Store left with egg on its face after claiming Easter marks 'birth' of Christ

But, it seems the person who wrote Somerfield's press release also struggles to understand exactly why we celebrate the religious festival.

In an attempt to provide some historical background, the store claimed that the tradition of giving Easter eggs was to celebrate the 'birth of Jesus'.

When the report's author realised her error, she quickly sent out a correction, claiming that Easter marks the 'rebirth of Christ'.

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The release came with an explanatory note which read: 'Please find below the amended story revealing Britons' mounting ignorance regarding Easter.

'Note the reference to rebirth (not birth) as previously stated. Apologies for any confusion.'

What followed was a hasty consultation with the Church of England who politely pointed out that Easter actually symbolises the 'resurrection' of Jesus.

Brando, the PR agency which produced the press release on behalf of Somerfield then issued a third version of the report - this time containing the correct meaning of Easter.

Pete Williams, head of PR at Somerfield, said: 'We spoke to the Church of England press office who suggested we use the word resurrection, in keeping with the Church's teaching. We were happy to do that.'

Ben Wilson, one of the Church's press officers, described the error as a 'genuine mistake, if a rather unfortunate one'.

'I clarified with them that it would probably be best to refer to Easter as a celebration of Christ's resurrection rather than His birth,' he said.

'Easter is as hollow as most chocolate eggs if we don't take the chance to think about what it means - that Jesus died, was buried and was resurrected to show us the power of God's love - the power that allows us all to be born to new life. 'Many of these figures are encouraging, with a fifth of the nation planning to celebrate Easter in church this Sunday - though, of course, we wish that figure was even higher.'

The supermarket's survey found that one-in-six 16 to 24-year-olds know nothing about Good Friday, the commemoration of Jesus' crucifixion.

And 10 per cent are in the dark about Easter Sunday, which marks Jesus' resurrection.

Somerfield quizzed 1,130 adults for the survey, and found that youngsters are ignorant when it comes to the Easter bunny - a Pagan fertility symbol - with 31 per cent having no idea why the character exists at all.

But, despite large numbers of people being unaware of the Easter basics, more than a fifth said they are planning to go to church to mark the holiday.

Mike Judge, spokesman for Christian charity The Christian Institute, said that Easter ignorance was down to education.

He said: "I think that the way R.E. is taught today in schools is a factor.

"Children are taught in a very thematic way rather than being educated about the different ways in which the world's religions celebrate different holidays like Easter.

"We're doing our children a great disservice in not teaching them the basic beliefs of Christianity.

"Previous generations of parents would have been brought up going to summer school and learning in detail about Easter. But there is definitely a generation of parents now who don't know themselves what Easter is about."