Easter in the White House
A new year has just begun and it's an Inauguration Year! I’m sitting on my nice warm couch covered in multiple blankets watching the festivities of Inauguration Day, which because of the cold is being held for only the second time in history inside the Capitol Building. The history nerd in me started to wonder where so many of these Inauguration Day traditions and pomp and circumstance came from. Then of course my mind wanders to Easter, probably because I am over this cold weather nonsess, which of course led to me asking, “I wonder how the president celebrates Easter. Are there any traditions that happen every year in the White House?” Time to hop back on the worldwide web to do some research. The Origins of the White House website was the first site to pop up with some ‘eggciting’ facts to satisfy my nerdy history mind, but wait there’s more ‘eggciting’ facts on The National Parks website!!! My nerdy history mind is hopping for joy with all this new input!
Every year since 1878 the President, his family, and the White House staff have all celebrated Easter Monday the same way. They host the traditional Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House. How fun!! Kiddos of all ages gather on the South Lawn to have a contest to roll a brightly colored egg down the hill. Who came up with such a silly yet oh so enjoyable idea?!? Some historians date it back to First Lady Dolly Madison, but other historians report it started when kiddos were rolling eggs down Capitol Hill beginning in 1870’s. The lawn of the Capitol Building was getting trampled which led Congress to sign into legislation the restrictions of public use of the Capitol grounds. Which made it illegal for the kiddos to have their egg rolling fun! Wow! Great use of tax dollars making a law against having fun just to protect the grass! I can picture all the old men of congress sitting on the front pouch of the Capitol Building waving their fingers, “You kids get off our lawn!!”
Well in 1878 is when President Rutherford B. Hayes decided that kids should be kids and have fun! He was the first president to invite kiddos to the South Lawn of the White House, thus beginning the ‘eggtastic’ Egg Rolling tradition! I don’t know much about President Hayes, ok I know nothing about him except he brought back the fun and joy of Easter to the White House lawn. Fast forward to 1974 the Nixons Family were the First Family. They turned the egg roll into a competition and thus the egg rolling races were born!!! The inner history nerd is loving all these new fun facts about how the White House celebrates Easter Monday, so when I stumped upon ever more ‘eggciting’ facts about the First Ladies’ contributions to the events of Egg Rolling Easter Monday, my mind was blown! First Lady Pat Nixon gave the kiddos participation certificates as a souvenir after the egg rolling races. First Lady Betty Ford and First Lady Rosalynn Carter gave each kiddo a plastic egg with a fun note written by herself! When First Lady Nancy Reagan hosted this Easter Monday Egg Roll she handed out wooden eggs specially made with the signatures of famous people. The handing out of wooden eggs caught on, from then on each kiddo twelve years old and under received a wooden egg with the signature of the President and First Lady on one side and a specially designed logo to represent the theme of that year’s egg roll on the other side. In this day and age it is not easy to get to be one of the lucky kiddos to participate in the Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House, so maybe avoid the security and host your own Egg Rolling Party on your South Lawn. I hope you have enjoyed reading about the Easter traditions of the White House as much as I enjoyed researching them! Until next time, have an ‘eggtastic’ week!
From the warm cozy couch of Deanna Carlsen