When commercialization takes over spirituality, believers can meet halfway.
An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) believes there are ways of making the Easter message significant even in a commercialized activity such as an Easter egg hunt.
Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the CBCP public affairs committee, suggested rewarding children with rosaries or Bibles at the end of the game.
Secillano said it only took a little creativity to make a commercial gimmick like the Easter egg hunt more relevant to the feast of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which was a message of hope and a cause for celebration.
Another alternative would be to put Biblical verses inside the hidden decorated plastic eggs, the CBCP official said.
Secillano said children deserved to be happy on Easter. The time to understand its real meaning of hope and rebirth in Jesus Christ’s resurrection will come eventually, he added.
He said children would come to understand the meaning of the feast by exposing them to the Christian faith through the Bible and the rosary.
In the Philippines, the feast is celebrated with the “Salubong” procession, which starts before dawn on Easter Sunday. This depicts the meeting of Jesus Christ and his mother Mary after his resurrection.
In recent years, Filipino children have begun looking forward to Easter, when commercial establishments—and some parishes as well—throw the traditional Easter egg hunts, in which decorated plastic eggs filled with goodies are hidden, usually outdoors.
The Easter egg was considered a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus.
Secillano admitted that although they were concerned about the commercialization of Easter, what was most important to them was that the faithful did not forget to go to Mass and pray.
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