Happy Easter

"Why are you displaying Easter Eggs already?" asks Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester.

The short answer is - "Logistics". 

The long answer - what else are the supermarkets now going to put on their shelves? 

The Christmas clearance is being cleared. The Mothering Sunday flowers can't be brought in until a few days before Mothering Sunday. Likewise those for Valentine's Day. And Epiphany and Candlemas aren't great marketing opportunities. So what is relatively long life, can be got onto the shelf, and some people might buy them in advance? Chocolate eggs. 

You simply can't deliver every required Easter Egg on Maundy Thursday. There aren't enough warehouses to hold them until then (though you might believe there is if you take a tour from Marston Gate, via Wellingborough and Corby, to Rugby). There aren't enough lorries to get on the road to deliver them all in a day or a week or a fortnight. 

Also - they're colourful, they're jolly, and they're just the thing to brighten up the shelves in these dark days of after-Christmas while we wait for the days to lengthen in earnest.  And Cadbury's Creme Eggs have been available from 1 January to Easter since 1975.

So happy Easter!  

Oh, and as for Nigel Griffin of Gloucester, who said: "It is a bit too early. I wonder what the sell by date is on them. They could go out of date before Easter." 

Go and look at one, Nigel. They're easy to find. They're on the supermarket shelves. Then  you'll know.