The competition, which is more than 80 years old, has very simple rules: register, pick a hand painted egg, head to the starting line and then throw.

The winner is decided by who manages to throw the egg the furthest without breaking it, which is actually quite a feat, given the fact that the eggs are soft boiled.

Age is also of no great concern to the contestants as people of any age, be it eight or 80 can register and take part.

Horhaussen’s mayor, Thomas Schmidt, said, ‘I think this is a family event and as you can see we get all generations. Starting from the youngest participant of three years to the oldest at 87 years-old people always enjoy coming to Horhausen,’

Even the areas native bird life love this time of year, as they get to feast upon the broken eggs of the unlucky losers… Which in a way is a kind of perverse cannibalism, sort of.

‘The broken eggs we leave where they are, they are eventually eaten by the birds and they will be particularly pleased with this cold weather that they also get a bit of Easter leftovers,’ says Schmidt.

As to what the winner receives for their efforts remains a bit of a mystery… Knowing the Rhineland as I do though, I’d imagine it’d be something like an apple strudel, or a fine pair of lederhosen. 

Image: Getty