The Easter holiday runs from Good Friday to Easter Monday (April 19 to 22 this year), giving us a four-day weekend to hang out with family and friends. Thanks to the host of family-friendly activities on offer, there’s no better place to do this than in Discovery Bay.
Now in its 13th year, the Egg Hunt on Tai Pak Beach is a first go-to for families across Hong Kong and, of course, in DB. From April 19 to 20, kids, aged 3 to 10 years, are given the chance to search for colourful Easter eggs hidden in the sand. It’s a delight to watch as the smallest egg hunters totter across the beach filling their tiny baskets, while the older ones race around competing to collect bagfuls of eggs.
Across both days, children are divided into different age groups and allocated different ‘hunting times.’ Kids aged 3 to 4 years are up at 12pm and 4.30pm; kids aged 5 to 6 years at 1.30pm; and kids aged 7 to 10 years at 3pm. Children need to register at the Admission Zone in DB Plaza 45 minutes before their sessions begin.
In order to make the Egg Hunt an eco friendly event, all the eggs are made from natural materials and biodegradable. Importantly too, the kids give the eggs back at the end of each hunt, so that they can be stored for reuse in the future.
That’s not to say anyone goes away empty-handed! There are over 30,000 fabulous prizes on offer, with every egg collected entitling a child to redeem a prize. As an added bonus, egg hunters who find one of the eight ‘Grand Eggs,’ hidden alongside the smaller ones, get a special prize (with these prizes worth up to HK$9,000 in total). All participants receive a Welcome Goodies Bag at the start of their hunt and a Certificate of Excellence at the end.
And the Egg Hunt isn’t all that’s on offer for families in DB over Easter… there’s the Fun Fair at DB Plaza and Tai Pak Beach. The open-air fair runs from April 19 to 20 – 10.30am to 6.30pm – to coincide with the Egg Hunt and provide plenty of additional amusement and excitement for the kids. As in previous years, there’ll be six interactive inflatables, plus any number of carnival-type game booths.
“We always look forward to the Easter holidays in DB,” says Maureen Cox, a DB mother of two. “My kids are five and six now and they still enjoy the Egg Hunt as much as they did when they were younger, possibly more. It’s a fun social activity they can do with their friends and, of course, everyone gets a prize. They would hunt for eggs for hours if they could!
“These days, the kids are really getting into the Fun Fair too,” Maureen adds. “The inflatables are huge – much better than the average bouncy castle, and the game booths are very varied and run by friendly, capable staff. There’s a Fussball kind of game that my son always gets excited about playing and my daughter loves to get a temporary tattoo – usually of an Easter Bunny.”
Did you know?
Searching for brightly coloured eggs is one of the best-loved Easter traditions out there, but do you know where it originates?
Today, Easter is a celebration of Christ’s resurrection as well as the end of Lent – the egg has come to represent the resurrection of Christ. But it has been a symbol of life and rebirth since pagan times; Easter eggs are largely a pagan tradition, and the egg hunt is no different.
It’s widely believed that egg hunts date back to pre- Christian Holland when the Dutch believed in an egg-laying hare called Oschter Haws. Because this precursor to the Easter Bunny laid eggs in the grass, children were encouraged to build nests for it to lay in – and to search for the eggs it left behind. Oschter Haws eventually became the Easter Bunny, who isn’t known for his egg- laying capabilities, but the tradition of creating nests (and now baskets) and searching for his eggs has stuck around.
How to become an Easter Egg Hunter
Tags: beach, children, easter, egg hunt
