Easter should be the least loved of all national holidays.
When, why, WTF?
There may be chocolate eggs for kids, but otherwise there are no real gifts, no fun costumes and no clear dates. The shops are closed (or so to speak open, but not for long… we are not sure).
All events are incoherent and may involve rabbits or eggs or both, but again… no one is safe.
And when is it? Let me ask Google again because the system for determining this ever-moving problem vacation can only be understood by astrophysicists.
Holy crap, that’s a lot
For British parents in particular, it’s not fun. The Easter school holidays in the UK last at least two weeks. Yes, two weeks. Fourteen full days of being home… with your kids. It means torture.
In Denmark, the school holiday period is a little more humane: a week. The problem of isolation and rainy days continues, but there is worse: extra holidays. For it is not only Easter that is the problem here.
In Denmark, there are a total of nine separate national holidays that revolve around Easter. Nine full days: that’s more days than all the other national holidays combined. This stream of random holidays carpet bomb its way through the spring portion of each calendar, landing inevitably uneven and awkward to ensure you have a series of bizarre, aggravating weeks.
Let the public decide!
The only reason most of us have been brainwashed to appreciate Easter as meaningful is because of the break. With the holidays, it would be pointless. I suggest we take a holiday but pull Easter out of the calendar like an unwanted hair lice.
Holidays should be held but distributed at times when everyone can appreciate them. Like holiday pay, these nine days of real relaxation must be delivered to citizens when they are at their best via eBoks. We decide when we want to be away and with whom.
These glorious holidays should not be sprayed beyond the cool March and not much warmer April without a thought of how anyone’s life will make sense with wild eyes and an empty fridge.
Christian V knew it centuries ago
Great Day of Prayer is a good example of the nonsense surrounding the Danish Easter. Apparently, in 1686, King Christian V was so angry at the number of small days of prayer that he put everyone out of their misery and merged them.
If only he had gone a little further, Christian could have soaked up the other eight closed-supermarket and distressed parental vacations into a single manageable vacation and given a fixed date.
There is hope for our current situation, as popular opinion can be realized and politics can change. We can quickly and efficiently organize popular protests in the ten largest cities in Denmark.
“Give us our lives back!” they will sing! People can start showing up for work and school regardless of the junky Palm Sunday or Ascension Day, demanding to live a normal life, no matter who will pretend that Maundy Thursday is a legitimate thing.
And maybe the government will listen, take a leaf out of King Christian V’s book and mop up those ancient bombs up to something that looks like a real holiday. A real holiday where supermarkets are open and air fares are not terrible.
Source: The Nordic Page