Easter is next Sunday. If you had to depend on knowing that from the general culture, would you?

Yes, there are “’Easter’” goods in stores. But take a closer look at them. Check the packages and see how often the word “Easter” explicitly appears on them. Are they “Easter eggs” -- or just “eggs?” Paas’ traditional dyes are an “egg-coloring kit.” The best shot you have at the “E” word is with “rabbit,” though it’s also more likely to be just a “chocolate” rabbit.

If there was is a “war on Christmas,” there’s an erasure of Easter. The common denominator is that, in both instances, is a bizarre discrimination where people still want to make money on a Christian holiday and its traditions while avoiding acknowledgement of the holiday or Christianity.

It’s a dirty little secret: everybody knows the connection of products to their holidays but doesn’t want to say the words. If they’re not “Easter rabbits,” why aren’t they on the shelf for Halloween distribution? If they’re not “Easter egg” coloring kits, why aren’t they available for purchase year round? After all, at $5/dozen, you just might want to make those eggs special every day!

Compare that to the last month, when politicians and Christian clergymen tripped over each other to wish everybody a “Happy Ramadan!” They didn’t say “Happy You Know That No-Eating Month!” It was allowed its name. So why must Christian names stay in the closet?

While you’re checking out the Easter displays in your local supermarket, take a walk down the ethnic aisle, where there may still be products for Passover. Granted, it’s a smaller market, and the display may be less prominent to avoid the anti-Semite “boycott and divestment” crowd, but matzahs get to call themselves “Passover” products.

Easter is a lucrative candy market: in 2022, candymakers netted $3 billion. Believe it or not, it’s either first or second in terms of holiday candy sales. Now take a closer look at those candy bags -- how often does the word “Easter” actually appear on them?

Easter is relatively easy to hide because, ever on a Sunday, it can be buried in just another weekend. More and more schools are dissociating “spring break” from “Easter break,” in some school districts precisely to avoid the religious association. Compared to years ago when it was often a state holiday, Good Friday has now blended into just another Friday. Only Wall Street takes it off. Once upon a time, television gave some prominence to Holy Week and Easter by featuring religious-themed movies, a phenomenon lost with the diversification of media. The fact that the “HandsOff!” movement scheduled its second national mobilization for April 19 -- Holy Saturday, in the middle of the most important weekend of the year for Christians -- shows how much Easter has been marginalized. Did the organizers notice? Or just not care?

Easter is fading away.

That’s why Missouri Republican Senator Eric Schmitt introduced the “Easter Monday Holiday Act.” S.1426 https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/119/s1426 The bill would designate Easter as a civil holiday. When federal civil holidays fall on Sundays, they are observed on Mondays. That would mirror practice in much of the Western world where Easter is a civil holiday and is normally observed over two days.

Undoubtedly, there will be cries that this is an “establishment of religion.” Given the number of public officials celebrating all sorts of events, from Ramadan to Nepali New Year, is it unjustified for Christians -- still the majority of Americans -- to have their own footprint on what the larger culture takes note of? Or are we supposed to honor everything except what most Americans at least nominally claim to be their own?

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