Hot cross bunnies

[shewhomust]

This is trivial, because I'm about ready for some trivia. As is the entire nation, apparently. We're tired of Brexit and the horrors of war, we want to get steamed up about chocolate eggs. And fortunately the Archbishop of York is ready to oblige.

The National Trust is celebrating Easter by holding egg hunts at a number of their properties, with the help of Cadbury's, and some bright mischief maker reporter persuaded John Sentamu that the publicity ("Join the Cadbury Egg Hunts this Easter") did not state sufficiently prominently that the hunt was for Easter eggs, and thereby diminished the role of Christianity in the festival, and the nation at large. John Sentamu to the rescue! The archbishop of York said that it was tantamount to "spitting on the grave" of John Cadbury, the Quaker founder of the firm.

Where to begin to unpack this?

With the obvious, I suppose: Easter eggs have about as much to do with Christianity as - as Easter itself, actually. Do we need to tell the Archbishop that his spring festival is deeply pagan at heart, and that pinning it to the Jewish Passover cannot hide that?

Jeremy Corbyn came closer to the real point: "It upsets me because I don't think Cadbury should take over the name of Easter," he said. But his objection was simply to the commercialisation of the festival: mine is specifically to the confectionery aspect. Speaking as a type 2 diabetic, in a nation with a serious sugar eddiction, does everything have to be about chocolate? The Easter tradition in this part of the world was 'pace egging', the competitive rolling of hard-boiled eggs down a convenient hillside (they knew how to enjoy themselves in those days...).

What was tantamount to spitting on the grave of John Cadbury, though, was the hostile takeover of Cadbury's by Kraft Foods, and the subsequent debasement of the creme egg. But perhaps the Archbishop missed this news; York is the home of rival confectioner Rowntree.

Comments

[lil_shepherd]

Let's put it like this: as a particularly outspoken atheist, I have to say that, unlike Desmond Tutu, John Sentamu is not someone I have wished was on my side of the religious fence. Quite the reverse.

[shewhomust]

I admit, he's an easy target.

[wolfinthewood]

deeply pagan at heart

This is dubious, I'm afraid. Most likely eggs became associated with Easter because eating eggs was forbidden during Lent. So at Easter people binged on eggs - especially the poor, who could not afford meat. And the children of the poor went round begging for eggs to celebrate Easter:

Dame, dame,
Give me an egg for the worship of Good Friday,
If your hens will not lay
Your cock must obey,
With three golden staves on London Bridge.

--- traditional rhyme used by Orlando Gibbons in The Cryes of London (between 1612 and 1625)

[shewhomust]

I didn't know that - thank you!

I still think there'a an overlay of 'hooray! it's spring!' about it - all those fluffy chicks and Easter bunnies...

[wolfinthewood]

Oh definitely.

[cmcmck]

This bugged me too, especially as I happen to BE a Quaker and he'd no doubt be the first to whine about cultural appropriation.

Cadburys do the sponsorship, they get to name the fun. If the C of E wants to put their tag on it, let them pay for the goods!

The Rowntrees were, of course, also Quakers.........

Friends- Rotting the teeth of the nation since the 19th century. :o)

[shewhomust]

Oh, yes. The Guardian piece quotes Esther McConnell, a Cadbury descendant, pointing out that Quakers don't celebrate Easter.

Friends- Rotting the teeth of the nation since the 19th century.

Indeed. Saving us from the Demon Drink, luring us into the clutches of the Demon Sugar...

[cmcmck]

We don't celebrate specific festivals on the basis that all days are equally important.

Doesn't mean we don't give pressies or scoff choccy eggs though! :o)

There's this thing called freedom of choice which yer man also seems to have missed.......

[klwilliams]

Ack. Cadbury is owned by Kraft?! Maker of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, that beloved (in the same way as so many other now-disparaged things are) orange-powdered staple of my childhood? Cue another childhood memory: One of these things is not like the other...

I know the pace egging song, but had no idea what it meant. Of course, the song references eggs and strong beer, with no mention of whether chocolate is required (or not).

[shewhomust]

'Pace' as in paschal, i.e. Easter. But I don't know the song...

[klwilliams]

I can sing the chorus, but here are the extended lyrics: https://www.flashlyrics.com/lyrics/the-watersons/pace-egging-song-69