National Trust, a nature and environmental conservation
charity based in the United Kingdom, has held a popular annual Easter Egg hunt
for a decade now, an event that has hitherto been known as the Easter Egg
Trail. This year, however, the organization has decided to re-brand the
proceedings as the Great British Egg Hunt. They added a word, but something’s
still missing. Oh yeah, they took “Easter” out of the Easter Egg quest. Why?
Cadbury,
the chocolate manufacturer, sponsors the event. The company explained that it
wanted to appeal to non-Christians. According to the Daily Telegraph, the
company stated: “We invite people from all faiths and none to enjoy our
seasonal treats.”
The
Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, was highly critical of the decision, pointing
out that the company’s founder, John Cadbury, was a devout Christian. “The
Cadburys were Great Quaker industrialists. If people visited Birmingham today
in the Cadbury World, they will discover how Cadbury’s Christian faith
influenced his industrial output. He built houses for all his workers, he built
a church, he made provision for schools. It is obvious that for him Jesus and
justice were two sides of the one coin. To drop Easter from Cadbury’s Easter
Egg Hunt in my book is tantamount to spitting on the grave of Cadbury.”
Cadbury
de-emphasized the word Easter on their regular chocolate egg packaging last
year, moving it to the back of the package and replacing it with “Milk
Chocolate Eggs.”
It is
clear the company can see the proverbial writing on the wall, and also more
profits in the future. The death of Christianity in Europe and the concurrent
rise of Islam means that the decision to abandon the term “Easter” likely won’t
leave Cadbury with egg on its face…at
least from a business perspective.
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