LERNA – Visitors are invited to celebrate a presidential tradition – the Easter egg roll – at the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site in Lerna Saturday afternoon.

Although President Rutherford Hayes hosted the first official White House Easter egg roll in 1878, children had been rolling their colored eggs in races since just after the end of the Civil War. The first reported egg roll was during the term of President Andrew Johnson, and by the 1870s it was a popular spring tradition for the children of the U.S. capital city.

The Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site will again host the traditional egg roll, along with period games, craft activities and an egg hunt with designated times for different age groups for children 10 and under between 1 and 4 p.m. Saturday. New this year is an activity for children ages 11 to 18 and an Easter bonnet parade for adults.

The egg hunt will begin at 1:15 p.m., the Easter bonnet parade at 1:45 p.m. and the egg roll at 2 p.m. Children should bring their own baskets for the egg hunt, and adults who wish to participate in the parade should have their bonnets and hats ready by the time of the event.

The Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, part of the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area, was the 1840s home of Abraham Lincoln’s father and stepmother, Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln. It is located at 402 S. Lincoln Highway Road in Lerna, about eight miles south of Charleston and 14 miles southwest of Mattoon. For more information, visit www.lincolnlogcabin.org

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