A Real Easter Egg

A ‘Real’ easter egg aims to distribute more than quarter of a million Easter stories inside its eggs this year as part of a national campaign to plug a gap in knowledge about the festival.

The Real Easter Egg 2018 campaign is designed to reverse the trend among young people to see no connection between Easter and Jesus Christ by encouraging people to give them a Real Easter Egg, which comes with a copy of the Easter story in the box.

Despite Easter being one of the most important occasions in the Christian calendar, recent surveys show that nearly half the population does not associate Jesus with Easter, placing him fourth in relevance behind Easter eggs, hot cross buns and the Bank Holiday. More worrying is news that Jesus is only 6 points ahead of the Easter Bunny in relevance.

Across Great Britain, only 45% of those aged under 50 connect Jesus with Easter. They are also the group which is less likely to believe in the resurrection. However, nearly 70% of those aged fifty and over are clear that Jesus is connected to Easter.

David Marshall, from The Meaningful Chocolate Company, said, “It was quite a surprise to discover that nearly 60% of under 24 year olds do not connect Jesus with Easter. There's an opportunity for those over 50 to buy a Real Easter Egg and pass on knowledge of the festival to younger parents and grandchildren. We hope to distribute 250,000 stories with our eggs and reach more than a million people.”

The Real Easter Egg is available via the Sarum College Bookshop - people can buy in shop or order online via this link.

It is also available from www.realeasteregg.co.uk or in larger branches of Tesco, ASDA, Waitrose, Morrisons and independent retailers.

Out of the 80 million chocolate Easter eggs sold each year in the UK, The Real Easter Egg is the first and only Fairtrade chocolate Easter egg with a copy of the Easter story in the box. Launched in 2010, more than a million Real Easter Eggs have been sold with 750,000 of these sent through the post directly to churches and schools. The success of The Real Easter Egg has meant that the production of Fairtrade chocolate has moved to the UK. Over £250,000 has been raised from sales for charitable causes.

In a Yougov survey of 2670 GB adults conducted on 13 April last year (Maundy Thursday) Yougov asked, ‘Which of the following do you personally associate with Easter? (tick all)” and the response was: 76% Chocolate Eggs, 67% Bank Holiday, 62% Hot Cross Buns, 55% Jesus Christ, 49% Easter Bunny.

The Yougov survey finds there is a big age divide when it comes to associating Jesus with Easter. Fewer than half of people below the age of 50 associate Easter with Jesus Christ (44% of 18-24 year olds and 45% of 25-49 year olds). But in contrast, about two thirds of people aged 50+ do associate the two (65% of 50-64 year olds and 69% of 65+ year olds).