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.

It might not be part of the NC, but it is compulsory to teach it. Parents can withdraw their children from the lessons if they want to.

In some areas there is literally no other choice. It’s church school or nothing, or church school or a non faith school miles away.

Roast lamb is only traditional because of the Christian festival which is in turn related to Passover, a Jewish festival. Lamb really isn't at its best until early summer so not great for Easter really, which is why a lot of the lamb in the shops is from New Zealand. Not likely to be a pagan tradition I think

I think that's very odd as it should be covered as part of the curriculum - they way other religious festivals and faiths are... that being said - it's all a pack of fairy stories anyway, another pre-christian festival time ( like the winter solstice that was turned into 'Christmas') that was hijacked to convert the pagans so ultimately it doesn't really matter if modern kids think it's more about choc and bunnies than human sacrifices... and I say that as someone brought up Catholic, church, schools the lot!

As far as religion goes, my children have been told to respect what other people believe (within reason)
We don't educate them on any other myths so why religion? It's covered in school wether we like it or not, I'm not going to encourage them to learn anymore.

Easter was historically about Jesus. It’s now about chocolate. Children like chocolate more than crucifixion.

If you go around the world it’s not universally about chocolate. The chocolate is very much a cultural thing.

Many people treat it as such but its not.

Saying that as an atheist.

I think that's the point, really - there are religious aspects of the Easter festival, but there are also cultural aspects which have nothing to do with the Christian story.

Most people in the UK now celebrate the cultural aspects of Easter but not the Christian ones, because relatively few people are actually practising Christians. Yes, we recognise that the celebration has Christian heritage, and indeed that it also has pagan heritage, but we are not actually marking it as a Christian or pagan festival, but rather as a cultural festival that takes its roots from both our Christian and pagan heritage.

My family are not Christian.I don’t think I know anyone who goes to church tbh. So we don’t celebrate Easter, we just eat Easter eggs because they are nice.
My dc have learned about the religious aspect of Easter in R/S lessons in primary school as all children will have done.

I’m not sure the mocking of Christians would have happened had the OP not been sneery and mocking of non-Christians in the first place. But seeing as she threw the first punch then obviously people are going to retaliate.

I don’t see any people of any other faiths starting similar threads

We opt our kids out of religion classes as do many other parents. It’s all a crock.

Why?

at least why is that any more sad than not knowing about religious celebrations from any religion?

I haven't read the entire thread but have seen some extremely disrespectful comments here that as a practising catholic I find highly offensive, especially on Good Friday. I think the judgemental title of the OP was unhelpful and bound to invite pushback but please think about what you're saying. It's important to teach our children respect above all else surely. That being said, I hope everyone here has a lovely Easter whatever you believe (or not)!

If you look at the last census, most of the country aren't Christian. Christians are still just about the largest group, but if everything continues in the same direction, by the time the next census comes around, "no religion" will be a larger population than the combined Christian group. Culturally we're pretty secular.

Catholic schools shouldn't exist.

My daughter came out of year 1 crying once because they’d talked about Jesus and the crucifixion at school. I told her not to worry as it’s all made up, that calmed her down.
If you want your children to learn about easter watch Life of Brian with them.

I'm more shocked that you're shocked. How long have you been a teacher? How old are you? I'm in my 40s and have taught year 2-4 mostly for 15 years and this doesn't shock me in the slightest. The parents of the children I'm teaching often don't know the details of these things! The county/state primary schools have skimmed over religious festivals for years now. Much the curriculum hasn't changed since the 70s and times have changed. We're not a church of England school so are discouraged from going into it, I'll discuss it if it's asked. My class had a lovely talk before the holidays about why there parents had the Friday and Monday off for Easter so we discussed bank holidays and and how some of them are derived from religious festivals, old customs etc.....the children all engaged, joined in and it was a pleasant learning experience, but I get in trouble for my 'off tangent teaching'
But simply, lots of this cohorts parents don't know these things. We are teaching the grandchildren of the generation that went through the 70/80s recession and for the first time in generations both parents were forced to work. We are seeing now the affect of family dynamics being forced to change.

Are you in Ireland? If you are, then surely you are aware that 90% of primary schools in Ireland are Catholic, so for most people, there is no other choice in their area other than a Catholic school. So the answer to "why enrol your child in a Christian school" for most people is because there is no other choice. My kids attended an Educate Together but they are still few and far between so in many areas that is just not an option for people.

Religion is an interesting subject but is utter nonsense. The sooner people grow up and accept this the better.

I think it’s a bit sad in the sense that it’s general knowledge.

i don’t for a minute feel anyone should have to know anything about religion. I am very clear with my children that religion is something some people believe and I personal believe it’s all fictional. They still learn about different religions but it does irritate me that our primary school teachers Christian religion as fact.

It is presumably part of the national curriculum? How strange that so few children know that.

I would hope that my children would know about most of the major festivals, and that their education is covering various religions, but Easter is especially a big one for us in the UK being a largely Christian country (that is not to discount our proud multiculturalism too).

Not everyone is Christian in the UK and I’m talking about those who are from other religions such as Islam. Only 5% of British people reported attending a Christian service once a week in 2025! I find your comment very judgemental!

Forget the UK being a largely Christian country and I’m not talking about other faiths! In 2025, only 5% of the population attended church once a week! The UK is more secular than Christian now!

I do feel people should know about religion. Otherwise it's virtually impossible to understand anything much about human history. I think 'Why should I bother knowing anything about that if I disagree with it?' is a pretty unwise (not to mention intellectually incurious) attitude to take towards most subjects tbh.