Chocolate Crosses

I read an article in Thursdays newspaper about chocolate crosses offending some Christians. The article read like it was a new thing.

Google chocolate crosses and you'll get the article in the first hit, if you're at all interested in reading.

I remember chocolate crosses in Easter baskets when I was a kid. Nobody thought it was a big deal then. Why all of a sudden is it a crisis now?

The line in the article, " The cross should be venerated, not eaten, nor tossed casually in an Easter basket beside the jelly beans and marshmallow Peeps." Irks me to no end. Now, consider the source, Joseph McAleer, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic diocese in Bridgeport, CT. One would think, given the bad press the Catholic church has received in the past year, that chocolate crosses would be pretty far down the list of things that need to be brought to the forefront.

Certainly if a family puts a cross in Easter baskets, the children are educated as to WHY it's a cross at Easter. In my mind Mom & Pop (or Granny and Granpa) aren't just going to pick up a chocolate cross for the Easter basket because they need filler. It means something. But yet, I don't find it offensive. The cross is a symbol of what the holiday is really about.

Peeps,bunnies, eggs, and even the grass in the baskets signify the spring. New life. The cross, also. Death and rebirth. (I could see where the cross would be more handy than a chocolate cave and boulder...oh wait..the Easter chocolate action playset! The chocolate boulder rolls away from the chocolate cave...oh it boggles the mind)

I guess my point is I don't understand WHY after all these years of chocolate crosses being available, that now it's a big deal. If the chocolate crosses were suddenly phased out, there'd be great hue and cry about that too. Again, I suppose if someone or some group wants to piss and moan, they'll find something if they look hard enough.

Carry on.