Easter Eggs

durhamjen Mrs May didn't think it was 'fake news' and neither did The Archbishop of York.

It was also timed to coincide with Passover.

But they do have to do with Eostre (her symbol was a rabbit or a hare) and Easter was so named by the pragmatic early Christians after the pagan festival as both symbolise resurrection and rebirth.

An Anglo-Saxon legend - the Easter bunny and eggs

An Anglo-Saxon legend tells how the Saxon goddess Eostre found a wounded bird and transformed it into a hare, so that it could survive the Winter. The hare found it could lay eggs, so it decorated these each Spring and left them as offering to the goddess.

When I was a child, Easter Good Friday's always meant Chocolate Easter eggs given out, a visit to the fair ground (wearing my new Easter coat), take away fish and chips and a visit to grandma and grandad's house where the whole family would enjoy their fish and chips together. Easter Sundays were another family get together with a lovely roast dinner and we were allowed to break into our Easter Eggs too.

GracesGranMK2 That is exactly why people are beginning to rebel. We are a minority IN OUR OWN COUNTRY! Which is a Christian country with Christian values. If people do not want to follow our traditions they can celebrate their own.

MaizieD We are NOT talking about Cadbury Cream Eggs. We are talking about Easter Eggs.

Thought I would clear up the confusion.

Easter is not a religious holy day for many Jalima, it just happens to be the name of the spring holiday and is more to do with children being off school and finding things to occupy them as an chocolate egg hunt will to them. With 20% identifying themselves as Anglican, 10% RC and 17% as other Christian denomination Christians are now in the minority.

Well just to be devils advocate, chocolate and bunnies have nothing to do with a Christian festival, just like Christmas and tinsel

^Why does that allow 'Christians' to claim that the word 'egg' may only be used if it is prefaced by the word 'Easter'.
Well, sometimes 'egg' is prefaced by 'boiled', 'scrambled', 'poached' or even 'coddled'

Sorry, I just couldn't resist!

Easter has become very commercialised like Christmas, I think it is because Easter/Eostre is associated with this time of year when children look forward to chocolate eggs; everyone knows what anyone means when they say 'Easter Egg' but if it is just an 'Egg' it could be a boiled one.

My mother used to boil eggs with food colouring in the water on Easter Sunday so we had pink or blue eggs for breakfast.

What a ridiculous idea of Cadbury, that really is going too far, for heavens sake they are, and always will be, EASTER eggs given at Easter and no other time. What is their problem? All religions enjoy EASTER eggs,ie. chocolate eggs eaten at EASTER, call them what you will but the name is the same.

Surely the eggs are redundant if they aren't called Easter eggs? Christians, followers of other religions or people of no religion can still have chocolate all year round. The last two can also have chocolate shaped as Easter eggs without having to become Christians. There is no rule about it! It's money making, pure and simple but when you look at the price of Easter eggs and calculate the unit price of the chocolate it's probably scandalous! Christians can celebrate Easter without chocolate eggs!

I was a child in London in the forties, and later moved to Wales and then Hampshire. The first mention I ever came across of the easter bunny was when we moved to Yorkshire in 1970, where he/she was a big feature. We had young children then who eagerly adopted the story.

There are loads of holidays around Christmas N&G and I really don't see a problem with others saying something else if they choose to. You don't have to and I have never heard of anyone being made to.

The Tesco ad was fake news, by the way.

Did I miss something ( I might have done because I've only skimmed ...) but who said anything about claiming the word 'egg' may only be used when prefaced by the word 'Easter'?

I have boiled eggs for breakfast and have never felt the urge to call them Easter eggs .

BUT the chocolate ( reasonably limited time availability) eggs, bought for gift giving during the Easter period always have...and in my opinion always will be known as Easter Eggs.

Nothing to do with what religion I choose , that's how they have always been known and in my family at least that's the way it will stay. If you want to talk about political correctness GGM2 then lets talk about changing Happy Christmas to Happy Holidays, lets talk about flying the flag of St George without fear that someone will take offence . That's a whole other discussion I think.

Sorry, the tablet does this sometimes.

Was taken over by an American one, and the chocolate is not chocolate anymore, or at least not the chocolate I like.

Why were the eggs only made for a limited time if they were not Easter Eggs?
They taste horrible now anyway so I haven't bought anything made by Cadbury since the company.

So it is a cynical marketing exercise - nobody said it wasn't, but that happens all the time. Why does that allow 'Christians' to claim that the word 'egg' may only be used if it is prefaced by the word 'Easter'. That is surely political correctness gone mad. When did taking offence become a national obsession?

Oh nanandgrampy you've just said my thoughts EXACTLY. Buy a different brand EASTER egg and enjoy watching children eat them.

Easter is a celebration of new life, and can be symbolised in chickens popping out of eggs and newborn baby animals. There is no need to remove the name, for Christians it means Christ rising from the dead, and for non-Christians it is a celebration of Spring.

The Easter Bunny has nothing to do with the Christian religion, so hunting for eggs this mythical beast has dropped is a secular festival. Just as Father Christmas has nothing to do with the Christian festival of Christmas. (Technically St Nicholas might have started it, but I am not going there)

Christians may choose to add in these secular bits to make their celebrations even more fun for their children, but there is no religious aspect to it.

So whilst I will be in church at Easter (and indeed most weeks of the year) I am not bothered about renaming secular activities. In fact I would be quite happy to have the two separated, Spring Egg Hunts and Father Winter?

No, big solid chocolate eggs just wouldn't work, Lewlew. They'd hurt your teeth - and they wouldn't look pretty either with those desperate tooth scrapes down them . I used to have a similar problem with Toblerone (didn't stop me eating them though).

I referred to this in a post yesterday when I hadn't known that the news story had been exaggerated.

Now that I have seen further details, I agree with CleopatraS that this appears to be a cynical marketing exercise by Cadbury's who did a deal with the National Trust (NT) requiring the use and promotion of their company's eggs.

Unfortunately so much advertising now follows a format where events and TV programmes, etc are accompanied by a prominently displayed slogan such as "...Company....brings you/is proud to sponsor the [event]".

IMHO the NT were foolish to agree to drop the word "Easter" and substitute it with the word "Cadbury's" to promote their Easter Egg Hunts this year, but it won't stop people generally using the words "Easter Eggs" to describe the chocolate eggs sold at this time of year.

I agree that there are more serious issues in the news, but we should not be surprised if people are upset when they see what they regard as British traditions such as Easter Eggs at Easter being renamed for marketing purposes.

I have not bought Cadburys since finding out it was not true blue British made.But then what does being British mean any more these days.?

Great image,Cleopatra and I agree... they are putting wax in them now like they do in Hershey bars. Ugh.

As to the eggs, when I moved here all those years ago I didn't know they were hollow! Some evidently come with smarty stuff inside, but hollow and at those prices?

FAKE EGGS !!!!

I have always been puzzled as to what an item of chocolate confectionary has to do with Christianity or Easter.