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.
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.