It's odd, here.
Even 5+ years ago, people still respected this day, more than now. Even in Melbourne, nothing, and I mean almost completely nothing, was open.
Even more than Christmas, this was always the day when the shops stayed closed (including bottleshops).
Now? Unless you're actually a true, attending Christian, it's just a day for sport (two games of Rugby League on TV!), charity fundraising (hospitals, specifically, for whatever reason), and events - music festivals, food markets, etc.
Oh, and the highest rates of hourly pay for the whole year.
Even my own, theoretically Christian family insisted on opening and eating Easter chocolate today, much though I thought that was... Fairly inappropriate.
I dunno, just feels weird, man.
My favourite place to be, on this day, has always been one of two multi-day music festivals held over this time (yes, I know..)
At those, there was always services held somewhere, if you wanted to go to them. But it was just... Good, to be away from all the bullshit, for the weekend..?
I never felt more at home than I did at those events.
But that's not an option this time (thanks Uni/life! :-( ), so I'm just... At my parent's house, doing an assignment. God it feels shit to be "working" today, but that's just reality.
It just makes it much more apparent to me how little "normies" care about this day, for the most part, anymore.
You hardly even hear about the "religious" aspects of today on the news, at all. It's like it barely exists.
Very strange.
Obviously this will vary by country, and even within countries, but I imagine, in Catholic-majority places, at least, today must still have more meaning than that which has been stolen from it, over here?
Just curious, really.
More broadly to what I've already said - living in a country where "God" has been largely corrupted and excised from public life (including by ostensibly Catholic politicians - weirdly both our current PM, and more than one state premier, describe themselves thus) is... Very empty.
So I hope that you guys can hold onto that.
We've replaced what religion represents with the pseudo-religion (cult, really) that is woke politics and ideology. At the current rate, I see that tearing the country apart not too long after it probably does the US, Canada, NZ and the UK...
I guess this is a "uniquely" Anglosphere problem, at the moment, but it's real fucking bad. So I'm glad that you guys haven't "given up" that part of your national identity, yet!
After all, Germany, or what is now Germany, is arguably up there with the heart of Western Christianity, at least from the Middle Ages through to the 19th, so...
Hold onto that, because the void that "replaces" what Christianity gives humans is clearly something fundamental, which is why wokeness so easily moves in as its replacement, I suppose!
Unfortunately it's the same here. There are only remnants left to hold onto and it feels like it's only a matter of time.
The Evangelical Church is already a far left clown show. They are indistinguishable from leftists on Twitter: rainbow flags, pro-Islam, pro mass migration, LGBT/trannies, climate hysterics, Antifa, pro human trafficking, etc. You name it they support it. The only slightly encouraging thing is that they've lost record numbers of members last year.
The Catholic Church is a little bit better in that regard but they've been jumping the rainbow bandwagon, too. And there's a movement opposing the Vatican so they can push even more shit.
Politicians are just the usual mix of leftist and globalist scum. The biggest party with "Christian" in the name is primarily responsible for flooding Germany with muslims.
All parts of public life have been gleichgeschaltet. If you want to hang on to something you have to do it with friends and family.
Public (radio) broadcaster here is currently blasting out a recording of Handel's Messiah, which seems... Wildly inappropriate for this day.
We truly have lost the plot, somewhere along the way, lol...
Like, surely someone looked this programming over, and thought "Wait, isn't that a Christmas thing..?" Or at the very least, "Should we not wait until Easter Sunday, to play that?"
Like, there's no way that isn't intentional, at this point...
No fucking way, lol.
What is this evangelical church you speak of? Half the damned problems in the Church is people using retarded ass buzzphrases and not even knowing what the hell they're talking about. You're literally not a Christian if you're not evangelical because the only way to salvation is through Christ and his Gospel. Stop saying stupid leftist buzzwords and perverting language
It's literally one of the two major Christian churches in Germany: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelical_Church_in_Germany
The other, slightly bigger being the Catholic Church: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_in_Germany
For some reason, it is the favorite skin suit of the vile and wretched ruling class the world over, despite the fact that they fail to meet even the most lax of Protestant standards and are actively denounced and barred from attendance by priests and bishops in their districts.