[Closed] Do easter eggs get banned every year or...

I much prefer the easter dinosaur egg I saw, much better idea. Offend the lot of then

Every year, usually by the same people who invented 'Wintervile'

Homer: "We only get 30 sweet eggy days. Then the government takes them away"

Do easter eggs get banned ever?[s]y year or...[/s]

FTFY.

Yes they get banned every year that's why you never see any.

+1 cougar.

OP, whit ye gibbering oan about?

would anyone really GAS?
pretty sure the bible doesn't say anything about giving chocolate eggs and I'm equally sure kids and chocoholics aren't bothered about having religiously backed confectionary, so "chocolate eggs" as opposed to easter eggs, meh, who cares - except the daily mail types getting het up about them and their values being marginalised or whatever bollox they come up with to get angry about.

I also suspect it's the choccy makers trying to broaden their market rather than anyone actually getting upset about easter being foisted upon other cultures.

D0NK - Member

would anyone really GAS?

Absolutely! Chocolate Egg Day is my favourite zombie holiday!

Yerp, it's coz ov dem muslamics and shariyer law innit.

/ridiculousmadeuphatestirringtabloidheadline

Easter is a top holiday, it reminds us of all the joy of having 2 short weeks together. Sometimes it's super special when a special person gets married and you get about 11days off for 4 days of annual leave.

I believe Bill Hicks covered this.

I'll set it as homework, for the un-initiated.

Or it's your birthday 2 days before, so get 6 days away from [s]the pit of dispair[/s] work, for the price of 2 days leave

Reading the Daily Star by any chance?
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/502959/PC-Chocolate-makers-ban-Easter-from-eggs

That story has more bollocks in it than a rugby team bath.

This prompted "angry and frustrated" campaigner David Marshall to set up the Meaningful Chocolate Company, in which his Fairtrade charity "Real Easter Egg" puts the religious message on to the packaging.

Which "religious message" would that be then?

Presumably some nice background information about the goddess ?ostre and the pagan fertility celebrations using rabbit, egg and chick symbology?

And they go on to quote spokesman who completely contradict the click-bait headline:

A Nestlé spokeswoman argued: "There has been no deliberate decision to drop the word Easter from our products."

A Cadbury spokeswoman stressed: "We do not have a policy to drop Easter from our eggs."

A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: "We sell a wide range of Sainsbury's Easter Eggs and do not have a policy relating to the word 'Easter'."

But that's at the end of the article and Daily Star readers are unlikely to get that far before being distracted by some sidebar boobies.

It's another pagan festival that the church couldn't stamp out so they renamed it. You may as well fill your boots with pagan eggs as you're going to hell for a good torturing anyway.

But that's at the end of the article and Daily Star readers are

Pagan egg sounds fun

Why would the choccy companies consider banning easter eggs when they can sell 99p of chocolate for 5.99 by putting it in an egg-shaped mould and over packaging it?

It's another pagan festival that the church couldn't stamp out so they renamed it.

<edit> Not that zombie egg day was made up, we already know that, I mean the factoid that the pagans were already there but had their holiday TWOCed by those nasty christians

sauce? I've heard that line before (and believed it) but pretty sure last time I googled it various sources suggested it was probably made up.

On these occasions I always rely on the The Venerable Bede, (672-735) who in his book De Ratione Temporum said that Easter was named after Eostre. [i]She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos.[/i]

sauce?

This seems like a good start:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?ostre

Which bit in the bible describes the traditional Easter eggs, bunnies and chicks? 😉

On these occasions I always rely on the The Venerable Bede

I'm all for a bit more ammo against organised religion, but I'd like to be sure of my arguments and the only source being a weirdie beardy religious type, weeeeeeell call me cynical if you want......

If only we could find some kind of expert on Early Christianity with particular reference to the Saxon period?

Does such a person even exist and, if so, what are the chances of them reading this thread?

That would be a spooky coincidence indeed.

Did you watch the BBC documentary on Cadbury chocolate factory?

Ya, your chocolate comes from cheap labour in other countries ...

Nope I don't buy Easter egg ... 🙄

The only people that should be offended by modern day easter are actual christians (I mean [i]actual[/i] christians, not christians-by-default, that weird 50% of self-declared christians that don't believe in god...). All of a sudden they find that the death of their lord jesus christ only really matters because you can use it to sell chocolate, that must kind of suck.

