To judge parents who do not even tell their children Easter is a religious festival

[Tuliptana]

I'm shocked that 12 out of 20 children in my childs class had no religious knowledge of the meaning of Good Friday or Easter Sunday for Christians.
All aged 9yrs old.

My kids aren’t Christian but covered the resurrection at their non-religious school. I assumed it was part of the National Curriculum?

It's a spring festival

What an odd thing to judge parents about

I'm suprised it hasn't been taught as part of a Religious Studies lesson by the age of 9 (Year 4 or 5?).
But if they aren't from practicing Christian families why should they know.
Much of the Easter traditions we have in the UK are more pagan really.

Lol. Do they all know about eid? I tell my children it’s a spring festival.

What an odd thing to judge parents for.

My DC got to a non-faith primary and still have Easter assembly, Easter lunch etc and are told all about it every year. So yes, I am surprised so many children seem oblivious.

If a child at 9yrs old does not know the meaning of Good Friday or why we celebrate on Easter Sumday, as Christians, it's a very sad state of affairs.

We did tell our daughter that there are people who celebrate Easter as a religious holiday. We gave her a rundown of the basic beliefs.

what we did not do is tell her we think those beliefs are valid.

most of the time on these threads it turns out that people are actually upset that people don’t tell their children that the religious observance is real. It doesn’t deserve anything more than “there are people who believe this thing”.

Mine knows the whole story. How the Easter Bunny crucified Jesus who then rose from the dead and handed out Easter eggs, whilst lambs gambolled in the fields of Jerusalem, while being fanned by palm leaves held by little donkeys. Have I missed anything?

Well you’re obviously a Christian so for you these things are part of the calendar. I assume those that don’t know aren’t Christians.

Besides what my children learn in school (which isn't much given my stepson didn't do RE), or to the extent we have answered questions... I don't think they'd know own it was originally a religious celebration.

We are not religious by any means. We discuss people's beliefs as and when the conversation arises but we generally find they don't want a lecture and I've no intentions of giving one.

They cover it in school - multiple times, and some years go to a service at a local church. Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday all done in primary school RE (at least in England)

If you aren't Christian, it may just never come up at home.

It’s hard to argue that it’s a Christian festival when most people celebrate it by eating chocolate eggs.

If you’re a Christian teacher then have you considered explaining what you gave up for Lent and how you celebrate Easter?

I do not raise my kids with religion but they responded well to hearing about classmates giving something up for Lent, fasting for Ramadan etc rather than RE lessons. Don’t most English people know the story of the nativity because of nativity plays at school?

Why is it a sad state of affairs?

Not everyone is religious. My son learnt about Easter at school as did I, but tbh I can’t say I think 1 bit about Jesus or whether anyone else’s kids know the meaning of Easter, nor would I care!

Ah, well we aren’t Christians so 🤷‍♀️ Easter for us has absolutely no religious importance at all as we are not religious. Ditto Christmas. It’s all about chocolate and being off school here I’m afraid.

How many adults would know? It’s clearly much lower than you think.

I think children should know because it is part of general knowledge.
Britain has historically been a Christian country and a lot of our traditions and culture have Christian influences.
So they should be taught about the basics of it.

Just as these days they should also be aware of Ramadan etc as we are now a multi religious country.

Why should people who aren't religious or not Christian be obliged to tell their children the story (myth) of Easter? I work in a very multicultural school and the children are told about all the major festivals of all the major world religions, but I doubt they recall all the details.

Well i'm Irish so i'd say 100% of the population.

Why would they tell them?

The whole story is ghastly. Seriously ghastly. It’s like judging parents for not reading Stephen King as a bedtime story.

Also, the story doesn’t correlate with chocolate eggs and bunnies so to a child it would make very little sense.

Parents are allowed to separate ugly old wives’ tales from their children.

We went back further and told her it’s because the Xtians stole it from the Pagan Eostre, who celebrated the spring coming and the solstice.

See also Yule.

sad? for whom?

The UK is predominantly non-secular @Tuliptana

I judge people who don’t seem to realise many Christian festivals are piggybacked onto existing pagan ones. Eggs and bunnies are to do with fertility and spring, even if you retrospectively add resurrection symbolism to them.

They are taught about it but, like many things you teach young children, they will forget it unless it’s meaningful to them.

It's not a sad state of affairs. It's a reflection of a multicultural society where only a minority are Christian.