More Easter Traditions

I know this post is also a little belated, but seems to have been the trend of late.  This is the last one about Easter, I promise!  I thought I would just wrap up Easter completely with a small discussion about the Easter Bunny and some coverage of the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.  As would possibly be expected, the Easter Bunny tradition does not exactly have anything to do with the Christian holiday of Easter, but is instead associated with pre-Christian fertility lore- apparently rabbits were the most fertile animals known at the time and therefore were associated with new life during the Spring season.  This obviously could be related to the history of the name "Easter" itself, which comes from a pagan goddess of fertility.  As an Easter symbol, the bunny originated in Germany in the 1500s and was introduced to American folklore by German immigrants to the Pennsylvania Dutch area of the U.S. in the 1700s.  All of this information comes from this website: http://www.easterbunnys.net/easterbunnyhistory.htm
Another American Easter tradition is the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.  It is one of the oldest annual White House events, as it has been occurring on Easter Monday since 1878.  Some historians hypothesize that this tradition was first suggested by Dolley Madison, but records of actual informal egg-rolling parties can be dated back to President Lincoln.  This year, Barack and Michelle Obama hosted the 135th Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn with more than 30,000 guests in attendance.  In accordance with some of the First Lady's goal to fight obesity, the theme was "Be Healthy, Be Active, Be You."  In addition to simply attending, the guests were also presented with commemorative wooden eggs that bore the signatures of every member of the First Family, including their dog.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/04/01/be-healthy-be-active-be-you-2013-white-house-easter-egg-roll
http://www.whitehousehistory.org/whha_shows/holidays_easter/index.html