UK city urged to ban 159 year-old Easter egg-rolling tradition - 'use potatoes'

Animal rights activists have demanded that a city's 159-year-old Easter egg-rolling event be banned - or potatoes used instead. Since 1867, a crowd of 30,000 gathers every Easter Monday to roll either painted hen's eggs or, more recently, chocolate eggs down the slopes of Avenham Park, in Preston, Lancashire.

The annual event - which sees egg-rolls every hour - also boasts Easter bonnet-making, prizes, street food, live music, street theatre, workshops, magicians, storytelling and arts and crafts. But now People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) has asked Preston Council to "modernise" its annual event by using potatoes instead of chocolate eggs - or at the very least, ensuring chocolate eggs are vegan.

Peta's Jennifer White said eggs "come from an industry that sends billions of animals to their deaths while they're still babies".

Any chocolate eggs should be vegan, she added, because the dairy industry is "also incredibly cruel".

White added that the annual events should not condone cruelty to creatures: "We know that Easter is all about celebrating new life and you simply can't do that when you're rolling eggs that come from an industry that send billions of animals to their deaths while they're still babies.

"So by rolling potatoes, you get all of the fun and the tradition, but just without the animal cruelty.

"Preston is actually home to one of the longest-standing egg-rolling events. So we wanted to ask them because, if they say yes, then that could help inspire egg-rolling events all over the country."

White also said potatoes were cheaper, more eco-friendly, healthier and "don't involve animals being farmed or sent to their deaths".

PETA claims that an annual Easter potato roll in Preston would be "inclusive to all."

They went on: "Particularly those who don’t eat eggs for health, cultural, religious, or environmental reasons or because they don’t want to support filthy farms, where thousands of hens are confined to dark, filthy sheds, often unable to stretch their wings fully."

PETA Vice President of Programmes Elisa Allen said: "Children love animals and would be sad to learn that the eggs used for fun and games at Preston’s egg rolling event come from tormented hens who live miserable lives on Britain’s farms.

"Easter should be a time of renewal and joy for all sentient beings – and that means hens, too."

In the mid-19th Century, the annual Egg Rolling event at Avenham Park would have involved rolling decorated hen's eggs down grassy hills.

These eggs were known as pace-eggs and were originally a Lancashire custom. Pace-eggs were traditionally decorated by wrapping the eggs in onion skins and boiling them to give the shells a golden mottled effect.

Children would then roll their pace-eggs down the hills and see who could get theirs the furthest without it breaking.

It was also tradition to destroy any remaining shells on the grassy hills; Lancashire witches could steal them and use them as boats.

Today, the Egg Rolling at Avenham Park mainly sees a more modern version of rolling chocolate eggs down its steep slopes.

Preston Council stressed that the event "does not prescribe the type of egg to be rolled, and visitors have the choice as to what they roll down the hill."

A Preston Council spokesperson added: "Egg rolling in Preston dates back more than 150 years and is a well-established tradition, regularly attracting 30,000 visitors each year.

"Whilst historically visitors turned up with hard-boiled eggs, more recently these are often switched for chocolate eggs to be rolled down the hill at Avenham Park."