Northwind - Member
The only people that should be offended by ...

I am offended because them chocolate are no longer produced in BritLand Birmingham Bournville ... 😡

What's a modern day Easter Egg?

Pagan egg sounds fun

I think they sell those in the back room in Ann Summers.

Ya, your chocolate comes from cheap labour in other countries ...

Good! I'm glad my cash is providing employment and investment in impoverished countries.

Would they be better off without the work? 😉

Seriously though, 99% of consumer stuff in this country involves "cheap labour in other countries" at some level. Kinda hard to avoid that.

We sell Easter Eggs made by nice people in Belgium.
Every Easter Saturday the church turn up opposite our shop and give Cadburys ones away.
The news that they are made by children in death camps is good news to me. I shall be expecting some serious self flagellation from them this weekend.

Drac - Moderator
What's a modern day Easter Egg?

maybe...?

ones made of chocolate, as opposed to the olden days i've read about when they were real eggs. but hand painted to make them magic.

just like those described in the bible....

just like those described in the bible....

That Bible must've been heavily edited because it also omits any mention of trees, feasting, yule logs etc at Christmas.

Christmas was ripped off from the Roman festival of saturnalia.

Every year, usually by the same people who invented 'Wintervile'

Just in case anyone didn't already know, Winterval (ie "winter festival") was an attempt to boost trade by extending the Christmas retail frenzy out from October to January, the key foundation of it was Christmas. They just linked it up woth halloween, diwali etc. It was an attempt to get more trade into the city centre, not an evil plot to steal Christmas.

And I've got a non-denominational chocolate ovoid on my desk that says "Your [b]Easter egg[/b] has been made with Cadbury Dairy Milk" on the packaging. So Cadbury aren't hiding it very well.

thepurist - Member
just like those described in the bible....
That Bible must've been heavily edited because it also omits any mention of trees, feasting, yule logs etc at Christmas.

akshully.

the bible is very specific about christmas trees.

something along the lines of:

"do not copy the godless northerners, who chop down trees in winter before decorating them in gold and silver, as items of worship"

(Jeremiah 10)

GrahamS - Member

Ya, your chocolate comes from cheap labour in other countries ...

Good! I'm glad my cash is providing employment and investment in impoverished countries.

Ya, but I am still paying rip-off obvious is obvious BritLand price innit!

Would they be better off without the work?

Seriously though, 99% of consumer stuff in this country involves "cheap labour in other countries" at some level. Kinda hard to avoid that.

🙄

That Bible must've been heavily edited because it also omits any mention of trees, feasting, yule logs etc at Christmas.

As grum says Christmas is another example of Christianity hijacking an existing festival because they couldn't stamp it out. Hence a lot of the unrelated symbology: mistletoe, holly, trees, etc

In fact Jesus probably wasn't even born in December at all (or in a stable for that matter).

I'd say Judaism has a fair idea about this Jesus chap. According to it, JC is just a prophet and not such a big deal as Christianity makes him it to be.

As far as I know JC was born around September but was put to being born in December as another pagan festival hijack.

In fact Jesus probably wasn't even born in December at all (or in a stable for that matter).

And I seriously doubt his dad was a car painter.

Apparently the original text doesn't say carpenter, but 'master', which could mean craftsman of some kind but also king in a literal sense. Lots of room for (mis)interpretation.

If only we could find some kind of expert on Early Christianity with particular reference to the Saxon period?

Does such a person even exist and, if so, what are the chances of them reading this thread?

That would be a spooky coincidence indeed.

Just took a look-in on this thread, and figured that since whoever it is perchy is referring doesn't seem to have shown up, I would try to cover.

I can only begin by saying: holy smokes, can we talk some bollocks on here. 😕 I firmly believe in people's right to question and criticise religion, and even make a joke or three, but I don't believe it's helpful to spout pseudo-facts as they somehow they represent an actual truth.

But let me start by saying that I don't think Christians are remotely bothered by chocolate eggs at Easter or toys at Christmas. Well, maybe some are, but I haven't met any. I rather think that such quality publications as the Sun, Star, and Daily Mail like to fan their self-generated flames at this time of year by bemoaning the 'corruption of real, traditional, British Easter'. And some of you are apparently not only reading it, but also buying into it.

