Easter Eggs, Treats, Hunts and Celebrations By The Numbers
Jacob deNobel – Carroll County Times
As your family tears through their Easter baskets Sunday morning like a bunny on a bender, why not take a minute to take in how the rest of the country is celebrating the holiday. To commemorate Easter Sunday, the Times has gathered this list of odd and interesting facts, figures and pieces of trivia to help you hop down that bunny trail.
$18.4 billion: How much Americans are expected to spend on Easter this year, up from last year’s record $17.3, according to the National Retail Federation. The average celebrant is expected to spend $152 on baskets, candy, decorations and restaurants this year.
$2.4 billion: How much Americans spend on Easter candy each year, more than any other holiday including Halloween, where families spend only $2.1 billion. People spend more money per-person on candy for Halloween, but more Americans buy candy for Easter on the whole.
50: Percent of Americans planning on purchasing clothing for Easter Sunday, the highest level in a decade. In other categories, 87 percent of people plan on purchasing food, 61 percent plan on purchasing gifts, 89 percent plan on purchasing candy and 43 percent plan on purchasing decorations.
1880: William Townley begins selling Easter egg dye tablets in five different colors for five cents apiece. Today, that company has transformed into Paas, the world’s largest manufacturer of Easter Egg dye, used on more than 180 million eggs a year. In addition to the Classic and Deluxe decorating kits, Paas also sells a Vintage kit that allows families to create eggs in the late-1800s-style.
2005: Bleyer Industries, the only U.S. manufacturer of plastic Easter eggs, files for bankruptcy, citing difficulties competing with the global market. At their height, the company was producing 250 million eggs each year.
501,000: The number of eggs in the world’s largest Easter egg hunt, which took place at Cypress Gardens Adventure Park in Winter Haven, Florida, on April 1, 2007. More than 9,700 children took part in the search. An attempt to break the record in California in 2015 failed, because organizers failed to get the claimed 510,000 eggs certified by Guinness Book of World Records officials before the start of the hunt.
48 x 6: Height and diameter, in feet, of the world’s largest Easter egg, measured in March 2008 and located in Alcochete, Portugal.
6,635: The weight, in pounds, of the largest chocolate Easter Bunny, which stood 12 feet tall, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
27: Number of hours it took to create a Peeps marshmallow chick in 1953. Today it takes six minutes. Peeps have remained the No. 1 non-chocolate Easter candy for more than 20 years. Ten percent of people prefer them stale, while 3 percent eat them frozen.
33: Percent of people who believe Easter baskets should exclusively contain candy. More than half of Americans believe a basket should contain a mixture of candy, coins and small toys, with 44 percent filling their baskets with snacks like granola bars and dried fruit.
4.7: Percent of people who eat their chocolate Easter bunnies tails first for some reason. The majority of people, 88.7 percent, eat them ears first, while only 6.6 percent eat them feet first. Half of Americans prefer their Easter Bunnies filled with cream or caramel; 32 percent like solid bunnies and only 16 percent pick hollow bunnies as their favorites.
8 to 12: The advised maximum storage age, in months. of milk chocolate, according to the National Confectioners Association. Dark chocolate can be kept for up to two years if wrapped in foil and stored in a cool, dark and dry place.
1976: Gourmet and traditional jelly beans were split into two different products. Gourmet jelly beans are softer and smaller and are flavored in both the shell and middle, while traditional jelly beans were only flavored in the middle.
16 billion: The number of jelly beans made in the U.S. for Easter each year.
34: The range of dates that Easter can fall on. The earliest possible Easter is on March 22, while the latest is on April 25.
Source:
http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/…/ph-cc-easter-by-the…
