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.

I will take my double time pay on Sun/Mon thank you very much Christianity

Whats easter sumday?

Are you saying these kids who don't know Easter is a religious festival are at a Catholic school? If so I'd be wondering what on earth the school are up to rather than getting cross at the parents.

I spend a lot of time in schools engaging with the Easter story, and in my context (Scotland non-denominational schools) tend to find the kids have all heard the story many times as they go through school. Can't guarantee they're paying attention, but I'll get answers from even the youngest to tell me Jesus rose from the dead. I sometimes get comments from the older kids that they need to learn less about Christianity and more about other faiths, to which I reply that I absolutely think they should be learning about lots of faiths, but I'm not the person who can teach them about Eid, Holi etc.

I bet they all know about Christmas though.

I said 'it wouldn't come up naturally' which is somewhat different from the 'deliberately not tell' you've changed it to, which implies concealment rather than simply not raising a subject without necessity.
As i said, it's not an easy story to tell age appropriately. It involves some very unpleasant details and difficult concepts and not something I'd find necessary to raise with a small child in a non religious household.

I will take my double time pay on Sun/Mon thank you very much Christianity

You might want to check that “original source”.

I am shocked, most children are taught it at school and attend church at easter even secular schools. My son went to do a school event at church in his secular primary. I work at a school they went to the local church too. They aren't forced to believe it's, this is what Christians believe. My kids are Catholics so for us it is important and yes we do believe in the 'sky fairy' aka Jesus Christ. If others don't want to believe in it and just want to stuff their face with eggs I don't have an issue with that. For the posters claiming it's pagan, eggs have been used to represent rebirth and life for centuries in various belief systems, ancient Egyptians, pagans and Christians for example, Christians associate it with the ressurection of JC. It's not stolen it has a different meaning altogether to that of fertility for Christians it represents the empty tomb of Jesus. You really don't need to explain our own religion to us. Happy Easter!

I don’t think children were harder in the past, as much as desensitised early in preparation for life in a much harder world.

Grimms tales were a collection of stories people told to children, not stories that should be told to children, and if it helps avoid being eaten by bears or wolves I can see why people would.

Helping your offspring avoid being tortured as heretics or burned as witches is a great incentive to indoctrinate them early, just as beating them makes sense if it knocks the rebellion out of them before they get maimed or executed by the authorities.

I just can’t see what the benefit of those things are in today’s world.

In what way do you feel Christian values are upheld in Ireland?

All the homeless people on the street?
5,000 homeless children?
Growing income inequality?

Or are you referring to a he stronghold that the church has over the education system? Because thank goodness this is changing.

My gods are the fashion gods. Both my kids could identify all the major design houses by logo aged 5 and by aesthetic based on a single classic-to-that designer by 12.

If you haven't also taught your kids to recognise a Chanel boucle suit or a pair of Gucci loafers at 20 paces, I'm disgusted that you aren't ramming my religious beliefs down your kids' throats.

And please don't suggest that fashion isn't a religion. It's definitely arguably more tangible and less dangerous than Christianity. And it's my belief system so you have to accept it. Or something.

We celebrate the spring festival born from Paganism. I don’t feel the need to tell my child about Christianity as much as I don’t feel the need to tell them about Judaism, Buddhism or Islam - we are none of these things. Easter is a festival to welcome the beginning on the warmer months. It’s about rebirth. Just because Christian’s also celebrate their things around this time doesn’t mean anything to me. And it won’t my DC either.

ETA I am not claiming it’s Pagan, across the world rebirth is celebrated at spring. It is not just Christian, it just so happens that Christianity have shouted loudest for several centuries but that’s the not the case any more and that’s fine. It’s not all about you, OP.

The Easter Beagle! Good Grief!

In my experience, primary school children in the UK are given an overview of the Easter story. If they aren’t, and your faith is important to you, tell them yourself.

Also - any self-respecting horror fan / nerd needs a really good understanding of Christianity - it gives you the background to understand that one of the most prevalent myths the early Christian church was unable to quell was the myth of the vampire - it was as unkillable as the creature it was about.

So instead of trying to convince people the myth wasn't real, they co-opted it. They used the vampire taking the blood of the victim as a way of pushing transubstantiation as giving eternal life by holding it up as the opposite, the vampire became averse to the cross to show the power of belief as protection and the myth took on that the stake used to kill the vampire should be made from ceder or cypress. These things were present to different degrees across European folklore long before Stoker wrote Dracula.

Also - you're not going to understand most of the references in Supernatural or Lucifer without a decent understanding of Christianity and for that reason alone, it should be compulsory 😉😂

The ethos in most irish primary is catholic. But they arent relgious schools anymore. They are the only schools in most areas and most people who go wont be religious. Its not like the england where state schools would be non deminational. There is two non religious schools in my town and 20 that have catholic money in them but they arent religious like op is trying to make out. Usually non religious kids dont take part on religion class as its faith based not just RE

Who cares?

And I'm shocked that parents don't tell their children that easter/christmas were all basically superimposed on existing pagan festivals by christians so that converts didn't feel they were missing out on celebratory opportunities. Or that countries who tend to celebrate a lot of saint days were orignally polytheistic and the gods/goddesses were frequently re-packaged as saints.

But there you go. People tend to tell their kids what they believe. If they see easter as a celebration of chocolate, that is what they will pass on. If they are pagans, they will celebrate spring. If they are christians they will pass that on.

If it is a Christian school, would the school not teach this sort of thing?

Why should they? They're not religious.

Still though - why would it come up naturally when the kids making their Easter bonnets have no concept or knowledge of the meaning behind it?
You can't ask about something that you don't even know exists

It was to smother them too. It’s why they built their churches on religious grounds, why you often find yew trees in church grounds. Because they were important items of worship for Pagans, so Christian’s built their churches on the same ground to destroy any Pagan relics and redirect people thinking.

I’m just glad they left stone circles alone, but it does surprise me.

😂 I wish I had your creativity, this is great 😂

This time may have real meaning for you OP, but for others it’s simply an annual holiday and eggs etc are part of it. Just as for many the old pagan Eostre festival lost all its former meanings and became Christian. Personally I relate a lot more with the beginning of spring, eggs representing new life, the hare/rabbit symbolising the growth of nature in spring, planting things, spending time outside, lighting a fire to welcome back the sun. That all has far more meaning in my household. It's nice to have a long weekend to enjoy it together.

Non-religious children can also enrol in Christian schools, it may just be the closest school for their child. Ireland may have a lot of Christians technically but I imagine like most countries there's a bit of cherry picking going on. Some will identify as Christian and never go to church, some Catholics may go to church but also use birth control which isn't particularly hard core catholism following if we're being honest.
If the parents were practicing Christians and taking their children to church they would have heard the Easter story, if they aren't practicing Christians, what is the problem with the children just being excited that it's a day full of chocolate eggs?
I also rather enjoy shrove Tuesday, because it is pancake day and I like pancakes. Christmas day I celebrate because I like that we have a day off work and I'm quite partial to a Christmas dinner 😋
If you and your family want to celebrate the religious aspects then crack on but if you do not want to be judged for your religious beliefs, maybe don't judge those who don't. ( Pretty sure the judge lest thee be judged may well be a Christian quote)

@Tuliptana as a fellow Irishperson born and bred I can say that this is not entirely true!! I remember squeezing in the church door (because I was made go by my nanny) and not being able to sit down as there was no space. I went to mass two weeks ago (for a remembrance (because my dm said we should “show our faces” and lo and behold the church was pretty much empty. Who we were showing our faces to I have no idea! I don’t know many who go to mass anymore tbh.