Easter has been hijacked

hmmm but people spent QUITE a lot of money on church...if they're that way inclined. There are always collections and donations and contributions going...

So IMO it's disingenuous for you to now add that your concern for people who do things other than church is just you worrying about their finances, because people get persuaded to part with their cash in church too....

I decorated eggs at Easter as a child and can remember my hamster escaping and eating a chocolate egg but nothing else. I was quite surprised therefore some years ago when my mother gave us an Easter card - I'd never seen one before. Although we have always given our sons and then grandchildren an egg or some money we've never made any special occasion of it and now it's just 2 precious days off work. I have no problem with whatever beliefs anyone want to put on Easter or any other festival - each to their own.

Aha!
I will tell you, but I may have to kill you.
<whisper>
Someone born in Selkirk in the Scottish Borders

what does a souter mean, please?

I’m a Souter!

MawBroon, I'm a braw lass myself. You a souter? Or a bright-eyed daughter?

Quite Luckygirl, each to their own

As the OP no way was I critical of people not going to church I did not do so . I was just amazed that anyone would list things to do at Easter without mentioning going to church . I just think the world has gone mad over any excuse to persuade people to spend money and overeat. Look out Father's Day will be next then hopefully we get a break .

Eloethan you talk of the millions of £££ poured into commercialising the likes of Christmas and Easter. So what?
We cannot influence that except by our own actions and no amount of pearl clutching will make any difference.
And no, I totally disagree that I must of necessity be influenced by media advertising or other pressures.
Also if people “go to university to study the psychology of marketing and retail” - so what? One DD did her degree in Retail Management, another did the M&S management course after an Economics degree. Awareness of how retail influences our shopping habits is the first step to resistance! . I do know more than a little about the science of selling, have you read “Why We Buy” by Paco Underhill?
I think it is totally defeatist to say that we cannot stand up to commercial propaganda and frankly, insulting to our intelligence.
Do what you want, panic buy if you must, overspend and lose sight of the good things about Easter and Christmas if you want, but don’t include me in that.
I am still my own person and reserve the right to observe Christmas or Easter in my own way - religious or not.

No scoffing here annie! - each to his own.

But Christians don't have a problem with atheists Eleothan, every thread on the Christian faith we get the usual - the church lied, the scriptures are lies, I really don't understand why so much effort is put into trying to demolish the faith of others , no one is forced to accept the faith, there is no law that everyone must attend church , so why do it ? This I really don't understand . Someone even complained queenie attending church Easter Day was on tv .

I don't complain when tv cover Stonehenge at mid summer, been there myself to see the sunrise , I attend a .pagan spring festival and tie a ribbon to a tree, I don't tell others the tree is beautiful without the ribbons. I fast on Christmas Day, I never post asking how can you eat when others are starving, it is their choice as it is my choice, neither is right or wrong. It is often difficult to try to walk in the steps of Christ without having to read the scoffing .

Mawbroon Millions and millions of pounds are spent on creating a demand for goods, and marketing them. People go to university to study psychology and then a fair number of them join advertising, PR and lobbying organisations in order to use their knowledge of human behaviour to manipulate people. It is all very well saying "you don't have to buy into this commercialisation" but everybody who has a TV, radio or computer or reads a newspaper is to some extent influenced by this psychological manipulation, admittedly some more than others.

anniebach I am well aware that you didn't write the original post. You, however, said that Christians had no problem with atheists but it seemed atheists had a problem with Christians. I was pointing out that the original post appeared to be critical of those who did not celebrate Easter by going to church, and so set the tone for the ensuing discussion, which included the comment that perhaps atheists were secretly concerned that they were "batting for the wrong team", or words to that effect.

Agree TwiceasNice

I have bought my family chocolate, made Easter cards and cakes with the grandchildren. We had a huge meal yesterday with extended family and the grandchildren's god parents and today we are having afternoon tea again together. So in a way Easter is a chance to have lovely family time together because nobody is in school or work. However I am a Christian and am joyful that Christ has risen and yesterday I attended church which was packed with well over a 100 people and had hosted services for the whole of Holy Week themed around the Stations of the Cross. I do not push my religion down any body's throat but enjoyed very much a beautiful service with like minded people in a peaceful atmosphere and don't decry anyone who doesn't believe, I'm just glad I do , it's very much part of my life.

