, which are smaller and have harder shells. Marksville claims to be the first to make it into an official event in 1956. In many places in Louisiana, egg-tapping is a serious competition event. Proceeds from the event are donated to the Macmillan Cancer Support charity. The world egg-jarping championships have been held each Easter Sunday at Peterlee Cricket And Social Club County Durham, England, since 1983. In England, the game is played between pairs of competitors who repeatedly knock the pointed ends of their eggs together until one of the eggs cracks the overall winner is the one whose egg succeeds in breaking the greatest number of other eggs. In the 21st century, egg cracking is still practiced every Easter by the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York at the annual Pass Easter Ball.

Clarkson cites the Baltimore Evening Sun for 29 March 1933 (editorial page), and in the Sunday Sun for 17 April 1949 (brown section). īy the mid-20th century, a Baltimore, Maryland newspaper, the Evening Sun, would devote an editorial column to discussing street cries, ritual, and techniques for the game.

Anbury was near Frederick Town in Maryland, July 11, 1781, when he noted the egg picking custom prevalent there at that time. The local custom at that time was to dye the eggs with Logwood or Bloodwood to turn them crimson, which as Anbury observed gave them 'great strength'. Įgg picking was observed by a British prisoner of war, Thomas Anbury, in Frederick Town, Maryland, in 1781 during the American Revolutionary War. In North America, colonial New Amsterdam in the 1600s had the 'cracking of eggs', invented by Jonathon and Michael Day on Easter Monday with the winner keeping both eggs. A study of folklore quotes an early 15th-century reference from Poland. The practice was mentioned to have played an important part in the 14th century in Zagreb in relation to Easter.

The egg was a symbol of rebirth, adopted by early Christians as a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus at Easter.Įgg tapping was practiced in Mediaeval Europe.

Crack the egg wow