I think that this adjacent chart says it all. I found the results STAGGERING – even by modern standards. I did think that Easter Egg would be a popular choice among the young –but it was mainly adults whom I surveyed! When you consider what Easter is traditionally all about i.e. birth, new life and later on the resurrection of Christ – it seems quite clear that thetraditional meanings have been lost completely.
It may not be surprising then, that the traditional Easter flower – the lily (see previous entriesexplaining the age-old connection with the flower and Easter celebrations) also seems to have been lost as the years have gone by. It is still considered “the” Easter flower – even today, as my extensive research on up to the minute websites have shown. But the average adult, as you will see –seems oblivious to the lily and its association with Easter.
As you can see from the graph to the right
– the lily does not even feature! Even after asking the survey question, when I asked the same person again what they thought might be the traditional flower associated with Easter – they said the same thing. Most were surprised when Itold them it was in fact the lily – but after giving them possible reasons for this connection (again, seearticle below), they could understand why.
So, I will leave you to form your own conclusions, but the results do seem particularly conclusive in thatpeople most associate Easter with Easter Eggs, and traditions such as the link with the lily seem to be dying out in this modern age. Perhaps if I’d asked the question “Do you know the origins of Easter” I would have got far different results than in the first survey. It is perhaps not that people do not know the origins in the modern days, but just that they are more at the back of their minds as modern life pressures cause us to rush around cramming Easter Eggs into our trolleys at the last minute!
As I said, it was not young children I surveyed – which perhaps, you may think, explain thechocolate-covered result. Please watch out tomorrow for my post which includes quotes from a 5-year old to an 83 year old on what Easter means to them, along with some results from a recent independent survey performed by Somerfield along similar lines as I have been discussing.
Posted for Viki by Bob
