The annual White House Easter Egg Roll Monday looked a lot like Christmas.
Actually, the temperature at this year’s rite of spring was 10 degrees colder than it was at Christmas.
Thousands of bundled-up children braved the near-freezing weather for the 129-year-old event. Children chased down colorful eggs and pushed eggs across the South Lawn using giant spoons.
First lady Laura Bush called the Easter Egg Roll one of the happiest traditions at the White House. President Bush was absent, traveling to Arizona.
“In Washington, we know spring has arrived when the White House lawn is filled with children for the Easter Egg Roll,” she said.
This year’s tradition included 14,400 Easter eggs: 7,200 for the egg roll races; 3,000 for the hunt and 4,200 for the coloring.
The Washington egg roll commemorates President Rutherford B. Hayes’ decision in 1878 to allow children to roll Easter eggs on the White House lawn after Congress banned the event from the Capitol grounds to protect the grass.
The National Park Service distributed more than 18,000 tickets. Each child received a commemorative White House wooden Easter egg.
Information from the Associated Press was used for this report.
