Actually, Tony Hall, you're only half right - the date of easter *is* calculated based on the lunar calendar - from which we get the date of passover! But nothing to do with Eostre!

Mike Foster, Townsville,

Actually Trey from Dallas you are quite wrong ...

The official date for Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. The reason for this variation in the date of Easter is its origin in the pagan festival Eostre/Ostara. The date is actually based on the lunar calendar rather than our more well-known solar one. There have been some attempts to change the date of Easter away from the old pagan-inspired lunar calendar, however these have met with little support.

Tony Hall, Stafford, UK

Dan-

The date of Easter is calculated based on the date of Passover. Nothing to do with Sun worshipping pagans. :)

Trey, Dallas, Texas

In response to the comment slating blonde PR girls, I'm sure that if your client list consisted of Somerfield then you would indeed be flaky. However, the ones with brains go into healthcare PR...

More to the point, this was obviously a very clever PR stunt to make their press release stand out and get a very lengthy piece in the Times!

Lily, New York ,

The late Bill Hicks once pointed out, to belly aching laughter "The way we choose to celebrate the death & resurection of Jesus Christ is by telling our children that a giant bunny rabbit left chocolate eggs in the night..?". Does it never occur to anyone that perhaps, just maybe, the message is being lost somewhere?

DannyJ, Stoke-on-Trent, UK

Pretty poorly researched. Even most Non Christians have some notion that the modern Christian "Easter" celebrates Christ rising from the dead. Traditional Easter is actually an ancient celebration of the vernal equinox and the onset of spring that it signifies. Spring being a season of rebirth - flowers, eggs, bunnies and baby chicks became its symbols. The celebration was simply incorporated by Christians in order to claim the celebration was about Jesus' resurrection. (Much the way Christmas was set around Yule). They don't teach those things in Christian schools which is why so few Christians can explain how the "date" of this historic anniversary changes from year to year. Check with the sun worshipping pagans though and they will tell you that Easter is the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

Dan McGuire, GPP, MI, USA

I guess I don't expect a non Christian to know what my holidays are about. It would be nice if they had researched it more thoroughly; but, mistakes happen. Actually if you want to be technical, the believers of Jesus Christ are celebrating "Resurrection Sunday" when He rose from the dead. The term "Easter" is really probably more associated with the Easter bunny, baskets, etc. although the term is used interchangeably with Christ's resurrection day by most Americans. To those that want to reject Jesus as Lord; He gave you the free will to do that, although He does not want anyone to perish. To anyone seeking the truth; He will love you unconditionally and never forsake you.

Lori Belle, Lutz, Fl/USA

There's a famous story in Japan about a well known department store that put Santa up on a cross as part of a glitzy Christmas celebration. But then again, Japan doesn't call itself a Christian country!

Saburo Tamabukuro, Tokyo, Japan

There is a tradition which says that Simon Cyrene who heped Jesus carry the cross had been transporting a basket of eggs to market when the Romans commandeered his assistance. After he had reluctantly done what the executioners required he returned to his basket. the eggs were said to have turned a series of vibrant colors and patterns. This Midrash is based on the text of the Gospel of Mark which says simply that Simon"the Father of Alexander and Rufus, was coming in from the country."

Jack Oxford, Cleveland, Ohio

Sorry, just remind me what all this fuss was about? I'm buying my Easter eggs from Sainsbury anyway.
I'll be celebrating in a CofE church on Sunday, one of my 'once a month' visits, while on holiday for the Christian festival, not a 'happy holiday' festival, and i don't really care if some poor young lady has become a little confused, she is just like many other 'normal' people out there, she knew what she meant! Leave her alone now, and enjoy the coming weekend.

Corky, Bedford, UK

Mr Zoeb, (London UK) should really learn correct use of the apostrophe before he slates PR people for glaring errors!!

Smith, Stoke, England

Chocolate eggs and bunnies has got nothing to do with Christ and only serves to confuse PR staff and lots of others not interested in celebrating Christ's resurrection. Before chocolate was invented and people learned how to make lots of money out of easter how did people celebrate Christ's resurrection?. And why does the Church persist in calling it Easter after a pagan idol? Why didn't they make a clean break from paganism and call it something more in keeping with the Gospel?

Christian, Wem, UK

All the eggs and rabbits are pagan celebrations for the renewal of the earth in springtime. Why do Christians think all the best holiday traditions are about them? Can't we all just celebrate whatever and whenever we want without someone trying to "put the Christ back in Easter"- or Christmas (Saturnalia) or whatever? The days are getting longer and that means more sunshine for us all. Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice! Yippee.

