Today, the White House is hosting the annual Easter Egg Roll, an executive mansion tradition that dates back to the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes in which some lucky kids get to use a souvenir spoon to push an egg around the White House lawn.
Today’s event is expected to draw some 35,000 visitors to the White House, where egg-pushers and their families will be treated to entertainment by costumed versions of cartoon characters, the Washington Nationals’ Racing Presidents and music by artists including Janelle Monáe.
Over the weekend, the White House shared some photos from Easter Egg Rolls past, as far back as 1898, when President William McKinley hosted the springtime celebration.
Of course, just because the event is supposed to be about frolicking on the White House lawn while Clifford the Big Red Dog and the cast of Sesame Street stand watch, doesn’t mean the day will be free of politics. A gay couple from New Mexico whose eight-year-old daughter won a ticket to the Easter Egg Roll has announced they will, if given the chance, confront President Obama on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill proposed in several recent Congresses but never passed by both houses that would prohibit workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Obama has said he supports the legislation, though the current version of the bill has languished in House and Senate committees since being introduced in April 2011.
The bill would apply to federal contractors as well as private-sector companies, a detail that impacts the New Mexico couple, Jarrod Scarbrough and Les Sewell. “I work for a federal contractor, and there’s a piece of paper sitting on President Obama’s desk that would give me a little more security for my family,” Scarbrough, who works for United Healthcare, told the New York Daily News in a statement.
And for us locals, the 35,000 visitors the White House expects to receive today means an excess of downtown tourists. Prepare to slow-pedal through that 15th Street cycle track.
Fun fact: Even though today’s event is billed as the 134th Easter Egg Roll, there have been fewer than 134. The Easter Egg Roll was put off from 1917 to 1920, and again during World War II.
