Easter Presents?

A bus hoarding had a poster for Now That's What I Call Music 66 calling it a perfect present for Easter.

This is wrong.

Not only because of the item itself, but because of the whole idea of presents for Easter.

Easter has traditionally managed to escape the trappings of Christmas and been comparatively more of a sombre occasion than December 25, both commercially and emotionally. Which is how it should be - it's the weekend when Christ was crucified, after all. Does that spell "parties" to you? Okay, He did come back to life on the Sunday following, but that doesn't change the fact that it doesn't lend itself to the kind of hoopla we get later in the year. At least, it never used to (Easter Eggs and the Easter Bunny notwithstanding). But now this looks like the start of a slippery slope.

Or maybe not. Maybe I'm just exaggerating and years in the future Easter will still be more of a restrained time than Christmas - less commercial, more relaxing, not something to be dreaded more and more with each passing year. I hope so.

In the meantime, anyone buying that compilation should have their ears lopped off, the presence of Gwen Stefani and Jojo notwithstanding. They clearly don't use them.