With Easter fast approaching
it’s not surprising that I began remembering past Easter holidays. Family traditions abound during major
holidays such as Easter, ours included.
Many years ago my mother–in-law, Mary Shields God rest her soul,
introduced us to what she said was a Pennsylvania and Lithuanian
tradition---Egg Konking. The rule of the game is simple. One
holds a hard-boiled egg and taps the egg of another participant with one's own
egg intending to break the other's, without breaking one's own. As with any
other game, it has been a subject of cheating; eggs with cement, alabaster and
even marble cores have been reported. Mary on one occasion even tried to sneak
in a wooden egg.
When doing a little research
about egg konking, I found that this custom was shared by many cultures and was
called by many different names such as, egg tapping, egg fight, egg knocking,
egg pacqueing, egg boxing, egg picking, egg chucking, egg jarping and in
English folk traditions, the game has variously been known as "shackling",
"jarping" or "dumping".
In 1999 “The Mary Shields
Memorial Egg Konking Trophy”was established and was supported by a tournament.
Prior to setting up this tournament family members just ran around willy-nilly finding
someone to “konk” with. That did not
work well so my son Bill designed a sheet that was laid out similar to the NCAA
basketball tournament. I’m sure you all
are familiar with the concept when you filled out the sheets during March
Madness. Our tournament begins with the oldest person konking the youngest or
vice versa and continues in that same way until only the champ remains with an
unbroken egg. The winner of the 1999 inaugural contest and the first name on
the trophy was Mary’s daughter, my wife Marge.
Unfortunately this year’s
Easter celebration and trophy hunt has been canceled due to the Coronavirus. At the stern command of our children, Marge
and I were thrown into a new world, the world of isolation. Social distancing
would make egg konking a might difficult unless we stood back and threw the
eggs at each other. Needless to say Karolin
Palko, winner of last year’s contest, will unfortunately be unable to defend her
title due to the cancellation.. We’ll all miss this fun contest and also the
usual after the game culinary celebration. The Easter kielbasa, ham, eggs,
cheesy potatoes, Bapka bread etc. will have to wait for another day.
I will, however, grab a little liquid refreshment and salute our past winners and say a silent prayer that
this very unwelcome visitor in our lives leaves us soon.
Here’s
a recipe for potatoes which has often been included on our Eastern Sunday table.
Cheesy
Potatoes – by Mary Ann Pixton
6 large potatoes, boiled, peeled, or (sub frozen hash
browns)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/8 pound butter, sliced
8 oz. sour cream
1/2 teaspoon onion, minced
1-1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
Corn Flakes
Cut potatoes into small cubes, and salt them. Mix together soup, butter, sour cream and
onion, add 1 cup cheese. Put in greased
casserole dish. Sprinkle with remaining
1/2 cup cheese and top with corn flakes.
Bake at 325 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes.
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