Religious-themed designs banned from White House Easter egg art contest

Children of the National Guard are prohibited from submitting religious Easter egg designs for the 2024 "Celebrating National Guard Families" art event at the White House. 

The art contest is part of the White House’s Easter traditions, which include the annual Easter Egg Roll. The flyer for the contest states that an Easter egg design submission "must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements." 

"As part of the White House Easter traditions, America’s Egg Farmers – for nearly 50 years – have proudly presented an intricately decorated Commemorative Easter Egg to the First Lady of the United States. In 2021, the White House expanded on this longstanding tradition by displaying youth-designed Easter eggs in the White House East Colonnade," the flyer explains.

"On behalf of First Lady Jill Biden, The Adjutants General of the National Guard are asking youth from National Guard families across the United States and all U.S. territories to submit artwork inspired by the theme ‘Celebrating our Military Families,’" the flyer continues.

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Children are asked to design eggs with images based on their own lives. "Selected designs representing the unique experience and stories of National Guard children will be brought to life on real hen eggs by talented egg artists from across the country and displayed at the White House this Easter and Passover season," the flyer says.

Children also can't promote material that promotes "bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age" in their designs. The rules appear to mirror ones that govern a longstanding contest held by the American Egg Board in which one military child's decorated egg is presented to the First Lady. Selected designs will be painted by artists on real eggs and displayed at the White House.

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The White House announced Thursday that the annual Easter Egg Roll would follow an "EGGucation" theme as it has in years past. 

"A teacher for more than 30 years, First Lady Jill Biden is continuing her theme of 'EGGucation' for the event, transforming the South Lawn and Ellipse into a school community, full of fun educational activities for children of all ages to enjoy," a statement from the White House read. An estimated 40,000 people are expected to take part in Monday's annual event. 

In addition to the egg roll and Easter egg hunt, the event will also include a Physical "EGGucation" (PE) Zone, a School House Activity Area, Reading Nook, Field Trip to the Farm, Picture Day and a snack tent. Children's entertainment, including "educational acts and performances," will be shown on a "School House stage" on the South Lawn.

American Egg Board President and CEO Emily Metz represents America’s egg farmers. She told Fox News Digital after publication of this article that for the past 47 years they’ve partnered with the White House. Metz stated, "I think it's important to know that everything we do from a marketing and promotion standpoint, because we are a check off, we have very strict guidelines under the USDA." 

She added, "We all have to follow kind of guidelines, which essentially, number one, we can't discriminate against any other commodity…. We can't go out there and say, ‘hey, pork is awful and we only should only get eggs.’ We have to be very, clear about that. We also can't promote one type of egg over the other type of egg. So we have to be, excuse the pun, egg-nostic. And we also, most importantly, can't discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, sexual identity, any of that." 

Metz insisted, "So when we say, can't be overtly religious, we just can't be seen to be promoting one religion over the other, the same way we can't be seen to be promoting one political viewpoint or ideology over the other. We have to be totally neutral in everything we do and have it just be focused on egg promotion and marketing activities. And this is obviously a huge opportunity for us to showcase the incredible eggs in a really fun and unique way." 

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Fox News' Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report.