That said, I can't even keep up with the nonsense having been offered across some prior posts. I mean, referring to Bede as a 'weird religious beardy type' (or something like that), and to talk of the Church as having ripped off a bunch of Roman and Germanic festivals for its own purposes? The first is just silly: a bit like referring to Einstein as having messy hair and being stuck in the past. [He did, and he was; but mostly because he [i]lived[/i] in the past.] The second is like categorising common perceptions as scientific fact. [We accept, for example, people calling the sky 'blue', but scrutiny tells us that it isn't actually.] In other words, there may be [i]some[/i] relation to the truth in these statements, but they are not even close to the whole story.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time this evening to describe the development of the modern calendar, and the history of the Paschal computus, but I will genuinely try to later if I get a chance.

I heard his old man worked at the Maserati as a painter

Nice one donk. I've never questioned it before. It seems obvious that pagan festivals have been nicked by the church, but how would anyone know for a fact? Bede was writing 600 years after Christianity first arrived.

It's another pagan festival that the church couldn't stamp out so they renamed it.

Not sure they actually did rename it..?

Anyway, there is clearly pagan influence in both Easter and Christmas. If you are Christian, there'll be a lot more Christian content; if you're not, you seem free to ignore it.

That's my uninformed impression though - hopefully SaxonRider can educate us a bit more on how our festivals came about with reference to the early church 🙂

Jeramiah 10 doesn't mention Xmas trees at all. It does say to ignore signs in the sky though - like stars over stables for instance.

But let me start by saying that I don't think Christians are remotely bothered by chocolate eggs at Easter or toys at Christmas.

Or enjoy them like anyone else perhaps, but see both festivals as (symbolising) more than the secular world that limits it's homage to the altar of consumerism and chocolate alone.

The Christmas is a pagan festival thread gets earlier every year.

I heard his old man worked at the [s]Maser[/s]illuminati as a painter

Bede was writing 600 years after Christianity first arrived.

Much like the New Testament then. The oldest bits were still written a couple of hundred years AD.

Not to mention Pagans didn't just vanish when Christiainity arrived.

By the time Bede was writing they'd vanished. And if there had been pockets of Pagans then who's to say they were typical of original pagans.

Wonder if the Romans mentioned a festival called Eostre and what the etemology of the word is...

I'm not disputing the conclusion, merely the reliability of the only bit of evidence cited.

I think Easter is a more convincingly christian festival than christmas.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/apr/23/easter-pagan-roots

The author of [url= http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-10-012-v#continue ]this article[/url] touches on some of the principal salient points regarding Christmas, Easter, and the calendar. Not exhaustively, mind you, but a helpful start.

So a "journal of mere Christianity" thinks the pagan stance is overstated. Do they have any revelations on where bears defecate?

It seems obvious that pagan festivals have been nicked by the church, but how would anyone know for a fact? Bede was writing 600 years after Christianity first arrived.

None of it is fact. It's all made up and mostly a regurgitation of earlier myths from older religions.

SaxonRider, it's an intersting article if potentially partisan. However it does reinforce the idea that there is *overlap* between pagan midwinter and Christmas. Pretty big co-incidence otherwise, no?

In Finland they have a midwinter celebration on the 21st as well as Christmas. But then they were pagan until the 13th century.

So a "journal of mere Christianity" thinks the pagan stance is overstated

I think I'll stop trusting anything my GP says because she read it in the BMJ.

Did you read the flipping article? I said I included it because it was a helpful start; not because it was academically exhaustive!

That said, I can assure you that, although it is from a semi-popular, even conservative, Christian journal, it is a relatively mainstream one and not a wacky fundamentalist one. I reiterate that I have only offered that particular article as a helpful place to start. I can assure you from an academic point of view that the writer's history is sound.

The article doesn't seem to mention Easter, except once in passing.

Wasn't the crucifixion close to passover. If so that would rule out Easter being a European pagan festival AFAIC.

Problem is mid-winter and spring are such obvious things for everyone to celebrate I'd guess many cultures do it.

Indeed, Molgrips.

What is most important though is that Christmas, which was a secondary calculation to what the Germanic Christians would come to call Easter, is essentially a symbolic date based on antique and late-antique number theory and such considerations as Galenic gestational theory relating to the Spring Equinox.

