Let's fix Easter
Why let the moon choose our holidays for us ?
Having finished off the Easter eggs (or bunnies/bilbies) and Hot Cross Buns (though these are a year-round thing now), I ought to be turning attention back to what’s happening in the world. But that’s too depressing to look at, a view our aspiring leaders have endorsed by resolutely ignoring anything more geopolitical than the price of petrol.
So, I’m going to turn my attention to the various absurdities created by having a four-day holiday that floats all over the calendar, from March 22 to April 25, depending on arcane calculations about the full moon. These in turn can be traced to the calendar used by one subgroup of a religion now practised by only a small minority of the population (according to this survey, only 17 per cent of Australians attended an Easter services in the three years to 2023)
Easter is late this year, meaning that we have only three days between Easter Monday (a holiday of no religious significance whatsoever) and Anzac Day, (a date genuinely held as sacred by many Australians). The gap is long enough that most of us will have to go back to work, but leaves a long interval in February and March with no holidays at all in most states.
The fluctuating date of Easter makes a mess of school calendars, in particular making it difficult for Christmas holidays as well.
As it happens, the UK has a law on its books, passed in 1928 but never brought into effect, setting Easter as the first Sunday after the first Saturday in April. It would be a great idea to adopt this timing. A further improvement would be to shift Australia Day to 3 March, the anniversary of the Australia Act which established our independence from the UK once and for all.
Read my newsletter
I like the idea of a holiday set by the moon - connecting us back to the natural world that we’re otherwise flogging to death with climate change and biodiversity destruction.
But if we’re going to rearrange public holidays, here’s my suggestion: we want roughly one per month. A certain number of them should be common to all, because part of the joy of a public holiday is that everyone gets a day off at the same time. March/April are jammed with holidays at the moment. The religious have days that are holy to them.
So I’d keep New Year’s Day and Anzac Day where they are as common holidays. Move Christmas/Boxing Day closer to the summer solstice and call it mid summer, common to all.Allow Labour Day to vary between states as now (but also common to all). Make Reconcilliation Day (ACT) National. Bung in an Australia Day somewhere, more likely later in the year so there’s an even spread. And then allow everyone 5 days for their particular religious tradition or just to take when they want. And if the Victorian govt wants to have a holiday for boofheads kicking an oval ball or idiots whipping horses, they can trade off the lower productivity and the rest of the country can ignore them.
As I recall The medieval kerfuffle over the dates of Easter reinforced Roman connections of church power with money over Celtic monastic poverty (for ensuring the poor are fed rather than used to enrich bishops). And Ofc the eastern churches still go by different calcs. I’m all for change as long as we adopt the Celtic version. And the humility that went with it. And maybe move the Vatican to Belfast.