40,000 people and 64,000 eggs: White House hatches plans for 144th Easter Egg Roll
CNN
The hottest ticket in Washington this week involves spoons, eggs, referees and a throng of cheering parents: It’s time for the 144th annual White House Easter Egg Roll.
The hottest ticket in Washington this week involves spoons, eggs, referees and a throng of cheering parents: It’s time for the 144th annual White House Easter Egg Roll. Since the 1870s, children have participated in the time-honored, Americana custom of pushing brightly colored, hard-boiled eggs across the White House South Lawn with wooden spoons. They’ll do so again on Monday, celebrating a tradition that has withstood intense political polarization and global conflict – and even multiple world wars and pandemics. Yet political polarization threatened to overshadow the festive, family-friendly event as Republicans railed against the White House for commemorating Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter Sunday, even though the day is observed annually on March 31. GOP lawmakers in leadership positions, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, called the presidential proclamation “appalling” as the White House fired back against what it cast as “cruel, hateful, and dishonest rhetoric.” Monday’s event will be President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden’s third crack at the Easter festivities. Staff and volunteers have scrambled to prepare for the event, which is “EGGucation”-themed for a third year in a row. The South Lawn and Ellipse will be transformed “into a school community, full of fun educational activities for children of all ages to enjoy,” the first lady’s office said, and the exterior of the White House “will be adorned with balloons, marked with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) school subjects.” Approximately 40,000 visitors are expected to enter and eggs-it throughout the day, including military and veteran families, caregivers and survivors, per the White House.
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