A few weeks ago, a mall in Pennsylvania posted an apology and an explanation after an Easter egg hunt event they held went awry.

Today, I read another account of a local business that sponsored a similar event and had the same outcome.

The gist of where both events went wrong seems to be the same thing: Adults jumping the gun, grabbing eggs meant for children or shoving their children ahead of others, before the event officially started, leading to a mob scene and chaos.

Am I surprised? Not at all. Years ago, we took the boys to a community egg hunt. Both the boys were in the under-3 category at the time but were both capable of walking and possibly picking up an egg or two. We waited at the starting line for the toddlers, explaining to them how when the whistle blew, they would go out and pick up an egg and put it in their basket.

Imagine our surprise when, upon the whistle, a horde of adults shoved their toddlers under their arms and ran around grabbing all the eggs they could.

Our boys stood still, overwhelmed by the chaos around them. Children everywhere were crying, not from a lack of eggs, but from being stuffed under and arm and dragged about.

That was enough for us. From then on, our egg hunts were limited to those in our own backyard, or carefully orchestrated ones with friends and family.

There was absolutely no fun of any kind to be had at one of those events, not as long as adults justified trampling kids to grab some plastic eggs.

A few years later, I started to observe the same kind of behavior during our town’s annual Halloween parade. While our kids never walked away empty-handed from the generosity of so many organizations that threw copious amounts of candy to the crowd, I did start to notice other children getting pushed aside by adults more and more frequently.

What is going on here? What accounts for this crazed behavior over small treats and holiday items?

I suppose I have some good old-fashioned nostalgia going on, but I remember Easter egg hunts as being community activities. We also usually only went to two of them: one hosted by our local fire company, held on the grounds of the local elementary school, and one near my grandparents’ house that was hosted by a community organization at a local ball diamond.

Both these events were divided by age, with the eggs hidden at the appropriate level of difficulty. I don’t even remember my parents being involved, other than to take a few photos of us with the Easter Bunny when it was over.

The ball diamond event used real eggs, and I can clearly remember dropping off decorated eggs the day before the event. Again, things were hidden appropriately.

As a grade schooler, I can remember climbing up trees and over playground equipment to reach eggs. It wasn’t over in seconds.

The teenager hunt featured a goose egg that was worth a prize of $50. It sometimes took an hour for them to find that egg.

Additionally, there was a cake walk, photos with the Easter Bunny, a guess the number of jelly beans jar, and a multitude of other activities. Most of the prize eggs were exchanged for large chocolate candy pieces, or a few for half or whole dollar coins.

The only time I can remember crying at this egg hunt was when I won a large chocolate egg and discovered it was coconut filled. At that time, I disliked coconut, and my little brother was only too happy to claim it. I think I was more upset that he capitalized on my winnings than I was about not getting a prize I wanted.

I am quite glad these years are behind us, because I don’t see it getting better. No more egg hunts, Secret Santas or even Halloween parades. I don’t miss being aggravated that the whole point of these things seems to be lost to greed. To quote the Lorax, “unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Unfortunately, the behavior at the root of all of this indicates that a whole lot of people already don’t care.

Soon, events like this will completely cease to exist, and for a while, people will bemoan the fact that they’re gone and wonder why.

Eventually, they’ll be forgotten altogether. Which is a shame, because when they’re done correctly, they can make for some incredible memories.

Liz Pinkey’s column appears on Saturdays in the Times News