I was explaining to my wife, whose mother tongue is not English, that the seasonal pastime I was planning is called an Easter egg hunt, not the egg Easter-hunt that she was advertising to our kids. In fact, just to be even more pedantic, I elaborated that it is an Easter-egg hunt, not to be confused with an Easter egg-hunt: there being no other seasons of egg-hunt.

But perhaps I was being hasty. There’s an innocence that foreigners bring to our language, a fresh perspective that can reveal hidden unconscious truths via the easiest slip of the tongue. They have not been beaten into the same verbal patterns as ourselves, so perhaps it is requisite occasionally to listen. For the egg Easter-hunt may indeed be required.

It suggests a search for Easter carried out via the vehicle of an egg. Frankly, that’s a perfect analysis of the challenge that Easter has become. According to the results of a Reader’s Digest survey this week, only 48 per cent of the public know what Christians mark at Easter.

Apart from being a four-day holiday, a hole in the school calendar and a chance for a good break without taking too many days off work, there is, of course, a meaning to Easter.

It is part of the armoury of ritual that became established in the Anglo-Saxon and Christian calendar. Where its cousins Epiphany, Shrove Tuesday and the Harvest Festival have faded from the front pages, Easter has kept a firm hold on the psyche. This is perhaps on account of its two magic ingredients: the days off and the chocolate. The soft domes of calorie-rich eggs seduce us into embracing the new season. But do we have any idea why? Can we remember what these icons represent? Do we need a Cadbury’s Crème Reason?

The Christian Easter tradition has actually been piggy-backed on to pre-existing heathen rituals. These pagan placeholders on the annual circle of life illustrate our deep need to mark the passage of time, and the seasons, with events organised around a relevant theme. This need remains today but we don’t really connect with it any more. In the old days, these instincts connected with the cycle of nature. We were just as much a part of seasonal change as the woods, the fields and the beasts. We held our rituals to clarify with actions and symbols the changes that we felt were happening within us.

Easter was the time when spring was marked. We took time out to give our homes a fresh lick of paint, to put in new plants in the garden. Not only is it the season when nature gives birth but we, too, begin a cycle of creative reaffirmation. Hence the egg. It symbolises the regeneration of life. We should use it to notice that we, too, have the opportunity to regenerate our internal energies. The hiding of the egg, and its subsequent hunting, represents the seeking and bringing out into the open our own abundance of creative energy. Failure to find our “egg” would leave us untouched by the powerful psycho-spiritual energetic opportunities of spring.

So let’s go back to my wife’s idea that I was so swift to dismiss. How about an egg Easter-hunt? Can you use the ubiquitous eggs that surround you for something other than a sugar-fuelled way of coping with an unwelcome invasion of relatives? Instead focus on the symbol, reconnect with the ritual, observe the passing of the seasons, notice the subtle shift in creative energy that this brings within you. Through the egg, see if you can’t find the psychic centre of your Easter, rather than just using Easter as an excuse to enjoy your egg’s sugary centre.

Benjamin Fry is co-presenter of Spendaholics, BBC Three, Thursdays, at 9pm

OVER TO YOU

If you would like to suggest a topic for Benjamin Fry to examine, send an e-mail to body&soul@thetimes.co.uk or write to him at Body&Soul, The Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TT. You can also discuss his ideas and work at www.whatswrongwithyou.com or on 0845 2990299