Plans for Easter?
That was the question at school pick up for the start of the fortnight holiday – the kind of query that normally leads to talk of a week in Tenerife, or having family to stay.
But two Fridays ago, the main reaction at this Dundee school was confusion.
One mum, with children at different schools – junior and senior – had two different dates of fortnights to navigate.
Her daughter had already been off for a week, while her son’s break was just beginning.
Her daughter would be back to school a week before Easter – then off again on Easter Friday for the day.
Another mum, a teacher at a different school from the one her kids attend, was off for a week when her children were not. Then she was back to work when they were still off – panicking about childcare.
No child, we fathomed in this increasingly confusing conversation, was off for Easter Monday – despite it being a holiday to celebrate Easter.
Except, a dad chipped in, it’s no longer called the Easter holidays, but Spring holiday instead.
A cohesive holiday plan would make things so much easier and it runs deeper than the practicalities of childcare.
But sticking with schools for a moment, there is a knock on effect for businesses, not least camps run for children designed to get kids active and often allowing parents to work.
If these camps run on a week when only half the kids are off, numbers and income decrease. To sign up as many kids as possible, many camps offering everything from rugby to tennis and football were offered on the one week all kids were off – all forced competed against each other, instead of spreading activities and choice of childcare options over two weeks.
Calling it Spring Break is – apart from sounding incredibly American – out of step with what people want and think.
That is not opinion, but borne from the fact I have never heard anyone refer to the time off as anything other than the Easter Holidays.
The times when we can come together as a country, with a shared day to celebrate, are rare.
Christmas comes closest, that sense of a spread of warmth – when we wish strangers a Merry Christmas, give gifts and receive.
Not all faiths commemorate the day and it’s wonderful that celebrations for other faiths are acknowledged, respected and understood.
Our kids should learn about Eid marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan for those of Muslim faith, Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights and much more.
Easter should be celebrated without division
But there’s nothing wrong with giving a Christian holiday the respect it deserves in a country which counts its main religion as Christianity.
Writing about anything as polarising as religion is enough to put the fear of God (fittingly) and ensuing backlash into anyone. But is this really contentious? Is it not common sense?
The advocation for Easter is not even wholly about religion.
Bear with me on this one.
We poo-hoo the commercialisation of days like Christmas.
Perhaps for many it is all about the food, stockings from Santa and surrounding merriment. But many still observe it as the day Jesus was born, whether as a quiet reflection from an armchair or attending a church service.
Is there anything so wrong with the former approach? Of celebrating a day which may not be about religion as such for you, but brings family together and gives kids joy?
Life is full of days ending in ‘y’. It should be punctuated with those rare days that spell fun and encourage kindness.
Whether you’re in Easter for the chocolate or the religious significance, why not mark it with unity?
Granted, a gripe on school holidays has turned religious but the very point is that this does not need to be about religion.
A 2021 United Kingdom census put Christianity as the dominant religion at 46.2 per cent – and the next largest group, at 37.2 per cent, identified as having no religion.
Fixed school holidays would help with childcare
How many of that latter group – or any group – would still welcome schools agreeing on a fixed fortnight holidays to help with childcare? How many wouldn’t object to an excess of chocolate for themselves, an Easter Bunny visit and joyous wee faces looking for eggs?
Commercialisation can be money-making and place us on a conveyor belt of couples overcharged in restaurants on Valentines.
But it can also lead to happiness, to a grandmother watching the younger generations of family get together over turkey – or children entering an Easter Bonnet competition. Does that still happen at Camperdown Park as it did when I was a kid?
You don’t have to be religious to hanker after that feeling of tradition.
We need fun. We need a sense of togetherness and Christian outlook – whether with a small or capital C.
And whether for reasons of practicality, religion or common sense, we need the same two weeks off school, please.
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