Westminster Council was left scrambling to celebrate Easter yesterday after apparently forgetting about the major Christian festival and only putting up a Ramadan display. The Telegraph has more.
The problem at the council started on Wednesday evening, when the Telegraph approached with a complaint from one of its most senior councillors. “Why,” Paul Swaddle, the leader of the minority Conservative group, wanted to know, “was there a Ramadan celebration in the window of Westminster City Hall” but not a corresponding display for Easter?
The query, it now appears, set minds racing in what is probably the most high-profile local authority in all of the U.K.: its main offices a stone’s throw from Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament.
“I am sure we will be doing something,” a source at the Labour-run council replied on Wednesday night, as it dawned on officials that Easter, the holiest of Christian holidays, had seemingly been forgotten.
By Thursday morning, the council appeared to have begun an operation to prepare an Easter display hastily. Another council source declared: “We had some Easter stuff planned. There was consideration that we should ‘Easterise’ the building. There will be additional focus this afternoon.”
At lunchtime, however, there was still no sign of the display. Timings were getting tight. Council employees were starting to depart for the long Easter weekend. The council assured The Telegraph the display was being prepared. “The facilities guys,” it became clear, “tend to do their work at the end of the day,” a source said.
By 3.30pm, the council was issuing an official communiqué. “The council celebrates Easter every year. A window display is being installed today,” it said in a statement issued to the Telegraph.
And then, at 5pm, came the miracle of Easter. First, a table appeared in the empty window to the left of City Hall’s two revolving doors. Then came the bunting, which was followed by some multicoloured eggs and a couple of cut-out rabbits. The final piece in the display was two posters, wishing the public a happy Easter, depicting a giant golden egg wrapped with a red ribbon and superimposed on what looked like the fountain at Trafalgar Square. …
The spat over the Easter – or lack of Easter – display followed the appearance of an array of Ramadan lights which have been installed at prime spots in Oxford Street and between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square after winning approval from Westminster City Council.
Ah Easter, the time of year when Christians everywhere celebrate, er, chocolate and the existence of cute bunny rabbits.
Worth reading in full.
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