Courtship Ritual

• According to the University of Arizona's Southern Arizona Folk Arts website, cascarones became a popular part of courtship rituals during the 18th and 19th centuries. Young men and women would take them to dances and break them over each others' heads as a form of flirtation.
  
  

Italian Connection

• The courtship ritual likely originated in Italy, where men would toss perfume-filled eggs at women they liked, according to the website LasCulturas.com. The history given at FeatherlandEggFarm.com is similar, though it has Renaissance Italian men giving the eggs to women, not throwing them.
  
  

Chinese Origin?

• The account at FeatherlandEggFarm.com has the hollowed-out-egg tradition arriving in Italy courtesy of Marco Polo, who brought them back from China. From Italy, the tradition moved to Austria, France, and then to Spain, where the eggs became known as cascarones, the Spanish word for shells.
  
  

On to Mexico

• Several sources, including CascaronCrazy.com, credit Carlotta, the wife of Emperor Maximilian, for bringing the tradition to Mexico. According to this theory, Carlotta brought the perfume-filled eggs to Mexico in the 1860s while her husband ruled the nation. The eggs caught on, with cheaper confetti replacing the perfume.
  
  

Carnival

• Eventually, cascarones became integrated into Carnival celebrations before the start of Lent, with people breaking them over friends' and loved ones' heads to bring them good luck. MexConnect.com cites "turn-of-the-century accounts" of Carnival celebrations in the Mexican city of Mazatlan, in which rival labor groups threw cascarones at each other as part of simulated battles known as "papaqui."