Somerfield Overeggs Easter Awareness Effort

From Christian Today:

A survey published by supermarket chain Somerfield has shown that many youngsters in the UK do not know what Easter signifies.

Somerfield’s survey, which was conducted as part of a marketing campaign, found that one-in-six 16 to 24-year-olds know nothing about Good Friday, the commemoration of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Alas, however, Somerfield’s somewhat unexpected foray into the sociology of religion has come unstuck. From the Times:

A supermarket chain got itself into a huge muddle over the meaning of Easter yesterday in its attempt to sell more chocolate eggs.

“Brits are set to spend a massive £520 million on Easter eggs this year — but many young people don’t even know what Easter’s all about,” said the press release from Somerfield after a survey.

It then went on to claim that the tradition of giving Easter eggs was to celebrate the “birth” of Christ. An amended version changed this to the “rebirth” of Christ. Finally a third press release accepted Church teaching that Easter celebrated the resurrection of Christ.

…Pete Williams, head of PR at Somerfield, said: “We spoke to the Church of England press office, who suggested we use the word resurrection, in keeping with the Church’s teaching. We were happy to do that.”

One consequence has been a mocking article in the Guardian, which would be fair enough had not a 2004 Holy Week Guardian report (now amended, but I blogged it at the time) told us that the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is believed to be site of “Jesus Christ’s final resting place”.