Anzac Day.
I have a problem with it.
Not the actual day, or the reasoning behind the day, but the way it's presented and treated by society. I'm only going to focus on one area to cut down the abuse I'll probably receive for this blog post, so let's talk about the public holiday/retail trading hours side of it.
If you live in Australia, there's a strong possibility that you heard the media reports about retailer K-Mart wanting to open their doors with regular trading hours on Anzac Day. Everyone was up in arms about this, saying that it showed disrespect for the diggers who lost their lives for our freedom. I agree with this to a point. I don't really think it's necessary that K-Mart is opened at 9am on Anzac Day. It's no loss to society. I mean really, are people sitting around at home going "Shit, I really need to get that tupperware container and those grey trackpants today! I need them NOW!" ? I don't think so.
Now the example I'm about to give may vary depending on which state or territory you live in, but I'm going with NSW. Stores opened at 1pm today and closed at 5pm. I think that's more disrespectful than opening all day. We'll only close for the morning because people just have that much of a sad life that they can't go a full day without going and hanging around at a shopping centre, making impulse purchases. But it's okay, we'll open at 1pm because we showed our respect in the morning.
Now I'm not saying that places like Coles & Woolworths should be shut all day, because yes, sometimes we do have emergencies and need to get a few necessities. But it's not really a big deal if we can't spend the day shopping at Westfield. I'm sure we'll all be okay.
The fact that Christmas & Easter are so prominent in today's society and culturere sort of annoys me. Only 64% of Australian's identify themselves as being part of the Christian faith whilst only 9% of people go to church every Sunday. And then everyone spends Good Friday "remembering" the events that may or may not have taken place i.e. Jesus' crucifixion. Then on the Sunday everyone goes ballistic with chocolate eggs because Jesus "rose from the dead". Then in December we spend Christmas Day "celebrating" Jesus' birth. We don't even have actual scientific proof that this guy was anything other than a regular person. I'm not saying that he wasn't the son of God, nor am I saying that he was. All I'm saying is, we spend a lot of time celebrating the holiday's that don't have true meaning to a vast majority of us.
Anzac Day is a day of commemorating the Anzac's who fought and those who fell in Gallipoli in World War 1. Over 60,000 Anzac's were killed at war, either in action or from wounds and/or diseases they attained whilst fighting.
We know for a fact that over 60 000 people were killed at war between 1914-1921.
So let's only take half a day off for these SIXTY THOUSAND PEOPLE who were killed, not that long ago, but let's have 5 days (Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Christmas Day) throughout the rest of the year for Jesus. A person that many of us don't even believe in, or have any faith or religion at all for that matter.
Is it just me being a wowser or is society just one massive hypocrite?
4 comments:
Hear hear! I find it incredibly disrespectful that shops are allowed to open after lunch on Anzac day, but forced not to open on Good Friday! As an atheist, I find it especially annoying that I'm forced to take a day off work for a Christian holiday that I don't believe in or celebrate , but actually have to bargain for a day off work to remember/respect the diggers.
society sucks. there's evidence that jesus was born in like march, they only decided to celebrate in in december bc it was the same time as a pagen festival, therefore easier to convert them. ugh.
totally insane that malls and shit are open today and not on easter/xmas. pfft.
I don't live in Australia but I get what your saying...Sometimes people want to celebrate holidays that they can get something out of.... Christmas-presents, valentine's-candy,cards, possible a good time.
But when it's just a remembrance day people are less likely to take it seriously or celebrate it the entire day.
I 100% agree with all of that. I went to my first dawn service this year, it was so moving, I wish I had been before, and I wish other young people knew how important it is to give just a little bit of their time to those who fought for us. So many people take their freedoms for granted, no conscription, no obligation to join the armed forces, no hurried marriages. Instead everyone spends the whole weekend getting drunk and sleeping through such an important event.
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