Google Ignores Easter For 13th Year In A Row, Celebrates Cesar Chavez Day
Every time a major Christian holiday rolls around, Google is criticized for its failure, willing or otherwise, to recognize it on the home page of their search engine. Easter 2013 was no different, with the Google Doodle going not to Jesus Christ (or even the Easter Bunny) but to Big Labor icon Cesar Chavez.
Google’s “Doodles” are meant “to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists,” in the company’s own words, but sometimes the homepage graphic is criticized for ignoring Judeo-Christian holidays celebrated by billions across the globe.
In 2011, President Obama designated March 31 as Cesar Chavez day, which Easter also fell on this year. Google chose to commemorate Chavez with a graphic of the American labor leader, while top search engine rival Bing changed its homepage to an Easter graphic (albeit a non-religious one).
This isn’t the first time Google has been criticized for ignoring a Judeo-Christian holiday nor the first time that Bing has scooped its search engine rival on a national holiday. Last year, Google didn’t change its homepage at all to reflect Christmas on December 25th, nor did it choose to celebrate July 4th (while Bing did).
Additionally, this is actually the 13th year in a row that Google has ignored Easter. Many on Twitter criticized Google for recognizing Chavez instead of Easter, even threatening a boycott.
So, let me get this straight – according to @google, Cesar Chavez >>>> Jesus, Easter, and Opening Day/Baseball? #google hates America
— Mallory Factor II (@MalFII) March 31, 2013
@cocrowe I guess we all need to Boycott Google and use a different email and search engine.
— ConservativeLinda (@Linda18788) March 31, 2013
It wasn’t just “traditional conservatives” or “Tea Partiers” criticizing Google either. MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski, a non-subtle Liberal on many issues, said on today’s Morning Joe, “how about a statement one day that just says: ‘we screwed up’?” from Google about the Chavez graphic.
For their part, Google did provide BuzzFeed with a statement regarding the Chavez graphic on Sunday afternoon:
“We enjoy celebrating holidays at Google but, as you may imagine, it’s difficult for us to choose which events to highlight on our site. Sometimes for a given date we feature an historical event or influential figure that we haven’t in the past.”
What do you think? Does Google purposefully ignore Judeo-Christian holidays? Should they have celebrated Easter on March 31? Was the Cesar Chavez graphic offensive to you? Sound off!
