Would they? Do we not expect Easter and Christmas off becuase of thwe culture we were bought up in?
I have certainly never had any religous component to either time but I do expect family time because they are days off.
That makes them cultural not religous to me…yes they are based on religion but I feel safe in guessing all those others wasting money at the Easter show weren’t thinking about God’s only child.
I can’t fathom that you don’t know what Easter is. You’re celebrating it as a cultural event? What event? It’s one of 52 Sundays. What are you celebrating? 
Yes, I know what you meant. Just a little touchy as it’s the most holy day in the faith. 
Hey mate I really was not trying to be offensive. I know it is a very special time to Christians.
For me it has just always been an end-of-summer-long-weekend-with-chocolate. Friday is a day off, as is Monday…no Christianity required. That’s the way it has been my whole life.
I would never disrespect someones religous beliefs. I just don’t need religous beliefs to like Easter. It is ILLEGAL for shops to open on the Friday and the Sunday…no matter what the religion of the shopkeeper of shopper. It has always been that way. Therefore it is a cultural holday for some and a religous holiday for others.
A “cultural” holiday is something like Queens Birthday. The shops are open. There is a religious reason behind the law making it illegal for most to open on Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, and that makes them inherently religious holidays.
I hate Easter because of the clamp down of virtually everything. It’s wrong in our multi-ethnic community to impose this on everyone, under the guise of, “Well, it’s a public holiday!”
If you want to have a public holiday, pay people double-time or whatever to have the shops open. Like, say, on Queen’s Birthday, or Labour Weekend.
You can have all the Santas, the prezzies, the cute chokky bunnies you like – you are celebrating in a quasi-secular way a religious festival.
Is it too early for me to say Bah Humbug yet?
I went hunting yesterday. For feral hogs (on my Dad’s hunting lease, they’re tearing the place up).
I think I managed to offend nearly every major interest group in the process.
Hunting (animal rights activists)
…with dogs (same)
…drinking beer (most religions)
…on easter sunday (christians)
…for pigs (moslems)
…on 4-wheelers (environmentalists)
…with guns (anti-gunners)
Clean sweep, baby.
So, how was your easter?
Definitely not as much fun as yours, pullin. Good onya, mate. 
Nowhere near as fun as yours! Where was my invite? :mad:
Quit biting my style.
Sorry, (and to Ice Wolf, too). I guess I shoulda invited ya’ll to ride on the back of the gator. Plenty of room on top of the coolers.
I’ll remember ya next time 
Really? Except for Fundamentalist Christians and Muslims, don’t most other religions accept alcohol, even using it in some ceremonies. I know United Methodists and Catholics aren’t teetotalers.
When the hell did the shops start closing? I went out yesterday to get some stuff done and damn near everything was closed. Granted I’m not out at the malls very often, but ten years ago I did work in the mall every weekend and I only ever remember it being closed Christmas and Thanksgiving. Hell I even worked on Thanksgiving. I know it was never closed on Easter until I guess the last couple of years. Now everything was closed. They only stores that were not closed was the Boarders, Giant supermarket, Blockbuster and Home Depot. Everything else, including the Wal-Mart was closed. So I saw a movie.
I could be wrong. My only serious exposure is to Fundie Southern Baptists (relatives), and Mormons (friends). I guess I assumed all religions denounced zymurgy and its marvelous products.
I had to work yesterday morning. I open on Sundays at my night and weekend job at the public gym, and there’s usually a troupe of 20-30 basketball players waiting to get in at 6:55 am. Yesterday there were 40 players. They were all gone by 10 am though, and since it was a ghost town after that my supervisor tolds us to lock up and go home.
Both years I was employed with Starbucks, we were open on Easter (and I worked).
I kind of agree with calm kiwi – if it’s a cultural holiday, it is. If Easter fell on say, a Tuesday, would all the banks and post offices be closed? I would think not. But that’s just MHO.
Ooo! Oooo! My favorite is having a Maypole at the Church!
And Easter falls on Friday as well as Sunday, every time. The banks and post offices are closed.
“Cultural”. Pfft. Either a holiday is secular or it’s religious. In Easter’s case – it’s the latter, but Those Who Make Consumables For You To Buy help keep the “but it’s secular!” fallacy going.
Considering the bunnies and eggs and pagans were here first, calling them “crap” seems rather disrespectful.
As for the OP, I can personally testify that my local Starbucks, McDonalds, Taco Bell, golfing range, Jack-in-the-Box, and Chevron gas station were all open Sunday morning.
I suppose Easter could have been worse. Mrs. Magill and I tried out the church up the road from the new house. We got a bad vibe whe we saw the band. I hate modern, trendy concert type-services. Fang thought the bouncy music was the bees’ knees. At least with a proper service, he knows to sit still and be quiet. Then the rector (they refered to him as a pastor… in an Epischopal church?) preached about how searching for God is a waste of time. I couldn’t help but think that the unspoken message was that he would be happy to tell you where to find God. My parents and sister drove over from Raleigh, which was nice. Then, because Mrs. Magill has to be in Chicago this week, Fang came back to Atlanta with me. That would have been nicer, if the entire three hundred mile trip had not been through thunderstorms, and Fang had not pitched his passies all over the back seat.
Still, it wasn’t all bad. I got to see my wife (always a good thing); I got to see my parents; and since lent is over, I got to have a glass of wine with dinner.
:dubious:
Good Friday? Businesses in the US, especially banks and post offices, are open. Is it different in NZ?
Well, at least See’s wasn’t closed on Easter Sunday. Otherwise I would have had to do without my traditional chocolate bunny.
Aw, I can get boxes of Swedish Fish at my local Walgreens. When I was a wee sprat, and department stores had bulk candy counters, I was fascinated by the bin of multicolored, translucent fishies…
