Thursday, March 19, 2009

Advertising Easter

Do I now need to worry about the commercialisation of Easter as well as Christmas?

Apparently I do, and I have to worry about it from a position of guilt too! According to an advert on a Christian website I visit from time to time, I'm not just to give Easter eggs to the family but chickens to Africa. This is "a real gift" that can enrich diets and save lives. How true. No disputing the nutritional value of chickens on this blog! 

But have we actually reached the point where Easter is a spring version of Christmas? Are we going to start gathering around a large roasted bird, buy Easter cards, Easter wrapping paper, erect and decorate Easter trees? I hope not.

Are we reducing Easter to a time of personal reward for having made it through Lent?

I worry when I see the latest Nintendo DS system being advertised as the ideal Mother's Day gift as if a bunch of flowers, a hand made card and a big thank you is somehow less than meaningful anymore.

Perhaps I'm over-reacting. Perhaps it's a good thing that someone has taken an early step to challenge the potential for reducing Easter to just another opportunity for marketers to grab our attention and drive us to empty our wallets in the pursuit of material gain. Maybe I shouldn't worry until my local supermarket starts to stock Happy Ascension Day, and Merry Pentecost cards. Or worse still, a three for one offer on Trinity Sunday!

At least this truth remains: There is nothing you can do to buy God's love for you. It is a free gift, made at great personal cost, but free nonetheless.

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