Why Are They Hiding (Easter) Eggs and WHY Can't I EAT Them?

Why do HUMANS hide Easter Eggs and why are these eggs plastic nonEATABLE kind of eggs?
I have pondered this for all of my 6+ years. Many an Easter morning I have wandered into the yard to sniff around. And what do I find?

These ---------------->

They don't look like eggs and they don't smell like eggs. Sometimes I move them around and they kind of rattle - which scares the pee outta me, I tell you.

I opened one up long ago and weird stuff fell out.

It was not food so it was of no value to me. And it was all metally smelling and scared me so I quickly returned to the house making like I was so happy just to be alive. And in truth, I was. But later in the day during the Easter Egg Hunt for Humans, one of the kids found the opened egg and got really really excited. I guess you gotta be human to be excited about that.

As I am writing this, it dawned on me that perhaps the Humans have Easter Egg Hunts because they are . . . hunts? Sometimes, and I am not talking Easter Sunday but sometimes on a random but sunny morning, I pretend to be a mighty HUNTER in the backyard. I skulk around behind bushes and lay low in the grass (before the drought when we had real grass). I sniff the air for "wild game" and stare long and hard into the shadows for movement. I never find anything. It is all for fun. 

I'm guessing this is what drives the Easter Egg Hunt - this innate need to hunt for FOOD or shelter or friends.

But why oh why are the EGGS all plastic?