FOR many, Easter is traditionally a time of chocolate, lots of it and generally egg-shaped.

My Eastbourne traditions have also included the Eggspress at the Miniature Steam Railway and feeding lambs at Seven Sisters Sheep Station. Eastbourne really comes into its own at this time of year so it was no surprise that we were again named as one of the happiest places to live in the UK. How I love my home town and its surrounding villages!

Would it be fair to say, however, that last week Cadburys and the National Trust were not “feeling the Easter love” with a backlash against their alleged airbrushing of faith from their own seasonal activities? Quite a few people got hot under the collar when they discovered it was no longer an Easter Egg Hunt this year but rather Cadbury’s Great British Egg Hunt. This earned a rebuke from the Prime Minister who called the move “absolutely ridiculous”.

I guess this sensitivity to Christianity being seemingly diluted, diminished or denied is because people of faith can genuinely feel marginalised in a prevailing culture which now reflects, for the first time in recorded history, those declaring themselves to have no religion outnumbering Christians in Britain.

For children to know the story behind the egg hunt adds to their experience of life and the world around them.

There are variations on the theme but essentially, all point to the egg as symbol of new life; for Christians, like me, this eternal life is brokered through the sacrificial death of Jesus, Son of God, crucified on a Roman cross two millennia ago.

This beautiful, redemptive love story will be known to many children through the inspired writing of C.S Lewis in his work ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Although church attendance in some traditions is declining, history shows that faith itself is irrepressible, rather like life itself.

And to understand our world today, it is as important as ever to have an understanding of different faiths because faith speaks to how we understand our own lives.

Caroline Ansell is MP for Eastbourne