The White House resumed, this Monday (18), a tradition that had been suspended since 2020 because of the pandemic: the Easter egg hunt in the garden of the Presidency’s headquarters.
The event expects to receive 30,000 visitors this Monday. There was no requirement for masks, in yet another sign of how the US government has been seeking to return to post-pandemic normalcy, despite a slight increase in cases in recent weeks. Tickets, free of charge, were distributed through a virtual raffle.
THE Sheet accompanied the first hours of the party, although press access was limited to a limited area. The first participants arrived around 7am, when the temperature was around 6 degrees. A light rain fell during the morning, but the outdoor party continued. In a fair atmosphere, hundreds of adults and children participated in games such as looking for hidden eggs and throwing balls into baskets.
The most prestigious activity, which gives its name to the event, is the Egg Roll: a race in which children push eggs into the grass, using spoons, to see who can make the fastest route. Boiled chicken eggs are used, painted in bright colors.
The Egg Roll is a Monday after Easter tradition in the United States. The date is a public holiday in several European countries and in some American states. In the 19th century, children played contests on Capitol Hill, the hill where Congress is located, but representatives and senators passed a federal law in 1876 banning the practice there, on the grounds that I need to preserve the lawn.
Two years later, in 1878, President Rutherford Hayes decided to open the White House garden for children to play Egg Roll there. Soon the event became one of the main events of the year in Washington. The tradition has been maintained since then, with breaks during the world wars (it was important to ration eggs) and in 2020 and 2021, due to the pandemic.
At Monday’s event, President Joe Biden appeared shortly after 10 am, alongside the First Lady. “Jill and I are excited to have you at the White House. We were unable to host the event last year because of the pandemic, but this year we are finally together again. It means a lot to us to see and hear the children and families here.” , said the president, in a short speech, alongside two people dressed as rabbits.
After the speeches, the president went to the crowd. He blew the starting whistle for some egg races and took pictures. In a moment of interaction with the audience, Biden commented something about Pakistan and Afghanistan in a disjointed way, when he was pulled by one of the “rabbits” to go to another part of the event.
The idea of ​​having people dressed as rabbits was adopted in 1969, when an aide to First Lady Pat Nixon showed up at the event dressed like that. Since then, presidents often appear alongside the character.
Other mascots circulate around the party, such as those of local teams, characters like Snoopy and some that resemble the first American presidents, in a mixture of patriotism and pop culture.
Before leaving, Biden read excerpts from children’s books to the children, alongside his wife. “Dr. Biden is America’s grandmother,” said host Jimmy Fallon, who also attended the reading.
The event is usually organized by the First Lady’s office. This year, the theme of the party was “egg-ducation”, playing with the words egg and education. “As a First Lady and a teacher, I’ve seen many times that learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom. There are lots of fun opportunities all around us to learn. So we turned South Lawn into a community school,” she said.
