|
|
|
Easter
Party Games & Ideas
|
| Free
Holiday Party Games |
Printable
Party Games |
|
EASTER FACTIOD: Easter
Games of the Middle Ages
Enjoy
this party game fitted to the Easter
party theme:
EASTER CANDY TOSS: Take a
piece of red construction paper and draw 3 circles in the middle of the
paper. Make the circles three different sizes so it resembles a bull's
eye (the size of the circles will depend on the age of the kids, the
older the kids the smaller the circle). Color each circle a different
color and write in different point values for each circle.
And, here
is another Easter party idea:
BLOWING THE EGG: Two
pieces of cotton or tape are stretched across the carpet. An ordinary
hen's egg -- which has had the entire contents removed without cracking
the shell -- is laid exactly midway between the tape lines. A girl
player then makes a little paper fan out of half a sheet of notepaper
and kneels down on one side of the tapes and a boy kneels down on the
other. The girl then has to try to fan the egg shell across the tape on
the boy's side and he has to try to blow the shell back across the tape
on the girl's side. The one who first drives the egg across his
partner's line three times wins the contest. Nothing must be used by
the girl but the paper fan or her hand, and the boy must simply blow
with his mouth.
The
Easter egg is a symbol of continuing life and resurrection. Here are
some of the future dates Easter falls:
April 21 2019
April 12, 2020
April 4, 2021
April 17, 2022
April 9, 2023
An Easter party can include an Easter
egg hunt and games like an egg roll that is basically a race where each
player rolls their egg to a finish line.
A theme party featuring
Easter with party games altered to fit the Easter party
makes the event stay tied together. Easter is the first
Sunday after the
full moon after the moon's Spring Equinox.
 |
Free Printable Easter Party Game &
Pen and Paper Activity
Easter Printable Games Trivia
Printable Easter Theme Party Games
|
|
|
|
|
Easter Games of the Middle Ages
Have you played ball games,
followed mazes or danced in church on Easter lately? Not likely, since
these customs common to the Middle Ages have long been passe. But they
were part of the Easter celebrations of that era in northern France.
The nave of the Chartres Cathedral, built hundreds of years ago, was
designed as a labyrinth 42 feet in diameter. People could walk its
entire winding course. The symbolism of the maze has largely been lost,
but it probably represented a pilgrimage of sorts. It may have been
intended to replicate Christ's trip through Hell, believed by some to
have taken place during the days between his crucifixion and
resurrection. In some of the church labyrinths constructed during that
period, decorations represented the Minotaur, an animal that figured in
the Greek myths about the hero Theseus, but in the Christian
cathedrals, the emphasis had shifted to portray Christ's journey.
An ancient 14th Century document documents yet another use of cathedral
labyrinths. On Easter Monday, they became ball courts, where the clergy
danced through the maze tossing balls from one to another. These dances
were probably holdovers from pagan customs.
The dances and ball games have been associated with the cathedrals of
Auxerre, Sens and Amiens and likely Chartres as well. Max Harris,
author of "Sacred Folly: A New History of the Feast of Fools," writes
that before Vespers on Easter Monday, the members of the cathedral
chapter would gather in the home of the archbishop to eat meat and
drink spiced wine. Then the archbishop would toss the first ball to
begin the games.
The ritual called for the man newest to the community to carry the
ball, which was too large for a single hand, to the cathedral. He would
pass it to the archbishop, who danced with it into the labyrinth. A
special hymn was sung before the dance through the maze began, the
leader tossing the ball to his followers in turn. When the leader
reached the center of the maze, the game was over.
Many interpretations of the dance have been forwarded by scholars, but
most assume it was a recreation of the perceived order of the universe,
which at that time was thought to be 12 concentric layers. It connoted
a belief in the divine order of the universe, no matter how confused
the human experience seemed to be.
If, as as some supposed, the dance represented a mix of the the
adventures of Theseus and Christ's journey through Hell, the ball may
have represented one of the two orbs Theseus used to conquer the
Minotaur. The first of Theseus' weapons was a ball of pitch which he
used to stop the monster's mouth, representing Christ's humanity, while
the second, a ball of thread that Theseus unwound to guide him through
the maze, represented the Savior's divinity.
Limited to the northern area of France, this particular ritual
persisted for several centuries before, in the late 15th century, a new
priest came to Auxerre with a dislike for the custom. He did not bring
the ball with him when he was supposed to. Though he was eventually
convinced to play along, it was the beginning of the end for the maze
dances and the ritual began to disappear.
|
|
