Easter is, without a doubt, the most important holy day in Christianity.

Christianity remains the largest faith group in the world.

There’s no way around the fact that Easter is the celebration of the doctrinal conviction that unites traditional Christians around the world: “Christ is risen!”

What a downer. This is a problem for people who decorate shopping malls and make the obligatory A1 holiday photo assignments for newspapers. There is more to this dilemma (ask Google) than struggling to photograph religious rites that take place at midnight or sunrise.

But people love fun, food, candy, parties, greeting cards, etc. Businesses love selling lots of stuff. And, in case you have not heard, a growing number of people in the mushy, old-mainstream middle of religious life — in America and elsewhere in the Western World — are cutting their ties to organized faith (“Nones” and others) and moving into a business, political and cultural coalition with atheists and agnostics.

This is a big $$$$$$$ deal.

This leads to this totally valid — even if rather depressing, for believers — headline at Religion New Service: “Adult egg hunts and kiddie pools full of gifts: Is Easter the new Christmas?”

So I want to ask a journalism question on this Easter Monday morning (for Western Christians, since this Holy Week for Orthodox Christians and other Eastern rites): What was the Easter art featured in your local media this year? Here in East Tennessee, the major daily featured GOP racism and Earth Day.

But back to that RNS story. Why call it “totally valid”?

For a simple reason: It’s describing Easter in a growing segment of the American cultural marketplace. The question is how journalists can feature this reality — while also noting the rites and traditions of, well, the largest faith group in the world.

Here is the overture for the RNS feature:

ITASCA, Illinois (RNS) — For Laurie Walker and Altha Milnes, it was a nice way to get outside and get moving.

On Thursday evening (April 6) — when many Christian traditions observed Maundy Thursday, commemorating Jesus’ last supper with his disciples — the sisters-in-law were attending their town’s Adult Eggstravaganza Egg Hunt.

Racing their neighbors to collect prize-filled eggs strewn across the playground at this Chicago suburb’s recreation and fitness center, participants swung shopping bags and buckets decorated with festive bunnies and chicks. Some wore headlamps or carried flashlights as they combed hedges for a glimpse of colorful plastic.

Usually, Walker and Milnes are the ones hiding the eggs for their children and grandchildren to find on Easter. They’ve hidden baskets and golden eggs containing special prizes. One year, Milnes even dressed as the Easter Bunny.

They’ve tried to get their families to go to church, as they did when they were younger. But Easter, when Christians celebrate Jesus’ resurrection after three days in the tomb, feels like more of a family get-together these days, Walker said.

Insert basic information on declining numbers in MANY Christian traditions (while avoiding the fact that there are growing churches in various traditions).

Then look for something colorful for both kids and adults, as in candy and booze.

… [A]t a time when fewer people are identifying as Christian and church attendance has been slow to recover from the pandemic, celebrations of the most sacred day on the Christian calendar are becoming bigger and more detached from their religious roots.

In their place, events like the Adult Eggstravaganza Egg Hunt, hosted by the Itasca Park District and Village of Itasca, appear to be taking off.

“It’s something that definitely I would say in the last three to five years is becoming more and more popular, whether it involves alcohol or not,” said Erika Rubo, recreation supervisor for the Itasca Park District.

Itasca has hosted its adult egg hunt, in addition to events for children and seniors, for more than five years — longer than Rubo said she has worked for the park district. During the pandemic, the park district also organized events like the Boozy Bunny Egg Hunt, hiding plastic eggs containing candy and little bottles of alcoholic beverages for residents over the age of 21.

The key word that journalists will need to flesh out, in the years ahead, is that claim that the $$$$$$$ Easter celebrations are, in fact, becoming bigger — across the nation, as opposed to growing in some major zip codes that are quite media-friendly.

Readers will need to dig into the whole piece. But, you know that social media is going to be one of the quickest and easiest places to turn for clues and the personal level.

Add business stats and, bingo, you have a big $$$$$$$ holiday trend.

TikTok videos encourage kiddie pools full of summery gifts in place of modest baskets of candy, pastel décor decks the halls of YouTubers’ homes and matching pajamas make early morning egg hunts more Instagram-able.

To some people, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in April.

Parents and professional observers of religion have been noticing the trend for some time. “When The Heck Did Easter Become The New Christmas?” asked a 2016 headline on the popular parenting blog Scary Mommy.

The answer may be when Easter began to boom as a retail opportunity. Spending on Easter goods this year is expected to reach an all-time high of $24 billion, according to the annual Easter spending survey by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. (It was $17.3 billion in 2016 and jumped from $18.1 billion to $21.7 billion in 2020.)

One final question: In addition to a blue-zip-code voice from the Catholic left, what other sources could have been used — from traditional forms of Christianity — to balance this story?

Just asking.

FIRST IMAGE: Uncredited illustration with “Ways to Celebrate Easter if You Are Not Religious” feature at My 12 Step Store website.