Lentorama 2022: It Happened on Easter 

Day 18: Kids pester local man to have Easter egg roll on his lawn

The origins of the White House Easter egg roll are murky, but it seems to have started with Dolley Madison in 1814. For years afterwards, it was not uncommon to see Easter egg rolls all over Washington DC on Easter Monday (and occasionally Good Friday), and in the 1870s the main location for the event was the Capitol.

As you might imagine, having hundreds of people running around rolling eggs and otherwise cavorting does a number on your green space. Congress didn't want to spend money fixing things after each year's roll, so in 1876 they banned the use of the Capitol grounds as aa children's playground. Heavy rain cancelled the event in 1877, but ads taken out in the newspapers on Easter Sunday 1878 reminded the locals that the Capitol was closed for egg rolling. 

Enter President Rutherford B. Hayes. He wasn't particularly aware of the egg rolling tradition, and while on his daily walk some kids stopped him to ask if they could use the South Lawn of the White House now that the Capitol was off limits. Hayes went back to the White House, asked some staff about it, and instructed them to give access to any kid who came to the White House looking to roll eggs. 

The egg rolling tradition continues to this day, though the event is much more tightly controlled. There are other events besides egg rolling, and there are often appearances by celebrities or other members of government. At the end of the day all attendees get a commemorative wooden egg signed by the President and the First Lady.