• Gabe Bell@lemmy.worldOP
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    10 months ago

    You are missing the point.

    Easter this year is the 31st of March.

    The ENTIRE COUNTRY (the UK this is) will be forced to SHUT DOWN for the weekend, whether they are Christian or not. Banks. Businesses. Everything will close for the entire weekend.

    But wait – it gets worse.

    The school year is split into three terms – Winter, Spring and Summer. And because Easter is so early (because a bunny looked at a gopher’s shadow or something) the Spring term starts in January (with the New Year) and ends on the 24th of March (I think). That’s barely enough time to get kids settled in their classes. Then the summer term is like A BILLION WEEKS LONG because Easter is so early.

    Then — when Easter is a lot later – you get the two bank holidays in May (one of which is religious, one of which isn’t) that fuck up the summer term and make it almost not worth going back for the one week before you are off again.

    This is entirely because of Christian holy days

    And on top of all this there is the fact we still keep “Sunday special” – a day that only one religion gives a crap about. Thankfully we are getting over that and starting to treat Sunday like every other day of the week. But if you ask most people they think it should still be “a rest day” because it is Sunday.

    This entire country bends over backwards to accommodate Christianity in everything it does, and yet the Little Englanders always feel Christians are hard-done by.

    • God_Is_Love@reddthat.com
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      10 months ago

      Well like I said I have no issues with the holidays being changed! Either adding more or changing the dates so everyone can celebrate their own religious or non religious traditions on the same days. Agree with you about Sundays too, nobody should be forced to work that day but otherwise I don’t think it should be treated differently. I don’t think that changes the leaving class to pray points though.

      • Gabe Bell@lemmy.worldOP
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        10 months ago

        You entirely disagree with me about Sundays, as it turns out, but I can see how you could have misunderstood that :)

    • Matt@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      It is not legally required for places to close for any of these holidays, and a large amount simply do not (whether it’s the majority or not I cannot say). I have worked in many places where I don’t get these days off.

      On these holidays… most people go out and go places which need people working, so businesses choosing to close on these holidays is their own decision, which they should do in my opinion, it’s nice to know that you and everyone you know is off. I don’t really care why we’re having the holiday.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        10 months ago

        I’m pretty sure Sunday trading laws do actually require businesses to close early on a Sunday.

        Yeah I’ve just looked it up;

        any shop that is over the size of 3,000 sq ft (somewhat arbitrary size but there you go) may only open on a Sunday between the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

        Attempts to remove this restriction have historically been politically blocked

        The rest of the time they can do what they want which usually means 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. or just 24 hour

        Most supermarkets will be 24-hour except on Sundays when they weirdly close at 4:00 p.m. - if they were legally allowed to be open longer I’m sure they would be.

        • Matt@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          This is true but we’re talking about holidays, not Sundays.

          Personally I think having a day where you can’t do anything except chill is quite good honestly, would rather everything just be shut on Sunday.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      This entire country bends over backwards to accommodate Christianity in everything it does, and yet the Little Englanders always feel Christians are hard-done by.

      Might be one of those “you don’t respect me as an authority but I’m going to act as if you don’t respect me as a person” kinda things.