To think it isn't 'choccy egg day'

[lisaIambe]

Overheard in supermarket this morning. Mum happily telling moaning DC that if they didn't stop the choccy egg bunny won't bring them anything for choccy egg day.

I know not everyone is religious. But given the name 'Easter' isn't exactly loaded with religious connotations, AIBU to think renaming Easter 'choccy egg day' is just ridiculous?

But gammaray, while I totally get that you don't believe, Jesus is not quite the same as the Easter bunny is he? He's largely accepted as being an historical figure, whether you believe the Son of God but it not. I don't use him or Santa to get my children to behave (and I can't stand those who do!)

As Brasty says. Interesting that culturally we're drifting back to the seasonal cultural feasts and festivals that were the original traditions.

Just to point out it isn't even called Easter in the vast majority of languages. Pascha (the original Latin & Greek name) comes from Passover.

Only English, German and some Slavic languages use Easter (or a variant) from their ancient pre-Christian goddess. So you are referencing a Pagan deity if you use the English word anyway. shrugs

I quite like 'Chocolate Egg Day' and might keep it for myself.

They have no idea who Jesus is, and when they will hear, will will explain he is just like Father Christmas, the tooth fairy and monsters... made up stories used to make people behave.
And thats the kind of 'people who believe in religion are idiots' crap that fuels ignorance in my opinion.
'i hate religion so I'm going to make sure my kids are told categorically what to believe'. Surely, thats no different from telling kids they must believe in a particular faith because 'our faith is the best and everyone else is going to hell'.

And here's me as a Christian & others on this thread who are non-religious actually discussing the importance of understanding other people's views without sactimoniously ridiculing them.

It is true NotCarylChurchill There are so many contemporaneous accounts of a man called Jesus being alive in that part of the world 2000 years ago. The accounts are not just from Christian writers, but also Jewish and Roman writers. There will always be people who question this but generally speaking it's agreed that he existed. Who he was is a matter of debate.

Its not choccy egg day unless you and the kids are pagan.

As an asthist easter to me is all about spring, and i really enjou it including easter egg hunt and sunday roast with family, to me it has nothing to do with religion , my little girl (she is only 10 weeks at moment) when she grows up will be told what some people (Jesus dying on cross) belive but to me it isnt anything to do with religion, its about family time enjoying the start of spring season . If she becomes religous when she is older thats her choice but i wont be promoting it

This sums it up quite well. Hope you find it helpful BetrandRussell and NotCarylChurchill

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

This is probably the key paragraph.

An overwhelming majority of New Testament scholars and Near East historians, applying the standard criteria of historical investigation, find that the historicity of Jesus is more probable than not

One word...

Zeitgeist

imdb.com/rg/an_share/title/title/tt1166827/

The thing is, I don't understand the issue of saying 'Today is Easter'', in the same way that we might say' Today is Hannukah / Eid al Fitr / Holi / the summer Solstice / Bonfire night / Hogmanay'.

We are not 'signing up to all Christian beliefs about Easter', just stating the significance of a particular date in a particular tradition, or in a particular country. There is no reason not to use proper names.

I think it is the 'putting the tradition' (eating chocolate eggs) before the 'name of the festival' thing that I'm not sure about.

'It's Christmas, and there is a tradition of giving gifts at Christmas', 'It's Chinese new year and there is a tradition of giving money', 'It's Easter, and there is a tradition of giving / eating eggs, more recently chocolate eggs' are all fine. It's the taking away of any link to the name of the festival, and reducing it purely to a 'free floating' tradition that I find a little perculiar

when she grows up will be told what some people (Jesus dying on cross) belive but to me it isnt anything to do with religion, its about family time enjoying the start of spring season . If she becomes religous when she is older thats her choice but i wont be promoting it
Thats lovely. You have your own way of doing Easter but she will know where it comes from. You are tolerant of other peoples beliefs and traditions

Ha, MIL and I have this discussion every year. I am Catholic, my brother is a priest, Easter is a big thing in my family. Yet every bloody year she calls at 8am, while I'm trying to get DD ready for mass, and the conversation always goes 'Happy choccy egg day darling, did you have lots of choccy for breakfast?'

No MIL, the word is chocolate! I can handle that Easter doesn't mean the same to her, I accept that Easter eggs are a breakfast thing in her house but choccy really annoys me. Chocolate egg day I could live with (although in my family that is tomorrow when you buy all the reduced chocolate eggs)

Mermaid no, it's Easter or a varient of that word if you're pagan - as others have pointed out the word has pagan roots and few languages use it to refer to the Christian festival.

I suppose it's Choccy egg day if you venerate baby talk and chocolate but attach no religious significance to the day or season - neither pagan nor Christian. Chocolate egg day if you just venerate chocolate without needing to indulge in cutesy faux infant babble.

Both the Slavic languages I speak use the Pascha root. Slavic Christianity comes from Greek Byzantine, after all.

ElQuintoConyo, I may be completely mistaken, but that looks like a version of a medieval Passion Play you are seeing. They used to be widespread in Europe in the middle ages, financed by guilds or burghers, etc., but they are really only found in RC regions now, though there are often re-enactments or revivals elsewhere carried out by enthusiasts.

"They have no idea who Jesus is" If they are older than about 5 then that I'd just plain ignorance and I have no idea why you would be proud of it.

"More probable than not" is hardly a ringing endorsement!

Irish for Easter is Cáisc, which comes from Pascha. Welsh is pasg.

(Irish is a Q-Celtic language aka 'Goidelic' and so are Scots Gaelic and Manx, while Welsh is P-Celtic, aka Brythonic, along with Cornish and Breton).

BetrandRussell 'more probable than not' in terms of expressing certainty of an historical event is actually pretty good!

Yeah, I'm not a fan of baby talk.

It is, however, preferable to hearing a woman refer to a certain fictional character as 'Winnie the Shit.'

My mother was like this:

Why do you have to 'teach' them anything as regards Easter? Don't they do enough on it in school. Ours certainly did,far too much actually. We just have a family day celebrating spring,a long weekend and eating chocolate. We don't give it a name. They know it's Easter but I feel no need to drill into my DC the origins,they know from school.

Have to say when my DC were in reception we didn't like discussing the origins of the Easter story after one two many graphic assemblies from my dc's school. Stories of torture complete with hammer and nails props gave one of my DC nightmares. Perhaps the lady in question was also afflicted with a church school for her DC and was fed up with similar graphic stories given far too much air time during the curriculum and wanted to down play it.

We do the same with easter as Xmas - we celebrate as a traditional festival in our culture and introduce all the traditions associated. Christian stories, spring festival imagery and eggs just as Xmas is about a Christian story, midwinter festival, santa and even a bloody football match in no man's land.

Our family are perfectly happy gradually gaining the understanding that all these events are very layered and have developed over centuries. We are lucky to be able to pick and choose meaning on an ad hoc basis depending on mood and inclination each year.

We are atheists and home educate so our children only know of religion through these festivals but we feel it is important for them to know the myths and legends fundamental to the culture of the country they are in. Therefore they know of jesus in the same way as Robin Hood and king Arthur and the easter bunny and Father Christmas

We talk of easter Sunday as celebrating chocolate day but in a jokey way - they know it is just a layer of meaning on top of other reasons - but equally valid!!!!!