There is something about San Miguel that, despite its contact with modernity and hundreds of other cultures, continues to maintain its traditions year after year until they become decades, until they become centuries.

Now it is the turn of one of our favourites, as it is one of the most fun and entertaining in our town and it is called “cascaronazos” which, as the name indicates, revolves around eggshells.

These shells are filled with confetti and will be this weekend of Sunday, March 1st in the Main Garden where street vendors rejoice with their sales that range from one peso per unit to 20-30 pesos per bag.

Both kids and adults have a blast popping confetti-filled eggs on each other's heads, thus starting a kind of harmless war where everyone is covered from head to toe in drops of confetti.

It is believed that the tradition dates back to Egypt itself or comes from some pagan festivals in Ancient Rome. Whatever its origin, the only thing we can know is that the weekends before Easter are guaranteed to be full of fun.

In the past, this tradition was more of a way of courting, as single women would meet in the Main Garden where the gentlemen would pass by and if one of them liked them, he would ask permission to burst the egg on her head and thus begin a romantic date. Although instead of bursting the egg on her head, which would be very anticlimactic, the gentleman would burst the egg in his hand and spray the young lady with confetti and perfume.

The romanticism was lost and the tradition evolved into something much more playful and undoubtedly results in a lot of fun for both children and adults.

It is also a recent tradition that the shells are now complemented by the production of enormous paper flowers made by the grandmother of Mr. Felix Luna, who fondly remembers how she cut out brightly colored paper to make them. They also used the material from the shell to make the heads of clowns with paper bodies that children love.

So sharpen your aim and your agility to avoid "shells" in the heart of San Miguel and prepare for the season of Lent where at the end Easter Sunday takes place, where ironically now you have to look for hidden eggs, thus giving a complete cycle to the feast of eggs.