British PM May lambasts Cadbury over egg hunt

British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday that it was "absolutely ridiculous" for chocolate maker Cadbury not to mention Easter while promoting its nationwide egg hunts. Speaking to private broadcaster ITV, the clergyman's daughter echoed similar comments made by the Archbishop of York.

Cadbury is working in tandem with the National Trust, a conservation organization, to hold 300 events across the United Kingdom at the charity's various public properties.

The Daily Telegraph claimed on Tuesday that the word had been "airbrushed" from the promotion, although the word appears multiple times on websites and posters advertising the event. The main website URL for the hunt begins with "easter."

However, on one webpage, the National Trust had not written the word "Easter" alongside "Egg Hunt," instead using the name Cadbury, which is sponsoring the event. The organization later amended the page.

May slammed the supposed sidelining of Easter as a religious event. "Easter's very important. It's important to me, it's a very important festival for the Christian faith for millions across the world," May, the daughter of a pastor, said in the interview. "So I think what the National Trust is doing is frankly just ridiculous."

The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, said it was "spitting on the grave" of Cadbury's founder, the Quaker philanthropist John Cadbury.

Many Britons on social media were angry that May would be so upset about a chocolate egg hunt when she was en route to Saudi Arabia, a prolific importer of British weapons and nation known for its human rights abuses and oppression of women, where strict laws govern the practice of Christianity.

Brexit crusader Nigel Farage also voiced his outrage at Cadbury on Twitter, saying that the UK had to "defend our Judeo-Christian culture and that means Easter," adding a slice of Judaism to the holiest day in the Christian calendar which is not celebrated by Jews.

Both Cadbury and the National Trust denied claims it was trying to downplay the significance of Easter.

"A casual glance at our website will see dozens of references to Easter throughout," a spokesman for the National Trust told ITV. At the same time, a Cadbury representative said that it was "simply not true" that they had removed the word Easter from promotional materials.

"Each year our Easter campaigns have a different name and this year our seasonal campaign is called the Cadbury's Great British Egg Hunt," she said.