Jump to navigation Jump to search For the appetizer, see egg roll. 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. Starting in 1835, Jacob Grimm and other writers egg roll in a bowl that the pre-Christian Saxons had a spring goddess, Eostre, whose feast was held on the Vernal equinox, around 21 March.
Some claim that Pope Gregory the Great had ordered his missionaries to use old religious sites and festivals in order to absorb them into Christian rituals wherever possible. In the United Kingdom the tradition of rolling decorated eggs down grassy hills goes back hundreds of years and is known as “pace-egging”, from the Old English Pasch meaning Pesach or Passover. Grasmere there is a collection of highly decorated eggs made for the poet’s children. In Scotland, pace-eggin is traditional from Shetland to the Borders although the day varied with location, pace-egg day variously the prior Saturday, Easter Sunday, or Easter Monday. Paiss-braes, hills, were used or other grassy slopes or areas such as seaside links.
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. 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. 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. In Germany, a prize is awarded to the contestant whose egg rolls fastest down a track made of sticks.