You may mistake this hat as the Easter Bunny's house, but that is far from reality. So without further ado, we present to you the Chametz Hunt House Easter Hat.
I didn't get around to sharing this Easter Hat we made for the Parade at school last year. It was close to not happening due to lock-downs, but it did go ahead, and parents were even allowed to watch. It was the first time I have been able to go to school for the Easter Hat Parade. I was able to take time off work for it because I have been permanent long enough to have some leave built up.
Anyway, it felt a bit weird sharing an Easter Hat too long after Easter, so I figured I would just keep it for this year and this year's hat can be shared next year too. It gives me a bit more time to get the blog post done.
After modifying the same paper mache hat we made for the last three years, it was time to make something new. The last three years were a sort of trilogy, with a prequel (Hosanna! Palm Sunday Easter Bonnet), the main event (Spectacular Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet), and a sequel (Magnificent Butterfly Resurrection Easter Bonnet).
I intend to do another trilogy of hats for the next three (although not re-using the same hat), but we'll see if Tahlia remains interested.
The foundation of Jesus death, burial and resurrection is presented in the Biblical feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and First-fruits respectively. In anticipation of fleeing Egypt, the Israelites ate unleavened bread as instructed by God because they did not have time to wait for the yeast to rise. Yeast also represents sin as it causes dough to puff itself up (like pride) and so when God gave the instructions for commemorating the flight from Egypt in the festival of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Israelites were told to rid their homes of any yeast (Chametz in Hebrew) and yeast breads ahead of celebrating those feasts.
As part of the festivities, a game for the children developed called the Chametz Hunt. The mother cleans out the yeast products from the house, but hides 10 pieces or crumbs for the Dad to help the children find. They go on a hunt using a candle for light and when they find the crumbs, they use a feather to scoop the crumbs onto a wooden spoon and take them out of the house to be burned.
In a similar manner, we need to seek out our sins and get rid of them. Perhaps there are 10 pieces of bread to remind us of the 10 Commandments.
There are plenty of hiding spots on this hat to hide bread. Thankfully, I had made way too much bread to go into Pharaoh's Baker's baskets in our Genesis 40 - The Baker's and The Butler's Dreams Quiet Book Page so we used that to hide behind doors and windows.
Tahlia sewed the windows and doors on. The completed roof was hot glued onto the walls rather than sewn.
I think I sewed the walls and roof together. The chimney idea worked, which was a relief! I sewed the chimney together leaving about 1.5cm open at the bottom to fold out underneath the roof and sew down around the edges of the chimney hole in the roof.
At Tahlia's request, rather than securing it we made the hat to fit over the top of this felt St Patrick's Day Hat we had in our dress-up collection so it could still be used separately from the Easter Hat. I covered it in plastic food wrap to prevent any hot glue accidentally getting on the other hat while we were gluing the roof and things on.
We made a bin to burn the bread by covering a plastic shot glass I obtained from a supermarket sampling stand with some grey corduroy, securing it with hot glue. We scrunched up some red cellophane for the fire.
We added pom pom bushes, a rik rak vine, and embroidered flowers as a decorative touch. They were all hot glued onto the side of the felt house rather than to the base St Patrick's Day hat.
Our fake battery-powered candle, toy wooden spoon, and feather all fit nicely into the chimney for storage.
We hope you will use our free Chametz Hunt House - Easter Hat Parade - Template Pattern to make your own version. It is a great way to help your kids share their faith in an exciting way. Why not seize the chance to develop their witnessing skills?
