The Easter story still holds lessons for modern, secular Britain

On Palm Sunday in Palermo, you can’t ignore it. Walk through the piazzas or step into a bakery, and there they are: delicate braids of palm fronds displayed in windows, carried by children in scout uniforms, clutched by grandparents. The churches are full. The streets feel alive with a sense of occasion, a quiet reverence mingled with joy. Whatever your beliefs – and I no longer believe – you feel something meaningful happening.Back home in the UK, Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week barely register. Easter, for the most part, begins and ends with ever more expensive hot-cross buns, chocolate bunnies and pastel-wrapped eggs, and two extra days off. If we mention the religious calendar at all, it’s usually by accident, as a reminder to buy those buns before the supermarket replaces them with barbecue deals.None of this is to deny the progress we’ve made. Britain has, admirably, sought to become a more inclusive, diverse society. We’re careful not to exclude those of other faiths...