WHEN I was first asked to write this editorial I thought it would be a great opportunity to share a strong, well-considered opinion on Chocolate Day.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Then I realised I didn't really have any strong views about Easter.
Let's be real, it's a whatever holiday.
Easter pales in comparison to the Christmas versus Hanukkah outrage, it fails to split the loved and the walking wounded in the same way Valentine's Day does.
There's no fireworks. No Change the Date furor. No drunk uncles wearing those ridiculously small paper party hats.
Religiously Easter is the celebration of Jesus' resurrection from the dead, if you believe in that.
For the rest of us a white rabbit distributes chocolate eggs. Not sure why. Rabbits don't even lay eggs.
The most interesting thing about this boring holiday is that Google AdWords clocks between 1000 and 10,000 monthly searches for the phrases Do bunnies lay eggs and Do rabbits lay eggs.
That's a lot of idiots. Then again a portion of Americans believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows.
Then again they are American.
So why is there an Easter bunny?
It's something to do with a pagan celebration of spring, legend has it after a long winter the goddess of spring, Eastre, turned a frozen bird into a snow hare that laid colourful eggs.
Easily the most interesting part of the whole boring holiday is the controversy over its correct date. That started in the second century AD and has been unresolved for decades.
You'd hope this meant war. Nope.
Around 195 Pope Victor I tried to excommunicate the Quartodecimans (a different brand of Christians) and turned it into a full-blown priestly controversy. A couple of harshly worded letters were sent and in the end the Bishop of Rome backed down having 'overstepped his mark'.
After several attempts to compute the date of Easter it finally made it onto the agenda at the World Council of Churches in 1997.
Turns out it's on this Sunday.
