By Susan Gately - 27 February, 2016
An Easter egg costing €8 with each egg contributing to the Hope Foundation, aims to bring Jesus back into Easter.
Endorsed by the Catholic, the Church of Ireland and Methodist Churches, each egg contains a Happy Easter Story booklet which tells the Easter story in “easy-to-read rhyme and with great illustrations”.
At the product’s website www.happyeasteregg.ie there are further activities and resources – The Happy Easter Story online, read by the actor David Suchet (who played Hercules Poirot in the series of the same name) which takes extracts from several bible sources – the Gospels, Acts and Letters of Peter, weaving them into the Easter story.
There is also an illustrated reading of the account of the Resurrection from John’s Gospel. Each of the videos lasts just under five minutes.
The Happy Easter Egg was devised by Julie Carvill who owns a small Christian bookshop in Co Wicklow.
“If you walked around at Christmas time you might get some idea of the nativity with scenes of the baby, angels, shepherds. You would get something. But at Easter time, you would think it is all about chocolate, chicks and bunny rabbits. That’s not what Easter is about. We celebrate Easter because Jesus is alive,” she told CatholicIreland.net.
The milk chocolate egg, manufactured by the Irish Chocolate Company, weighs 195gm and contains honeycomb crisp milk chocolates. For each egg purchased, 10c is donated to the Hope Foundation.
Each Happy Easter Egg costs €8 including free delivery to a church (or group) for orders of 20 eggs or more.
The company will deliver any number at all over 20, once it’s a multiple of 10 eggs, but according to the website, they cannot guarantee supply for orders placed after tomorrow, Sunday 28 February.
“I suspect lots of orders will come in on Sunday afternoon,” said Ms Carville, who is trying to see about extending the deadline into next week. “If needs be I’ll jump into the van and make the deliveries myself,” she said.
The egg has been endorsed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin.
The Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Glendalough Rev Dr Michael Jackson says the focus given to the “true meaning of Easter” ought, of itself, to “commend this particular egg to you as your No 1 purchase for Easter.”
A former President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, Rev Dr Heather Morris says she thinks it is “wonderful because it explains the real meaning of Easter for everyone.”
The Happy Easter Story booklet has 16 pages and is in full colour. It tells the story of Easter in verse and with pretty illustrations explains in simple terms “why it is important to us today that Jesus is alive again.”
The product’s website is also running two competitions which will be announced over Easter. In addition it recommends Alpha courses to people wanting to know more about Christianity.
