upcoming holidays
Listening to someone explain to a non-Australian about how our Easter/Anzac holiday dates work is kind of funny.
So: Easter is a date that traditionally works in concert with the lunar calendar. I thought it was something about a blue moon, only it turns out there's a calculation for it.
Anyway, Anzac Day is a set date public holiday in Australia: 25th April, every year. Lately, it's tended to fall within a week or two of Easter, meaning there's about 3 public holiday days over the space of 10 days - Good Friday, Easter Monday, and ANZAC day. The only situation in which that otherwise happens is Christmas, when there's Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Day.
So people tend to take clumps of holidays during that time, assisted by the fact that it's usually school holidays in that period so the kids are off from school, and the parents can get two weeks off by taking 7 days of leave.
But, yeah, it's a bit of a trip hearing someone explain the dates and days and also the names of the days. I mean I can't think of many people who use 'Maundy Thursday' anymore as the name for the Thursday before Good Friday. (Maybe it's just that I'm not Catholic?)
So: Easter is a date that traditionally works in concert with the lunar calendar. I thought it was something about a blue moon, only it turns out there's a calculation for it.
Anyway, Anzac Day is a set date public holiday in Australia: 25th April, every year. Lately, it's tended to fall within a week or two of Easter, meaning there's about 3 public holiday days over the space of 10 days - Good Friday, Easter Monday, and ANZAC day. The only situation in which that otherwise happens is Christmas, when there's Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Day.
So people tend to take clumps of holidays during that time, assisted by the fact that it's usually school holidays in that period so the kids are off from school, and the parents can get two weeks off by taking 7 days of leave.
But, yeah, it's a bit of a trip hearing someone explain the dates and days and also the names of the days. I mean I can't think of many people who use 'Maundy Thursday' anymore as the name for the Thursday before Good Friday. (Maybe it's just that I'm not Catholic?)