Whilst you grab fistfuls of chocolate in whatever form; spherical, flattened, flavoured, blandly conjugated with dried fruit and nuts (gotta get at least one of your five a day), spare a thought for the exploitative practices which lead up to your supposedly ethical purchase. Cocoa and the chocolate trade of course has nothing to do with the early church and Jesus' message; quite the opposite. The established Christian church transposed the story of the transfiguration onto the pagan festival Eostre, a time of renewal of the life force and celebration of the Earth's shifting energies. The symbol of the egg should signify new life emerging after a period of rest, which makes industrial chocolateering and lifeless imitation eggs a hollow experience. I quite like chocolate from time to time, but not stirred up with teaspoons of sugar, aggressive marketing, mixed religious messages, food addiction, slavery, and the destruction of whole communities, economies and ecologies for profit. Anybody with Christian sympathies should avoid chocolate "Easter eggs" and the hypocrisy they stand for altogether.
By North Utsire
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