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All about Easter egg hunts
 Carlie Burns, left, Attleboro helps herself to candy offered by bunny Curtis Robinson, an AHS junior, during the Greater Leo Club 's 10th. annual Easter Egg Hunt held Saturday at Capron Park. (Staff photo by MIKE GEORGE)
Top Headlines Described by some as a secular spin-off of the religious holiday and others as associated with customs and folklore, the Easter egg hunt - in recent times, those involving the plastic variety containing treats and small treasures - have for years been hosted by families, neighborhoods and community organizations. This area has been no exception, with annual festivities held at Attleboro's Capron Park, Norton's Town Forest and North Attleboro's Petti Field which have spanned a decade or more. There was also a fundraising egg hunt at Winslow Farm, a sanctuary for neglected and abused animals in Norton, and nature-related hunts at the Caratunk and Stony Brook wildlife sanctuaries, in Seekonk and Norfolk. While there are various theories as to why a bunny, a.k.a. the Easter Bunny, is associated with delivering the eggs, sometimes hiding them around parks and yards, the hunts serve as a meeting-up place for parents and their children, friends and other families, on what is often hoped to be a snow- and rain-free day after the long gray months of winter. True Easter eggs, those cooked and decorated in advance, have become the source of games for the day in various countries. There's "egg picking," where a player forfeits his or her egg if it cracks during the "picking." Some Greek, Armenian and Polish traditions include egg-cracking contests, the winner determined by whose egg survives contact with the others. There's also egg eating and egg rolling contests in Germany and elsewhere. The White House has been hosting an egg rolling contest for children since 1878. Eggs themselves have been presented as gifts throughout history in different cultures, usually in the spring, as symbols of rebirth and resurrection, according to various religious and non-religious sources. Easter breads in Italy and elsewhere often contain a decorated egg. The egg has even branched out in the form of Easter egg trees. Children seem to delight in finding them in any of their holiday forms.
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