Easter has a soundtrack just like Christmas, so why do we never hear it? |
You can’t visit the shops around Christmas time without hearing Feliz Navidad, Silent Night, or Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You.
So why was Kate Ceberano’s song Bedroom Eyes blaring through the speakers as I did my Easter chocolate shopping this week?
Both Easter and Christmas come with religious beliefs, secular icons, public holidays and highway traffic jams – but where Christmas music thrives on a commercial level, the Easter soundtrack seems trapped behind the one rabbit-proof fence that actually worked.
Living in Santa’s shadow
For one thing, Easter’s associations in Christianity aren’t as marketable as those of Christmas.
The commercialisation of Christmas – which ramped up in department stores in the early 20th century – gradually encouraged tolerance of religious songs in public shopping centres.
We don’t mind celebrating the birth of a baby, regardless of our beliefs. It’s a joyful human experience. But the torture and death of a man on Good Friday is deeply disturbing – and the triumphant Easter Sunday resurrection stumps advertisers.
Easter fares no better with secular icons. A jolly bearded Santa offers a comforting grandfather figure who grants wishes. This is arguably more likely to lure consumers........