After the Lidl fiasco before Christmas, the retailer has once again caused quite a stir by advertising its Easter dishes as “an experience of spring.” Apparently, the Slovenian management of the company has a different business orientation than their subsidiaries in neighbouring countries, where our Christian traditions are advertised without any problems.
Judging by the reactions on social media, the retailer’s latest move has caused a lot of outrage, as it is well known that Easter is the biggest Christian holiday, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It seems hypocritical to make money from selling Easter dishes such as ham, which represents the body of Christ, horseradish, which represents the nails used to nail Christ to the cross, and potica, which represents the crown of Christ, while at the same time not being able to wish people a Happy Easter.
“Lidl Slovenia wants you to experience all the feelings of spring. Unfortunately, they don’t offer Easter dishes. We will go where they offer us the feelings of Easter;” “This Lidl Slovenia thing is now very obviously deliberately offensive to Christians. On every Christian holiday, Lidl Slovenia runs campaigns to avoid Christian statements on Christian holidays. Good luck with your Christian-free pork bellies.”; “The owner of Lidl is one of the followers of transhumanism. It all has a logical background, as certain things do when you read about the Sao Paulo Forum…”; “Obviously there will be a boycott on our side, and Muslims won’t buy ham anyway…” are just a few examples of the critical comments that have been made after people saw the retailers’ catalogues.
Lidl, the German-based retail chain, has already proven that it does not treat all European countries the same at Christmas time, managing to wish Croatians a merry Christmas and Slovenians a relaxed holiday. However, they are far from only causing a stir on the biggest Christian holidays. Let us also remind you that on Greek products, they went as far as to remove the Christian symbol – the cross – from a photograph of a Greek church under the pretext of respect for diversity. By rejecting the historical, cultural and religious significance of the symbol, they obviously wanted to get Muslims to buy these products, too. It is not clear to many people how Lidl has now come to the idea of selling ham to Muslims.
The practice of dismantling Christian tradition, which we are witnessing to an increasing extent all over the world today, shows that respect for diversity does not go both ways. Cultural Marxism, the aim of which is the deliberate destruction of modern European Western civilisation, which was founded on Christianity and human rights, is in full swing. The fact that this is being done from within, by destroying values, and often invisibly, makes its march all the easier. By gradually imposing patterns of opinion through the media, the entertainment industry and the education system, they are trying to create a generation that will renounce patriotism altogether, and by propagating LGBT cultural Marxism, they are trying to create the impression that the family is no longer made up of a woman, a man and a child, but of two women, or two men and a child, and they are offering a theory of gender that says there are infinite genders, when in reality there are only two.
The fact is that Europe was founded on Christian foundations, whether anyone likes it or not. Since traditional dishes such as ham and potica are eaten on the biggest Christian holiday, it is not at all to be expected that they will be bought by customers who do not celebrate Easter at all. This is not, after all, just about spring dishes, despite a great deal of hype. Judging by the reactions, some customers have such strong resentment for Lidl’s move that they are choosing to buy from other retailers, who are much more comfortable with Christmas and Easter greetings, for that very reason. “I stopped going to Lidl in 2017, when they used photos of Greek churches on their packaging and photoshopped the crosses off”; “I stopped shopping at Lidl a long time ago. So, I won’t get the feeling of spring.”; “We used to go there, but now we don’t.”; “I got their commercial, tore it up, threw it in the trash. They won’t see me in Lidl anymore. Shame. I have been celebrating Easter since I was a child, I am Roman Catholic, and I celebrate Easter. But to be insulted like this as a Christian in an independent Slovenia is just too much. It is sad to see where we are going”, are just some of the responses.
Sara Kovač
