An American city has removed the word “Easter” from its Easter egg hunt in an attempt to “welcome all citizens to our events, regardless of faith”.
The city of Edmonds, near Seattle, made the change – which has sparked surprise and disappointment.
Pat Hughes told a local US TV station: “Oh, I think they should call it an Easter egg hunt. That’s what it is”.
Sad
And Karen Knight commented: “I think it’s kind of sad”. She added: “You know, I come from England, and Christmas is Christmas and Easter is Easter.”
In a written statement, officials from the City of Edmonds commented that such actions were common in other cities.
They added they wanted to “recognize and welcome all citizens to our events, regardless of faith”.
Banned
In 2011 an American church’s advert telling people about an Easter service was banned from cinemas and branded “too controversial” because it mentioned the name of Jesus.
Compass Bible Church in California produced a short, mild cinema ad to invite people to its Easter event.
But the ad, which mentioned the name of Jesus twice, was banned from appearing on cinema screens by an advertising agency.
Resurrection
The commercial promoted an Easter service run by the church at a university campus.
It posed a number of possible theories about whether Jesus really did rise from the dead, before stating that the church does “actually believe in the resurrection”.