Eggs Without Easter

We're used to Christians complaining about the marginalisation of Christmas from seasonal celebrations, and used to discovering that most of these stories are based on falsehoods.  Gripes about Easter are less common, which was why the Archbishop of York's current fulminations about confectionery firm Cadbury 'spitting on the grave' of its Quaker founders caught my eye. The complaint is that Cadbury and the National Trust have dropped mention of the word 'Easter' from the publicity for the nationwide egg hunt events they organise together. Is this a similar case of Christians wanting to imagine themselves marginalised, because it allows them to write themselves into a narrative in which they seem heroic?

It's a minor matter, but not one of precisely no importance. Like 'Christmas', for most British people 'Easter' has a largely seasonal, rather than religious significance, but the word means that the festivities, whatever they may be, are still distantly attached to a Christian identity which the Church can usefully exploit. 

My first thought was to try and find publicity from previous years' egg hunts, but it's not actually that easy. The National Trust and Cadbury have been collaborating over the events, held at NT sites around the country but funded and therefore branded by the confectioners, for ten years, but the logos and images used in the past aren't readily available. What little you can find does seem to indicate a desire to drop the word 'Easter'. This was from 2015:

and this from 2016:

The current image (which in fact I find rather terrifying) is almost identical to last year's, except that the somewhat apologetic explainer 'this Easter' has indeed disappeared. However it's still present, quite prominently, in some versions of the poster:

However, what may lie behind these branding decisions is less clear. National Trust and Cadbury spokespersons talk blandly and lazily about 'appealing to people of all faiths and none' which tells you nothing very much. Last year the religious Easter Egg providers, the Meaningful Chocolate Company, virtually accused other confectioners of being part of a Satanic conspiracy to 'lure children and families away from celebrating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus', but to me the more shocking aspect of the whole thing is not the atheistic but the capitalistic.

What the publicity seems to reveal is not just the marginalisation of Easter over time, but also that of the National Trust in favour of Cadbury's own branding. The appeal of the Egg Trails is that they take place in and around the charismatic surroundings of the NT's properties, but it's the Cadbury style which now dominates the advertising, and the Trust appears happy to go along with this. Far from the chocolate company benefiting from association with the Trust, it seems definitely to be the Trust that's the 'bottom' in this particular Fifty Shades of Purple relationship. 

As you should always look for the people who are really responsible for things, you should know that Cadbury's publicity for the Easter events is handled by this company, RPM Limited, and has been for some years. 'We believe in the power of experience', they say, 'delivering value for businesses by specialising in how people experience their brands'. That tells you everything you need to know. Easter isn't bowing before the power of militant anti-Christianity so much as the power of capital. Mind you ...