Atheists, agnostics, Christians, muslims, buddists, pagans, humanists, all faiths, all beliefs, all non beliefs,

Ok grummpa

Yes Eloethan Cultural Phenonema.

As a child I lived next door to a Jehovah Witness family.
Their beliefs were strong. My agnostic family had no time for them.
I have often wondered how different my life would be now had I been born into that family.

I know I little Borders town where there is a Beltane festival

So do I, with a Beltane Queen ! And not a million miles from my hometown .

I think “hijacking” only extends as far as you will let it.
Christmas , Mothering Sunday, Easter all can be a commercialised riot of material expectations, pressure and emotional baggage, but they need not be.

“To thine own self be true....”

I love the coming of spring and the rebirth of the earth? and enjoy the beautifully decorated Easter eggs ( non chocolate) Easter bunting which I do have? and other Easter/spring decorations. I know that some don’t like the decoration aspect but communities have for millennia decorated their homes at key season changes I like to feel part of this link with the past!
As a vegetarian I don’t eat lamb (my 3 DC and lovely DGC also vegetarians) so although I enjoy a roast it doesn’t feature meat. Chocolate is eaten but not too much.
This year I was given a Lindt Easter egg,and made some tiny Easter cakes.The DGC each had a small Easter parcel from me,which featured little bits and pieces of fun, but nothing huge and a small amount of chocolate.
When the DGC were smaller I gave them each a glass Easter egg with their names on,and with tiny chocolate eggs in side that can be refilled each year.
I also love the many Easter egg hunts and craft making days around my town, and have tried to take my DGS to as many of these as I can.
Easter is surely a festival about life and new beginnings something we can all embrace

Celebrate Easter as you will - as long as it harms no-one and is celebrated in a loving way, who cares?

Of course there is commercialization - that is the reality of modern life, for better or for worse. Nothing escapes its grasp.

But I for one have had a lovely weekend - all my children and GC around, sharing each others company, playing happily (mostly!) together and showing the best of what family means - togetherness and sharing. It has been truly lovely.

I am not prepared for anyone to imply, as the wording of the OP does, that this is anything but positive.

Eleothan, I did not write the O/P.

Yes, there is commercialism, but everyone can take, or leave, what they choose. Most people I know don’t go OTT and buy into all the glitz and hard sell, they take what they want from these ‘feasts’ and enjoy what they have to offer.

I do agree that people should be aware of the significance of Easter and other key events to Christian religion (and of key beliefs in other religions), but I don't think anyone can or should dictate how people ought to spend Easter. We, fortunately, do not now live in a society where everyone must worship a particular religion or else be a social outcast, or worse.

I too dislike the way every occasion now - Easter, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Firework Night, Halloween, End of School Proms, Christmas, Childbirth, etc, etc, etc - is so cynically exploited in order to make money. But surely that is a separate issue.

Atheism is, as I understand it, disbelief in any religion and therefore does not include acts of worship. I think I'm right in saying the paganism is a religion in that it is made up of certain beliefs and contains acts of worship. Agnosticism, I think, is a state of acceptance that neither belief nor disbelief in a god or a religion can be proved or disproved.

anniebach You always insist that "Christians have no problems with atheists". The premise of the original post, along with criticism of commercialism, seemed to me to imply criticism of those who do not celebrate Easter in a religious way, in particular by attending church. Given that the post was couched in those terms, it is hardly surprising that it received posts from people who had a non-religious take on the issue.

The few devout Christians that I know are not at all showy about what they believe in but spend much of their time in helping others rather than in trying to demonstrate spiritual one upmanship.

Religions or belief systems are not inborn. They are cultural phenomena. Christians are born into a Christian family/culture, as are Muslims/Jews/Hindus/Sikhs, etc etc. And yet each religion, though some are more tolerant of different beliefs than others, sees itself as being the true religion.

Why are the atheists being lumped together with pagans?
Thank you grumpa, that brought a smile to my face though maybe it shouldn't. I think it may be a "anyone who doesn't declare themselves to be Christian" group just as we have an "anyone who doesn't declare themselves to he anti-Corbyn" group name applied to those who may not see themselves in the way that it describes. Perhaps the answer is just laziness.

Not at all Alexa. But then that was not what I was saying.