The Egg Game

Every Easter Allison’s family meet together to share a meal. Before the meal starts they play a game. She’s not sure what it’s called, but explained the premise. Each family is served a hard boiled egg at their place at the table. Each family member takes their egg in their hand, so that all but the tip of the egg is covered. Two relatives tap the end of the eggs together. The person who’s egg shell breaks loses, and they are out of the game. This continues until only one egg remains intact.

Before the game, people go around the table, switching eggs in order to get what they think is the hardest egg, therefore the least likely to crack. Allison told an anecdote about her grandfather, who she described as a “jokester,” playing this game. One year he took a decorative wooden egg, closed his hand around it so only the tip was showing, just as everyone does, and played the game. He cracked every egg in every round using the wooden egg, and revealed to the family after he had won that he had been using a wooden egg.

The game has a special meaning because it is only performed at Easter and only in the context of a family meal.