Hoppity hop

Nearly Easter. Nearly chocolate-munching time. Nearly time off work. Nearly time to drink again. (And yes, I am tasting phantom gin just thinking about that. Oh dear.)

And more to the point, nearly time to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus. A point which I think is getting increasingly lost. In the last few years I've got increasingly irritated with the gross commerciality of Christmas - whether it's suddenly got worse or it's jsut me ageing I don't know - and now it seems like there's increasing pressure on Easter in the same direction. Ten years ago nobody sent secular Easter cards - now they're all over the place, bunny-, lamb- and chicken-covered. Some shops are even trying to persuade parents that Easter is another occasion when children need to be bought toys. Magazines are full of recipes for 'that big Easter family lunch', complete with yellow and white themed centrepieces. But there's never any mention of Our Lord bursting from the spiced tomb. God so loving the world that he gave his only begotten Son is not really going to be a keynote sentiment in the average experience of the coming weekend. And frankly, I find this deeply annoying. If you want a spring holiday, fair enough. But there are two perfectly good May Bank Holidays. There's the Queen's actual birthday (that this small-r republican should be advocating celebrating that!). There's the weekend the clocks go forward. Can you not just leave the single most important event of the Christian year to the Christians, and stop trying to pretend that it's actually about chocolate rabbits and daffodils? Because it isn't. It's about Jesus. And He's not fluffy, or cute, or comfortable.