How the White House Easter Egg Roll became one of the oldest American traditions

• The White House Easter Egg Roll has been a spring tradition for more than 130 years.
• President Rutherford B. Hayes started the widely successful White House tradition after Congress banned children from rolling their eggs on Capitol Hill.
• This April, President Donald Trump will host his third take on the event, which has included book readings, celebrity-signed eggs, and an appearance by the Easter Bunny.
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On Easter Monday, the hottest ticket in Washington D.C. is the annual Easter Egg Roll.

Washingtonian families have spent the day on the South Lawn of the White House rolling and playing with their dyed Easter eggs since President Rutherford B. Hayes opened the gates to the Executive Mansion in 1878.

Since then, the affair has become one of the most high-profile events that takes place at the White House each year. In an interview with The New York Times, Melinda Bates, who organized eight years of Clinton-era Easter Egg Rolls said, "The White House and the first lady are judged on how well they put it on."

President Donald Trump is hosting his third roll this April in the latest version of this event. Here's a look at White House Egg Roll's past.

SEE ALSO: The Trumps hosted their 2nd White House Easter Egg Roll in 2018 — and the photos are fantastic

DON'T MISS: Trump's White House Easter bunny was mysteriously missing its vest — and people were concerned

President Hayes started the widely successful White House tradition in 1878 after Congress banned children from rolling their eggs on Capitol Hill.

The Evening Star reported, "Driven out of the Capitol grounds, the children advanced on the White House grounds to-day and rolled eggs down the terraces back of the Mansion, and played among the shrubbery to their heart's content."

The children loved rolling their eggs and themselves down the "Jefferson Mounds" on the South Lawn, originally landscaped by President Thomas Jefferson himself.

Source: National Archives

In 1887 President Grover Cleveland began inviting children into the East Room of the White House, ruining several rugs in the process.

In fact, the Washington Post described the White House floors as "ground full of freshly smashed hard-boiled egg and broken egg shells."