What happened to Easter?

We all know the feeling, of sheepishly wandering through a labyrinth of Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies precariously stacked on top of each other. Moreover, perhaps the largest danger this time of year is trying to push your trolley through the aisles without an avalanche of calories falling on and consuming you, rather than the other way round.

However, with the bizarre introduction of rabbit vases, chicken-shaped tea lights and carrot-shaped crackers, is it time to say that the commercialisation of Easter has gone too far? While this may be the norm for some consumers, others believe that the consequences of such commercialisation have eclipsed the meaning of a once very religious and selfless celebration.

Commercialisation is the process of financial gain through marketing and managing, and in the case of Easter, selling Easter eggs and other such merchandise to turn a profit from an initially religious celebration of rebirth.

Richard West, a senior lecturer in Marketing & Business Strategy at Westminster Business School said, “I think a lot of that has been driven by the retailers, because increasingly what retailers and brands need are points or retailing peaks if you like, that they can focus their sales activities around, and really I think Easter has been caught up in that.”

Perhaps the commercialisation of Easter has reached its peak, with the most expensive Easter egg by Le Bristol costing £566.60. Richard West believes that the commercial impact of Easter is “kind of a fact of life”.

“I think you can lament it, and say well isn't it a shame that everything has to be commercial? But, in time, people need to earn a living." He added, “You have to be careful because it employs a lot of people, and it is seen as an important date in the calendar for retailers. Retailers have to make a living as well; I think there is an imperative there.”

According to Andrew Coe, a senior director of Retail Operations at Retail Insight, "The great thing about impulse stuff, from a retailer's point of view, is that it does not cannibalise your sales of anything else. It is incremental. If you sell an Easter egg, people aren't not going to buy anything else, they are buying it as well as everything else."

So, at a time when the retail market is more competitive than ever, is it any wonder why retailers attempt to commercialise as much as they can.

In the UK food market, consumers spend £240 billion per year on food and in the last four years, 80% of this was spent in the big four supermarkets: Tesco, Asda, Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s. This year that figure is 70%. And while this may not be a significant decrease at first glance, every 1% accounts for £2.5 billion worth of sales. Therefore, supermarkets are trying to maximise every opportunity, if so commercially, in order to compete in the current cut-throat market.

Andrew Coe went on to say, “They are commercialising Easter in exactly the same way as they are looking to commercialise and maximise the opportunity for every other event across the year.”

Paul A. Hum, a Sous Chocolatier at ‘Paul A. Young Fine Chocolates’ believes that Easter is as commercial as the public allows it to be. Just because the Easter eggs are on sale in large quantities, does not necessarily mean that as consumers we have to comply.

“We all choose to celebrate it in our own way. I think we are seeing it with Valentines, where a lot more people are saying, ‘I don’t need to be told when I can tell my partner ‘I love you’. I can say that the other 364 days a year.’ I think a similar thing is happening with the rest of the holidays, they can embrace everything that goes along with it or celebrate it in their own manner.”

He added later, “If you look at certain retail trends, a lot of what they do about getting the products in the stores so early, it’s not so much about selling them early, it’s about you getting the mental imagery of ‘Ah, I know I can get it there when it’s getting close to Easter.’”

Therefore, it is perhaps the public who are commercialising this formerly religious event, especially as in the UK, consumers spend £200 million a year on Easter eggs alone, each one costing an average of £3. So what can we do about it?

Father John Burniston of St James Church, Islington, believes that if people perhaps went back to the origins of Easter, that there would be a lot, they could pick up and understand, more than they would have had a chance to before.

He believes commercialisation “is only a problem if you are keen to maintain the tradition in a world where people’s activities and notions are about consumerism. And you’re saying, ‘Hang about, there might be more to Easter, there might be more to living than just what you are going to eat and what you are going to drink etc.’”

The origins of Easter, however, depends on whom you listen to. The Christian view of Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus after the Romans crucified him. However, it could be argued that the origins of the commercial type of Easter that we see today, such as exchanging gifts, cards, consumable goods such as eggs and chocolate come from the early Pagan traditions.

Despite this, Father Burniston believes that once people, consumers, make the connection between the issues that were occurring back then, to the present day, people can not only understand that “since the modern period and the post-modern period…religion has become more and more peripheral”. But also that, Easter is “not just about a storybook of what happened two thousand years ago”.

In an attempt to step away from the mainstream commercial celebration of Easter and towards an alternative interpretation, Union Chapel holds Good Friday events. Each year, they celebrate Easter through themed gigs, silent movies and feminist perspectives such as ‘The Passion of Christa', an experimental short film that portrays the life of Jesus and his crucifixion yet a woman plays his role.

All these events despite their different viewpoints, channel the same message of liberation and freedom from oppression, which to them, is an essential message of Easter.

Reverend Vaughan Jones of Union Chapel believes “there is a disjuncture between the secular celebration of Christmas and Easter. It’s a massive gulf. And the question is, what do you do? Do you actually focus on making sure that the tradition you inherit is alive and relevant and if it is, empowering a smaller group of people rather than just lock in with that superficial secular celebration, with Easter eggs or whatever?”

He believes along with Father Burniston that the events and influences of the history of Easter can help us to understand how and why Easter appears to be stuck currently in economic quicksand. “It’s a problem with the Western mindset, you view history as something that happened in the past. Whereas it isn’t actually, it’s a mythological story that allows you to interpret and understand and be strengthened in the contemporary experiences.”

Therefore, Easter is not perhaps as far away from its religious origins after all.

Richard West disagrees. He believes that the commercial route that Easter has taken is “sad” and that he feels if it has “lost its message” not only religiously, but also in reflection and the celebration of rebirth. He also believes that the solution to the issue of the commercialisation of Easter is not an easy one.

“You could never regulate something like that, you can't regulate people's enjoyments, I think what you can do is to put out the alternative message which is that it should be about something other than just consumerism. But I mean, if you are talking about Easter specifically, part of the Easter celebration was breaking of the 40 days fasting after Lent, so if you want to trace it back to its origins, there is a DNA there.”

Ultimately, he believes that, as a society we should “except that our interpretation of things, sort of changes as we evolve, I mean the Easter celebration, it was originally a pagan festival, it was about celebrating spring and rebirth, and that was, if you like, hijacked by the Church, they put the Christian spin on it, and now it's been reinvented in the 21st century."

Therefore, perhaps the evolution of the celebration and if so, the commercialisation of Easter should not be a big fuss. Who knows how far the evolution will go? Maybe we will start having an advent calendar to the countdown of Easter or perhaps Easter parties. Alternatively, perhaps we will continue to consume decadent chocolate bunnies, Easter eggs and other sugary goodies.

That being said, anyone hungry?