How can you tell a civilization is dying? When they try to appease the Barbarians at the Gate.
For a while, this tactic worked for Rome, which bought off various barbarian hordes so they wouldn’t sack the city. Unfortunately, some of those hordes eventually figured out that Rome was a paper tiger and would gratefully accept the ransom and then gleefully sack the city anyway.
What’s happening in Great Britain as the dominant culture seeks to appease the unappeasable is that so much of what is being lost could have been saved if the powers that be actually believed in their own historic values.
Take away what made them great and they become less than ordinary, leaving themselves wide open to emotional exploitation.
What makes the previous somewhat relevant is that there is outrage in England over some candy makers taking the word “Easter” off their candy, especially chocolate eggs. In other cases, the word has been downsized considerably or put on the back of the wrapper.
Like Christmas, Easter can be celebrated as a secular holiday. Easter’s timeless themes include the non-religious notions of rebirth and the arrival of Spring. But lurking in the background of our collective consciousness is the real reason we celebrate Easter — and for some newer arrivals in Great Britain, that simply isn’t acceptable.
Chocolate manufacturers in the U.K. have removed the word“Easter” from the holiday egg candy that has delighted millions of children for generations.
But a demand that manufacturers put Easter back on the packaging of chocolate eggs has become the latest culture war issue on the eve ofChristianity’s most important holiday, which falls on March 27.
“It’s deeply disappointing and shameful that some of the biggest companies (they include Cadbury and Nestle) are censoring the countries’ old tradition,” said David Marshall, CEO of the Meaningful Chocolate Co., a group set up in an attempt to reintroduce Easter eggs and Advent calendars featuring Nativity scenes in the mainstream market. “It shows they’re insensitive and uncomfortable with the Christian faith.”
Anglican Bishop Nicholas Holtam of Salisbury also weighed in: “Perhaps people understand that the festival is religious and do not want to see it turned into something secular,” he said.
Cadbury, which is based in Birmingham, England, is also marketing chocolate eggs that celebrate the traditional children’s hunt for eggs at Easter.
Its up-market organic chocolate subsidiary, Green and Black’s, is describing Easter as “the festival of chocolate and loveliness.”
The chocolate companies, meanwhile, denied claims they were deliberately trying to distance Easter eggs from their religious origin.
In a short statement Cadbury said: “We do not have a policy to drop Easter from our eggs.”
“There has been no deliberate decision to drop the word Easter from our products and the name is still widely used at Nestle,” said Laura Archer of Nestle.
The word “Easter” appears on most Cadbury products sold in America this time of year. But here’s a link to an article that features a photo of a Cadbury “Creme Egg” — no mention of Easter. It may not be an announced policy but a simple bow to Muslim sensibilities.
When 4 in 5 people in Great Britain want to maintain the tradition of Easter candy, you have to wonder why these manufacturers are giving in to political correctness. In fact, it may be more profitable to be politically correct rather than risk the condemnations, the boycotts, and the threats that would come from the Muslim community.
Somehow, I don’t think paying tribute to the invaders will get Great Britain off the hook.
A version of this piece also appeared at The American Thinker
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