Joan, Tampa, Fl, USA

Lets get all the religious stuff out of our Spring Festival.

A happy Springfest to everyone.

Tom, Norwich,

You guys are all crazy. Easter is the celebration of the day when the giant magical chocolate rabbit stole jesus' body from the cave, and replaced it with chicken eggs (which turned many colours, and became hard-boiled by the warmth of god's love).

The tradition of the Easter egg hunt comes from when the Romans were trying to figure out exactly WHERE the rabbit had hid the body... which turned out to be in a snow-bank (which is why we eat marshmellow peeps on this holiest of days).

Tom, UK,

As I have always thought, flaky to the core, PR people on the whole I find are rather thick and get by with doing the bare minimum. PR agency's are the worst at employing the dumb blond with posh accent and all the personality of a wet fart. They should stick to what they are good at, which isn't much. This PR gal obviously has a boss who should have checked and corrected the glaring error.

zoeb, London, UK

It's a pagan fertility celebration, if you really want to get to the root of Easter, or rather, Eoster. This was a goddess in pagan belief. She is synonymous with Astarte and Ishtar. The eggs and bunnies? Fertility symbols. Nothing to do with christianity at all. Of course, this holds true for almost all of the official christian holidays. Christmas? Saturnalia. Halloween? Samhain.

Get over it. The "true" meaning of Easter? The "true" meaning of Christmas? They're both pagan. I think christians pray to their god that nobody speaks too loud when they point it out.

Amber, MOT, ND

Easter eggs (the non-chocolate ones) were eaten in Pagan Britain and Germany in honour of the goddess Eostre. The story goes that she saw a bird hunted by a predator and turned it into a rabbit for it to get away faster. The rabbit still had the ability to lay eggs and gave the eggs to Eostre as thanks. That's where the Easter bunny comes from. This I've heard but I'm not positive that it's true. But using your common sense you would understand that eggs and rabbits are associated with spring because that's when the hens start laying eggs again and the rabbits are at it, but modern city-dwelling man is quite ignorant of the shiftings of nature.

Quiver, Cardiff,

Has anyone considered that this may not be a PR mistake…but a ruse?

“Oh look! I made a mistake”

And the next thing it is in The Times.

I think it’s genius…

Madge, London,

I was pretty sure the Christian Church merely 'borrowed' the already well-established pagan festival of Spring/fertility -hence eggs & rabbits who reproduce frequently. Not a lot to do with anyone resurrecting really, no wonder everyone is getting confused!

Abi, Newcastle,

Anyone can make such a mistake. Did I not see a reference to the "Easter Rising" in the editorial on palm leaves earlier this week ? It did not seem as if the writer wanted to refer to the events of 1916 in Dublin !!

M Fenton, Whissonsett, Norfolk,

Your willful ignorance of Christianity only emboldens the proponants of the Islamicization of Britain. Your cowardly embrace of secularism over your religious heritage is risible to the jihadists is your midst.

Paul Kelley, Columbia, USA

We all laugh, but if a crass, blundering goof up by a culturally illiterate doofus, like this one (or even a tiny little error) had been made regarding Islam, death threats would have been made and carried out, and property would be burning.

Nicko, Cape Town,

Sorry, Angie. Guess you'll just have to continue putting up with all us "followers of gibberish" who believe in a higher power than ourselves. Such a pity that we can't be "enlightened" like all those geniuses who believe the universe randomly created itself.

Steve, Seattle, Washington, USA

As with Christmas, does anyone ever make the point each year that Christ was actually born in October time?

Rachel, Aylesbury, Bucks

The traditions are not even Christian, but Pagan. Much like other Christian holidays, this tradition outdates Jesus by quite a bit.

Faron, Harrisburg, PA

Starling of Lancaster - The egg tradition isn't "much older than Easter". Easter is much older than Christanity. Unlike most other religious festivals that were appropriated by the Christians, Easter kept its original name.

Note the similarity to words like 'oestregen' - Easter is an egg festival first, and a 'guy nailed up for a bit then taken down and busting out of a tomb' festival second.

Mikey, Bromley, UK

Ok - so there's this big guy in the sky, and he watches all the awful things happen to us but takes responsibility for only the good; he's all places at all times but no-one sane ever sees him; and despite the aforementioned inability to admit fallability, he says he is perfect. So in his honour we're celebrating his life - sorry, his afterlife - with brightly coloured chocolate ovoids which make people fat and diabetic, to say thanks, and show we love him.
You know - if I had come up with this on my own, they'd lock me up: does nobody else see that?!? Just because the ideas are old does not mean they are sound...they can't burn you any more for acknowledging that it's gibberish!

