Folks in the United Kingdom are raising the alarm that the chocolate companies are dropping the word Easter from the packaging for chocolate Easter eggs. Or if the word Easter does appear on the packaging it is in small print in a description of the product on the back.
As many as 80 million chocolate eggs will be sold in the UK this Easter holiday season. The large chocolate manufacturers marketing chocolate eggs in the UK deny that they have taken company decisions to drop the word Easter from their chocolate egg packaging, but perusals of the products for sale appear to back the claim. Cadbury, Nestle and Green & Black’s Organic all have chocolate eggs on the current market that have packaging without the word Easter.
It’s reminiscent of the War on Christmas in the US of the past few years. Retailers dropping the long traditional Merry Christmas greeting to their customers for the more inclusive Happy Holidays. Starbucks hot cup during the past Christmas season was attacked by conservative media wonks because the specialty coffee giant used a plain red cup with no gay holiday decor.
The Meaningful Chocolate Company has been established in the UK specifically to return recognition of Christianity to the two major Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter. They market chocolate eggs with packaging that says Easter. And they produce Advent calendars that feature nativity scenes.
One UK Anglican bishop has weighed in on the controversy, the Rt Revd Nicholas Haltom, bishop diocesan of the Diocese of Salisbury was quoted as stating, “Perhaps people understand that the festival is religious and do not want to see it turned into something secular.”
The story can be read further at USA Today.
The images are lifted from the Green & Blacks Organic & Cadbury websites.