Go roll an egg: Haven't tried it? You're missing an old tradition

By Jack Broom
Seattle Times staff reporter

	MARIAN WACHTER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
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If your first impulse is to make some remark about Chinese food, go ahead.

That's how a lot of people around here respond when asked if they know about "Easter egg rolls."

When Easter comes to the Northwest, we boil eggs and we color them. We hide them and we find them. We give them away in baskets and we mush them up in egg-salad sandwiches until we can't stand to look at them anymore.

But shouldn't there be something more?

Of course there should. Most of us are missing out on a centuries-old practice brought here from Europe and celebrated annually — of all places — on the White House South Lawn.

At 5 a.m. tomorrow, Seattle time, 7,200 eggs provided by the American Egg Board will fuel the fun as thousands of kids in Washington, D.C., celebrate with music, reading, art activities, stage shows and games.

Maybe you can still make it. The White House says some tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. Eastern time.

But even though that tradition dates back to the 1870s, and possibly earlier, there is scant indication that egg-rolling holds much of a place in American culture today. A spokeswoman for the American Egg Board said the White House event is the only one she knows about.

(Don't let the folks in Davenport, Iowa, hear that. They hosted an egg roll last weekend that drew 30 families to a hillside above the Mississippi River to push plastic eggs weighted with coins.)

Egg games Distance: Eggs are rolled downhill; farthest without breaking wins. Speed: First egg down the hill without breaking wins. Nose-assisted: Players use their noses to push eggs to the finish line. Spoon-assisted: Players use spoons to push eggs to the finish line. Spoon, carry: Competitors use spoons to carry their eggs to the finish line. Indoor version: Players, in turn, roll eggs down small ramps onto a flat floor. One point is scored for each other egg knocked into motion. Egg tapping: Each person holds a cooked egg in one hand and taps it against others' eggs. The winner is the person with the last unbroken egg. Possible venues: Park sources we contacted were largely unfamiliar with egg rolls, but suggested some parks with grassy slopes that might be suitable: • Seattle: Gas Works Park, Volunteer Park, Seward Park, Lower Woodland Park. • Bellevue: Downtown Park. • Lynnwood: Lynndale Park, Wilcox Park. • King County: Petrovitsky Park in Renton, 132nd Square Park in Redmond, and Lakewood Park in White Center.

Here in Puget Sound country, we hunt eggs with a passion in parks, around community centers, churches and schools. Seattle Parks spokeswoman Dewey Potter heard of the White House fun while she was growing up in Virginia. But not once in her 10 years on the Seattle job has she heard of a park here holding an egg-rolling event.

"Maybe we should," she allowed.

Ancient symbol

Even before the time of Christ, eggs were a symbol of a renewal of life. Some accounts say ancient Greeks and Egyptians placed eggs in tombs as an indication that new life would come.

In Christian tradition, rolling eggs symbolizes the stone being rolled away from Christ's tomb, according to Crew's Nest, an online source of holiday information. It says the object is to see who can roll an egg the farthest distance down a grassy hillside or slope, or who can roll it the farthest without breaking it.

Egg-rolling is common in Britain. Events at a celebration in Oxford tomorrow include "Best Painted Egg," "Fastest Egg" and "Demolition Derby."

For egg info closer to home, we turned to Dianna Stiebrs of Yelm in Thurston County. She's co-owner of 51-year-old Stiebrs Farms, which produces 320,000 eggs a day — that's 3.7 eggs every second. And for the last six years, she's been a member of the American Egg Board.

"I suppose there are more dignified ways to play egg-rolling," she said, "but my experience was rolling the egg with our noses." Stiebrs played that game with her church youth group growing up near Salem, Ore. "You had to get down on your knees, and your hands were behind your back. You had to be very limber and very young."

And when she got back home ... "We had a steep hill in our yard and sometimes we rolled eggs down it, but we thought that was something we just made up."

But she doesn't know of any modern-day egg rolls and isn't sure why the practice appears to have faded.

One Seattle resident with an egg-rolling background is Feliks Banel, deputy director of Seattle's Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI).

"It's always been part of my family folklore that my father did this as a kid in Poland in the '20s and '30s," Banel said. "Unless it was an elaborate joke he played on us."

	AMERICAN EGG BOARD This egg, decorated by Stewart Poulsen of Enumclaw, was chosen to represent Washington in this year's Easter celebration at the White House.

In the Banel home, hard-cooked eggs are rolled down a ramp made from a cereal box, and the player gets one point for each egg knocked into motion. Banel sent us a videotape of a room full of adults and kids taking their turns gently placing their eggs on a slanted Froot Loops box.

Besides his own family's fun, Banel isn't familiar with any current or historic information about egg-rolling here. "There have been Polish people I've run into over the years, and I've asked them about it and they say, 'Huh?' "

Don't worry, Feliks. This was no joke by your father. Hanna Gil of Issaquah, member of an Eastside Polish book club, showed us a Polish newspaper article mentioning egg-rolling in a history of Southern Poland.

The article cites a 1454 document granting the mayor of Pawlowice authority to establish a special place for egg-rolling games on Easter Sunday. Gil also found references to egg-rolling being a French or German custom.

But Gil, who was born and raised in Poland, said she isn't aware of it as a current-day Polish activity. "I don't think people want to waste food of any kind."

A Capitol idea

The precise origin of the White House Easter event isn't clear. Egg-rolling was a custom of many families in the area in the 1700s and some historians say Dolley Madison, first lady from 1801 to 1809, may have been the first to suggest a public egg roll. Others say informal egg-rolling parties were held when Abraham Lincoln was president.

Do you roll 'em? Is rolling eggs a part of your Easter tradition, or has it been in the past? Write to talktous@seattletimes.com or mail Talk To Us, PO Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. Please include a daytime telephone number.

A White House history of the event (www.whitehouse.gov/easter) says news reports from as early 1872 tell of public egg-rolls in Washington, D.C. — not in the president's back yard, but outside the Capitol building.

Not everyone was enthused. "The children of Washington apparently caused such a ruckus on the Capitol grounds in 1876 that Congress passed the Turf Protection Law to prohibit the area from being used as a playground."

Two years later, President Rutherford B. Hayes hosted what's regarded as the White House's first official egg-rolling party. By the end of the 1800s, games included "Egg Ball," "Toss and Catch" and "Egg Croquet."

War and bad weather occasionally have caused the event's cancellation. The longest break lasted through World War II and a major post-war renovation of the grounds. The egg roll resumed under President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953, with 53,000 people attending.

Last year, with the event taking place early in the Iraq War, only military families were invited.

Given that history and tradition, is there any reason egg-rolling couldn't be popular here? The weather, certainly, can pose a challenge. Eggs can be hunted on wet grass much more easily than they can be rolled.

Banel, at MOHAI, said the nature of our parks could be a factor. Large expanses of neatly manicured lawn are seldom seen in the more natural and informal parks of the Northwest.

If egg-rolling ever were to become common here, "It would have to be developed at the grass roots," Banel said. "We like to borrow and improvise and derive things. Not have them imposed."

He had another thought, noting the longevity of hydroplane racing: "Major corporate underwriting," he said. "A major beer sponsor for egg-rolling."

Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or jbroom@seattletimes.com

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