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.