Angie, Norwich, England

Lazarus would have turned over in his grave..if he hadn't been resurrected first.

kirk, Rotherham , UK

Easy mistake. One of my congregation regulars apologised last week that he "wouldn't be in church at Christmas". "See you next week, then," I replied, to his embarrassment.

John Richardson, Elsenham, UK

I'm surprised anyone noticed the mistake, given the level of ignorance about Paganism today.

Chris, Dorking, UK

The eggs don't symbolise anything Christian, together with rabbits they symbolise fertility, spring, the (re)birth of life in general. They're much older than Easter.

Starling, Lancaster,

Hold on a minute. So what did the survey ask, and what is it that people are accused of being ignorant of? I daresay if people were asked 'did you know that Easter celebrates the birth of Christ', they would say 'no'. This is sloppy journalism typical of the Times in recent years, grabbing the headline and missing the more interesting story behind it. And Somerfield still seem to think it's OK to issue a press release based on what must, therefore, have been a made-up survey. Let's see the survey!

Sarah, London,

So private education is not all it's cracked up to be. Still Ms Booth's error means the press release became news, which it's fair to say, would not otherwise have been the case.

Janet, London,

"Educated to degree level" - not sure that means a lot these days.

VP, Leeds, UK

Sylvia, luvvie. It's 'intelligentsia'. Maybe you could get one of your graduate shelf-stackers to check your spelling next time!

:)

Mikey, Bromley, UK

Calamity Jim of Paris truly deserves his name. He states "They're not exactly places staffed by super-intelligent beings are they?". Is our Jim in the top 1% intellectually? Even if he is, does this give him the right to make such a sweeping statement?

I work for a major supermarket as a price controller- the majority of my colleagues are educated to degree level. I am not suggesting supermarkets are staffed by the cream of UK intelligencia - neither are they staffed by total morons. The above remarks are both offensive and mis-informed.

Sylvia Cowper, London, UK

Typical of many of the dimbos who work for PR agencies these days. Once upon a time, PR people were ex-journalists who knew about how the world and the press functioned. Sadly, that was long, long ago... in a land far, far away.

The Moving Finger, London, UK

erm, anyone pointed out to the Church of England that actually Easter is a Saxon goddess, and Easter is actually all about fertility? If they're in the mood for correcting other people, maybe they could stand some correction themselves...

historically correct, Amersham, UK

An egg is one component of the Passover table. Other non-Jewish cultures use eggs as signs of new life; whether there is any connection with the Jewish use of the symbiol is moot. Oral tradition has it that Mary gave some boiled eggs to the Roman soldiers crucifying Jesus in an attempt to bribe them into mitigating their cruelty. The eggs became splattered with blood. Hence the Eastern Orthodox tradition of eating red eggs at Easter.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

I'm surprised anyone noticed the mistake, given the level of ignorance about Christianity today.

alison, margate, UK

Is anyone surprised that a supermarket is ignorant about the true meaning? They're not exactly places staffed by super-intelligent beings are they? We play Spot the Spelling Mistake on their signs. All they're interested in is lots of little Peters and Janes stuffing their faces with sugar for wads of cash.

Just like Christmas - market it exhaustively and make people throw their money away on ideas of "tradition" and "well, it's Christmas innit?"

Calamity Jim, Paris, France

Average PR agencies will be enjoying succesful campaigns over the Easter weekend. But at least one will be sending key staff to church to learn about forgiveness, hoping that there careers do not need resurrection.

Dan Hathway, San Rafael, argentina

Surely, the reason 'rebirth' appeared in the press release is because 'Easter' eggs are nothing to do with Christianity, but the old pagan celebration of the rebirth of Spring.

Lee, London,

And do you, Mr Flores, have the guts to relate the Christian Easter tradition to the Jewish Passover tradition, and (no doubt) to the pagan spring festivals that underlie that? It's all a load of made-up rubbish anyway.

Paul Leigh, Maidenhead, Berkshire

At least they have the guts to relate Easter celebrations to the Christian tradition. Regardless of all the tripping and clumsy remarks, it is a good to find news like these.

Enrique Flores, Manchester, England

Why can you not resist slipping in the fact that she was 'privately educated'? Is your reasoning that one would expect more from someone of her social class? As opposed to the comp-schooled masses, of course, from whom ignorance of the story of Easter would presumably come as no surprise...

The other point to make is the pathetic cynicism of a store that cares not one iota about the meaning of Easter, as long as it helps them shift more £3.99 chocolate eggs, attempting to berate the rest of the public for its apathy.

Laurie, Oxford,