History of Easter : The Story of the White House Egg Roll War
Americans, over the course of centuries,
have fought for a lot of things and it’s
no different when it comes to the annual
festivities that take place at our nation’s
capitol. The Easter White House Egg Roll
was a battle … but the majority won!
During the presidency of James Madison (1809-1817),
his wife Dolley was fascinated when she
learned that little Egyptian children followed
an egg rolling tradition around the pyramids
of Egypt and both were inspired. Thus children
began egg rolling on the White House grounds
until a bunch of grumps became upset.
In 1877, Congressman became upset because
they didn’t believe that the nation’s capitol
should be littered with the remains of hard
boiled eggs. Not to mention the festivities
still took place even though they were "cancelled"
under orders by Congress.
The story becomes a little fuzzy after that
though.
Version one is said that an angry nursemaid
accompanied by a group of angry followers
basically stormed into the White House and
demanded the children to be given access
to the lawn for egg rolling while version
two of the story says Rutherford B. Hayes
was riding by to see children in tears.
Nonetheless it is confirmed that the very
next year, then President Hayes and his
wife Lucy in 1878 opened up the lawns to
let anxious children carry on, no one has
been brave enough to say no ever since.
There have been a few occasions when the
egg rolling didn’t take place on the White
House grounds most likely for the sake of
national security because during World War
I and World War II, the egg rolling ceremony
was held at the National Zoo as well as
other locations.
Every year on the Monday after Easter thousands
of children raid the south lawn to ‘roll
eggs’ that are signed by famous Americans
including the President and First Lady.
Who would have thought there would ever
have been such turmoil over a bunch of kids
with some eggs, the tradition lives on!
Source: Johann Erickson, OnlineDiscountMart.com