page_title: Egg rolling
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Egg rolling / United States
context_page_description: Egg rolling, or an Easter egg roll is a traditional game played with eggs at Easter. Different nations have different versions of the game, usually played with hard-boiled, decorated eggs.
context_section_description: In the United States, the Easter Egg Roll is an annual event, and is held on the White House South Lawn each Easter Monday for children (age 13 and younger) and their parents. It is hosted by the President of the United States and the First Lady of the United States.
  The Egg Roll is a race, where children push an egg through the grass with a long-handled spoon.  Surrounding events include appearances by White House personalities in Easter Bunny costumes, speeches and book-reading by cabinet secretaries, and exhibits of artistically-decorated eggs.
  According to tradition, Dolley Madison, the wife of President James Madison, began the event in 1814 and hundreds of children brought their decorated eggs to join in games.  Rolling Easter eggs was a popular annual custom in Washington DC and Alexandria, Virginia from as early as the 1850s, with children rolling eggs on Easter Monday (and sometimes Good Friday) at the Capitol, the White House and other parks and open spaces.  Easter eggs were rolled at the capitol as early as 1855 and at the White House as early as 1860.  By the 1870s, the Capitol had become the most popular place to roll eggs, although they were also rolled at the White House and other places.
  
  In 1876, shortly after a particularly rambunctious Easter egg roll destroyed much of the lawn at the Capitol, Congress passed a law making it illegal to use the capitol grounds as a children's playground.  Heavy rain prevented much egg rolling in 1877, so the ban was not tested until 1878.
  At the request of a number of children, including his own, then President Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife Lucy Hayes brought the event to the White House lawns in 1878. From that year on, the egg roll would be an annual White House event, with the exception of 1917 (moved to the Washington Monument), 1918-1920 (canceled due to food shortages and influenza concerns), 1942 (moved to the Capitol West Lawn), 1943-1945 (World War II), 1946-1947 (food conservation), 1948-1952 (restoration of the White House) and 2020 (social distancing measures to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic).
  In 1953 Mamie Eisenhower proposed that event be opened to black children, who were allowed to participate starting in 1954.
  The event was featured in the 2007 film National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
caption: The Reagans at the 1982 White House Easter egg roll
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "400", "Image YResolution": "400", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2010:04:05 13:45:34", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9923", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "391", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "261"}