For those of us who love playing all sorts of games, Easter could be our favourite holiday. “Easter eggs” have a different meaning for us – who can beet that feeling of finding your surprise Easter eggs when playing a game? That feeling when you want the world to know you’ve found it… and the world doesn’t really share your excitement, but you try to explain it anyway. On Easter, you don’t have to be a gamer to be blown away by finding an Easter egg.
Easter and games go hand in hand. Croatian traditions are no different. Although, egg hunt is not so much wide spread traditionally. These days, more and more towns organise an egg hunt for local kids. Croatian traditional version of egg hunt exists in certain parts of the country and it’s called crvene čizmice (little red boots or red shoes). The adults hide Easter eggs, in Croatian pisanice, in the garden. They send the kids out to find them on Easter morning. They don’t search for Easter eggs, though. They search for “little red boots.” Along their way, they discover easter eggs, but the boots are nowhere to be found. Or so it seems.
I forgot to mention that they are supposed to go barefoot, so by the end of this quest, they sure get their red boots – from the cold morning dew.
This custom is not so widespread. However, there is a very common game-lore related to Easter eggs and that is tucanje. It used to be the favourite kids’ challenge. The kids take their decorated eggs and knock two eggs against each other, each of the children holding their own. Only one egg gets broken each time, and the one with the broken egg, looses the egg to the winner. Some kids were so good at this, they used to collect the eggs from the entire village. They were tucanje terminators.
If you wish to hear more about the fun Croatian Easter tradition, listen to this episode of Croatia Underrated podcast:
It’s always a good time for playing games. On Easter, that’s absolutely required. Happy Easter!