The National Trust has landed in a blazing row with the Church of England by banishing the word 'Easter' from its annual egg hunts across the land.
Theresa May, a member of the Church of England and the National Trust, has condemned the move, saying: 'I'm not just a vicar's daughter - I'm a member of the National Trust as well. I think the stance they've taken is absolutely ridiculous and I don't know what they're thinking about. Easter's very important. It's important to me, it's a very important festival for the Christian faith for millions across the world.'
The Prime Minister has a point.
If you take the Easter out of Easter egg, this is a kind of reductio ad absurdum – taking it to such far flung lengths it becomes plain ridiculous.
By cutting down on the symbolism, the National Trust is going a considerable way towards secularising the occasion. Eliminating Christian and ecclesiastical references from these important annual festivals can have no other effect.
Symbols have a power beyond their own existence. Even in a simple symbol such as the Easter egg, there is an almost subliminal reinforcement of the Christian message - the power of the Resurrection to generate new life and hope out of defeat and disaster.
We could go the whole hog and rename the festival Oestre, thereby restoring the German fertility goddess who possibly gave the festival its name in the first place. If you take the Easter from egg, you identify it afresh as what it was from as long as 60,000 years ago - a symbol of fertility, renewal and regeneration, but in a pagan sense, not a Christian one.
Christmas makes sense because it is the mass of Christ. Are we going to have trees sold for December 25 with no mention of Christmas? Do Christmas stockings just become mere greedily capacious stockings?
When the Queen comes on the TV, is this just a plain random message she is giving us? Why has she picked 25 December for goodness sake?
It's a black day for the Pudding. And while we're about it, what on earth is Father doing coming down the chimney?
And how do we re-christen - if you'll forgive the term - Lent? Or do we have to give it up completely?
Few people wear Easter bonnets any more so we don't need to worry about them. And Whit Monday, the day after Whitsun, a movable feast, has already been removed as the name of now-fixed Spring Bank holiday, until 1978.
Probably the only thing that will remain is New Year's Day. Because of course that's secular.
Far fetched? Put it down to the effects of shell shock.
