White House celebrated Easter spirit on Monday (local time) with a staffer dressed as the Easter Bunny making an appearance at the media room while press secretary Jen Psaki was concluding her briefing.
The life-sized bunny, appropriately wearing a mask to reflect the precautions taken by humans during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, handed out commemorative eggs and chocolates to reporters in the room.
"We have a special guest. I will say that we know that this is one of the events where people get to take their children, family members, friends to," White House press secretary Psaki said as the Easter Bunny walked towards the podium. "It's not quite the same. We'll do a big one next year, but we still wanted to have a visitor and some special commemorative Easter eggs for all of you from the president and First Lady," she added.
Earlier in the afternoon, the Easter bunny had appeared at an event where President Joe Biden delivered remarks marking the Easter holiday instead of the traditional White House Easter Egg Roll, which was cancelled for the second year in a row due to the coronavirus pandemic.
From a balcony the president delivered brief remarks denoting the holiday, which he celebrated at Camp David a day earlier. Biden said he looked forward to the return of the egg roll next year.
The White House eggs handed out to reporters were multicoloured and decorated with a picture of a rabbit wearing a mask on the front and signatures of Biden and first lady Jill Biden on the back, the Hill reported.
Meghan Hays, White House director of message planning, later tweeted a photo of herself revealing that she was playing the part of the Easter Bunny at the media room briefing.
"Is this what they mean when they say "other duties as assigned"?! So great to stop by @PressSec's briefing today. Happy Easter!" she tweeted.
At the event with the president and first lady Lt. Col. Brandon Westling played the role of the Easter Bunny. Below the balcony of the First Couple were cutouts of bunnies with masks and egg-shaped cutouts.
The Hill explained that the White House typically hosts hundreds of people for the Easter egg roll, where children gather on the South Lawn to partake in the annual tradition as the president and first lady look on. But the event was scrapped last year in the early weeks of the pandemic and was called off again this year as the country works to get case numbers under control.
The president and first lady also sent wooden commemorative eggs to Covid-19 vaccination sites around the country to mark the holiday.
( With inputs from ANI )
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