(I am at a disadvantage because I am typing this on my phone while watching my kids play ice hockey, so forgive any glaring mistakes please.)

My wife points out links between Easter and Ishtar, rather than Eostre. Ishtar seems to have a lot more grounding in history - a Sumerian fertility goddess*.

It seems extremely obvious that eggs and bunnies would be associated with spring. No-one questions the origins of daffodils on mothers' day cards do they? It's clearly because they are everywhere at that time of year.

* Although I found [url= http://bellejar.ca/2013/03/28/easter-is-not-named-after-ishtar-and-other-truths-i-have-to-tell-you/ ]another article[/url] rubbishing this link too.

Incidentally, in the Christian East, the word Easter is not used. It is called Pascha. So if we're looking at etymological origins, we need to look at the Passover.

Bring back the festival that lets you dance naked with a daffodil.
Those were the days (deep sigh)

Yeah the Passover root is more common anyway isn't it?

Pasg in Welsh, FWIW. As they are the remaining Romano-British after the Germanic invasions...

Bring back the festival that lets you dance naked with a daffodil.

The internet says that THIS is Wednesday.

[img] [/img]

Did you read the flipping article?

I whizzed through it but am I wrong to point out the obvious potential for bias? I don't know the author from Adam (yeah I know) so he could be an academic pillar but the combination of subject and publication was like reading Specialized review in certain bike mags,next to the full page ad for the same bike.

@thepurist: fair enough.

Looking forward to coffee and choc when Lent is over

Pagan egg sounds fun

Bring back the festival that lets you dance naked with a daffodil.

Yeah, Real Ale festivals.

There should be a law banning excess packaging. the only plus I guess is that it is easily recycled compared to some.

Ah finally found it
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

Bring back the festival that lets you dance naked with a daffodil.
Those were the days (deep sigh)

Wasn't that the STW Awards?

Anyway, I am just waiting for Santa to bring my choccy eggs. 😀

I....can't.....believe.....I....am....writing....this.....but...

I'm with chewkw on this! Though I have not seen the programme he's referring to.

Most chocolate, even that with a "fair trade" logo is NOT truly fair trade, nothing like, and the major chocolate companies literally don't give a damn.

Tony's nails it perfectly with the design of their bar
[img] [/img]
"One day it struck us—couldn’t we make a statement about the inequality in the cocao trade by dividing our chocolate bars into unequal pieces? What better way to communicate the inequality of the trade than by calling attention to it with every bite?"

And here's the reasons why:
[img] [/img]

You can read more at their website>our mission>the problem.

I....can't.....believe.....I....am....writing....this.....but...

I'm with chewkw on this!

Don't worry - I don't think you are. (Though as always it is hard to tell)

chewkw's objection seems to be that if chocolate is made for third world "slavery" prices then he shouldn't have to pay so much for it in the shops. Which is, errrr, a rather [i]different[/i] take on the ethics 😀

To be honest though I object to infographics like that above - those figures are pretty meaningless without some idea of the cost of living.

Depending on where that cocoa farmer lives, €1000 a year [i]might[/i] be a pretty decent wage. e.g. [url= http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/01/incomes-sub-saharan-africa ]The average wage in sub-Saharan Africa is $762 (~€682) [/url] and only $556 (~€498) if you exclude the more prosperous South Africa and Seychelles.

I love the dinosaur eggs. I want a chocolate alien egg complete with Mini Egg Facehugger

Forget "Easter" are the eggs even "chocolate" or merely some nasty imitation?

I mean, referring to Bede as a 'weird religious beardy type'

and to talk of the Church as having ripped off a bunch of Roman and Germanic festivals for its own purposes?

I just don't know how accurate that argument is, or as someone worded it a bit better a page back...

I'm not disputing the conclusion, merely the reliability of the only bit of evidence cited.

*which I spent many hours as a kid staring at while bored out of my skull.

TBH Easter seems obviously a fertility festival; people get bogged down in exactly which one it overwrote/stole but it doesn't matter. Eggs = fertility and the new year makes sense, eggs = the stone across the mouth of Jesus' burial cave doesn't really make any sense at all, it just feels like whatever the equivalent of a backronym is