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AIBU?

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Original poster

This is a load of piffle, isn't it?

78 replies

Psipsina · 03/04/2015 18:11

We got handed a religious magazine for children yesterday by a fairly fierce looking woman.

It was nice of her to give us one however the copy is terrible, I don't know who writes it - think it's published by the Salvation Army.

This paragraph for a start:

'Chomping chocolate eggs is fun, but did you know there's a serious side to Easter eggs too? The chocolate eggshell is a symbol of the tomb where Jesus was placed after he died. Breaking through the chocolate egg represents the stone being rolled away from Jesus' tomb Hmm. And the eggs-tra treat we find inside reminds us of the joy Jesus' followers experienced when they discovered the tomb was empty,HmmHmm because Jesus had been brought back to life.'

That's patently not the case, or is it? I must have missed some significant bits of my religious education if it is.

OP posts:
Shockers · 03/04/2015 20:00

Don't be forgetting Halloween BigRedBall Grin.

LadySybilLikesSloeGin · 03/04/2015 20:03

"I thought the eggs represented chocolate companies making a bob one last time for the rest of the year...until Christmas." < yup! Don't forget the card shops, because you 'really' must send your loved ones a card because it's Easter Confused Grin

duckyneedsaclean · 03/04/2015 20:07

Easter is always the Sunday after passover, because Jesus was crucified at Passover. Not just because pagans had a festival then!
As to the eggs. Meh.

2boys2girls · 03/04/2015 20:16

I have heard of the egg representing the stone in front of the tomb where Jesus laid , thought it was common knowledge as such?
The new life story pops up to but I'm guessing both resemble the meaning of Easter

Eggs used to have the chocolate inside ie smarties, buttons etc then it changed to being iinside the box rather than egg

Witchofthenorth · 03/04/2015 20:17

At the time of the catholic reformation, they piggy backed into a lot if pagan traditions. Eggs and bunnies for fertility, feasts and evergreens to symbolise

Witchofthenorth · 03/04/2015 20:19

Oh ffs!! Jumpy 3yr old made me press send...

The did this to make Christianity more appealing, they wanted more followers. Nothing wrong with that, but Easter and Christmas were pagan traditions to begin with.

Witchofthenorth · 03/04/2015 20:20

They were called eostara (sp) and Yule before Easter and Christmas

WhenSheWasBadSheWasHorrid · 03/04/2015 20:30

Yep - it's piffle

unlucky83 · 03/04/2015 20:53

The part of the country I come from we didn't do egg rolling ....so maybe that is why I'd never heard of it ...we did blow eggs or hard boil them and paint them (and we ate them).
Where I live now they do egg rolling ...my first thought was what a waste of food Blush -surely when people where really poor they didn't deliberately smash up hard boiled eggs -can't that long standing a tradition?

afterthought2 · 03/04/2015 20:58

I was taught this at school - I attended during the 90s mainly. No idea whether it is 'true' but I get to eat chocolate so happy days :)

Asheth · 03/04/2015 21:02

I remember being told at School that the egg represented the empty tomb... Not a new theory this would have been in the late 70s, early.80s!

stoopstoconker · 03/04/2015 21:22

dc have come home with the same story. Have come from a churchy background and this is new to me, never heard this, though some others say they have.

Trying to explain to my kids how all these festivals and religions were mankinds way of explaining things they didn't understand and couldn't control, but that lots of people find comfort and live good lives for their faith.

The chocolate is just a bonus.

Lozy79 · 03/04/2015 21:26

My vicar told me the same thing.

Original poster
Psipsina · 04/04/2015 07:41

Nice link Lady Syb Smile

I am literally amazed (if that's possible) that so many people think this is true. I went to a Catholic school where everything imaginable was about Jesus and God and we had no let up. This is a story/analogy we never heard. Also my Mother is an Extreme Catholic in the way that you can be into extreme sports, and I read it to her on the phone, and she said it's cobblers (well words to that effect) so maybeeeee it is a C of E or evangelist thing?

I agree that everyone else can keep the simnel cake and palms. Our neighbours have a huge palm tree, we get loads of bits falling onto our path and I suspect my Mother is going to collect them up to make tiny wee crosses.

She said she has bought the children Fair Trade egs which have a pamphlet inside. [eye roll] but should I wish her not to give them these, that is fine. I tried to negotiate for the eggs minus the pamphlets but she was unyielding. It's all or nowt. Hmm

It's like operation Easter child

OP posts:
2boys2girls · 04/04/2015 08:06

Catholics thankfully don't get the monopoly on religion :-)
So what is the Catholics take on the egg?

Original poster
Psipsina · 04/04/2015 08:18

I think it was explained as being about new life (as in, Jesus being alive again, or our sins being taken away for a fresh start etc) all tying in with the wonders of nature as it were.

That's the message I took away from my Catholic education. They were really more concerned with Jesus rising again and all that happiness, the eggs were seen as peripheral and not particularly necessary. More of a children's thing, for fun, you know.

There wasn't a very pertinent analogy as far as I recall.

OP posts:
Original poster
Psipsina · 04/04/2015 08:20

As you may have gathered I'm no longer a Catholic (my Mother says I am, as in, you can never leave, but I have left the building)

OP posts:
Topseyt · 04/04/2015 09:08

Yep, it is bollocks.

Just enjoy the choc. Perhaps Jesus's tomb was sealed with a boulder of chocolate?? Now that would be something else entirely.Grin

Pipbin · 04/04/2015 09:18

Of course it's bollocks. But then it's all bollocks isn't it.

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 04/04/2015 09:23

I was taught that the egg represented the stone in front of Jesus' tomb at Sunday School in the 70s.

And Easter is surely just after Passover?

ConcreteElephant · 04/04/2015 09:26

DD was told the exact same thing this year when her class went on the Easter trail at the local church! Then I attended the nursery Easter service where the same chap repeated this interpretation to the littlies so I know DD hasn't misunderstood.

We aren't a religious family but I like to think I have a decent general knowledge of the Bible, particularly the 'main events' and I'd never heard this.

Other parents were equally surprised by this news so I wonder if it's a recent development. It's not a far-fetched interpretation but I was puzzled not to have come across it before.

Pipbin · 04/04/2015 09:40

And Easter is surely just after Passover?
We I understood that the last supper was Passover. Therefore easter should be after Passover shouldn't it.

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 04/04/2015 09:44

Yes that was my understanding too.

And that Jesus chose that time to make His entrance into Jerusalem as it would be crowded for Passover?

Just checking?!

TheSpottedZebra · 04/04/2015 09:50

I was bought up Catholic, and we were absolutely told that eggs represent the stone in front of the tomb. I've never heard the thing about empty chocolate egg = the wonder of the empty tomb however.

Odd that everything at your school was about Jesus and God. At ours, it was 97% about Mary. Girls' school though - does that change things ? Yup, I'm not Catholic now. I'd say I never was, but as you will know OP, others often see it differently...