Shops closed for Easter - isn't it long overdue a change?

Forums › Off topic › Shops closed for Easter - isn't it long overdue a change?

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Awrrr
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#3477869 4-Apr-2026 12:51

networkn:

Do we really need to buy 365 days a year? Is it not possible, for 5 days a year, to plan ahead?

Do we really need Big Brother to tell us when we are allowed to work, shop, recreate, procreate? Is it not possible, for five days a year, to just let people do what they want to?

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networkn

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#3477871 4-Apr-2026 13:00

Rikkitic:

Do we really need Big Brother to tell us when we are allowed to work, shop, recreate, procreate? Is it not possible, for five days a year, to just let people do what they want to?

Yes, it's required. Thanks for asking.

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#3477873 4-Apr-2026 13:02

Rikkitic:

Do we really need Big Brother to tell us when we are allowed to work, shop, recreate, procreate? Is it not possible, for five days a year, to just let people do what they want to?

We have licensing laws, zoning laws, restrictions on sales of certain classes of goods, and many many other restrictions. Every day you can't just do what you want to do.

Are you proposing every year we have five days of anarchy where the rule of law does not apply?

I am bemused, in Germany the shops are closed on Sunday. Society has not collapsed. It is like when I was growing up in the UK until Thatcher made commerce the religion of the county.

Back then I don't remember people complaining about being time poor.

However both Easter and Christmas make no sense in New Zealand, Easter is the pagan spring festival and Christmas is a hijack of Yuletide, the mid-winter festival.

But is having some mandatory days off really the worst thing that is happening in the world?

networkn

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#3477877 4-Apr-2026 13:31

roobarb:

But is having some mandatory days off really the worst thing that is happening in the world?

Apparently, given that for some, any form of control by others is deemed utterly unacceptable and yet we provide next to no evidence we can moderate ourselves without it.

Usually, the ones who rail the hardest on this are also the loudest proponents of anti business sentiment and pro employee rights.

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#3477879 4-Apr-2026 13:50

It seems pagans might have had the quarterly report to higher beings thing down.
Cubicles would come much later, though they may have just been early open plan office adopters.

Autumn equinox: a balance of day and night, often associated with harvest and gratitude.

Rikkitic

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#3477914 4-Apr-2026 15:02

networkn:

Apparently, given that for some, any form of control by others is deemed utterly unacceptable and yet we provide next to no evidence we can moderate ourselves without it.

Usually, the ones who rail the hardest on this are also the loudest proponents of anti business sentiment and pro employee rights.

Why do control freaks always assume that letting people organise their own free time will result in Bacchanalian excess? Is it wishful thinking?

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Rikkitic

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#3477916 4-Apr-2026 15:07

roobarb:

We have licensing laws, zoning laws, restrictions on sales of certain classes of goods, and many many other restrictions. Every day you can't just do what you want to do.

Are you proposing every year we have five days of anarchy where the rule of law does not apply?

I am bemused, in Germany the shops are closed on Sunday. Society has not collapsed. It is like when I was growing up in the UK until Thatcher made commerce the religion of the county.

Back then I don't remember people complaining about being time poor.

However both Easter and Christmas make no sense in New Zealand, Easter is the pagan spring festival and Christmas is a hijack of Yuletide, the mid-winter festival.

But is having some mandatory days off really the worst thing that is happening in the world?

Here is the thing: The world works fine with Sunday closing. It also works fine without. When it doesn't make any difference if you do something or do not do it, it is probably better to not do it. It saves all the expense and trouble of enforcing something that doesn't really matter anyway.

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gzt

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#3477917 4-Apr-2026 15:09

The name Easter refers to an older European seasonal festival:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre

It's likely the two things ran in parallel for a long time. Some would say they still do ; )

roobarb

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#3477975 4-Apr-2026 16:16

Rikkitic:

...it is probably better to not do it. It saves all the expense and trouble of enforcing something that doesn't really matter anyway.

I would love to see someone run for government with a policy of abolishing Christmas. I am sure that would be real vote winner.

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#3478028 4-Apr-2026 16:40

Rikkitic:

Why do control freaks always assume that letting people organise their own free time will result in Bacchanalian excess? Is it wishful thinking?

Leaving individuals to go to the business owners and leaders to get non legislative leave will not fly. Take this tiny 3 days away and a large chunk of citizen would lose them.

Again call it what you want and again it's only THREE days. How does three days hurt so much? Maybe we should change the names of days and months and planets.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

Rikkitic

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#3478057 4-Apr-2026 18:46

I don't get whataboutist arguments like society will collapse if someone doesn't take charge of things. Of course there has to be regulation. But it doesn't have to be everywhere. My guiding principle is that regulation should only be applied where the consequences of not doing so are too horrible to contemplate. Driving on an agreed side of the road, for example. But it is not needed to dictate things like people's shopping days. Everyone is not going to suddenly cram into the shops on three days of the year. Once people get used to it, there probably wouldn't be much difference at all.

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roobarb

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#3478059 4-Apr-2026 18:58

openmedia:

and it isn't always possible to have everything I need ahead of the Friday shutdown.

I understand the tragedy of being caught out, if only there was someway of getting advance notice of when these holidays will occur.

openmedia:

Shops closed for Easter - isn't it long overdue a change?

Apparently not. Culture is a thing that evolves, there is no specific timeframe that any change has to occur or in what direction those changes are. Being a multi-cultural society is fraught with sensitive issues and trigger points, and a change that is perceived to target one community will affect them all, positively and negatively. You can't only do one thing.

Every generation inherits the culture from the previous generation. It is what it is and changes occur when the current generation thinks they are appropriate, either by design or just by behaviour.

The have been no marches on Parliament from the public demanding this change that I am aware of, so I suggest there is very little support for this coming from the population.

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#3478385 6-Apr-2026 10:38

Rikkitic:

My guiding principle is that regulation should only be applied where the consequences of not doing so are too horrible to contemplate.

I don't think that any society has organised itself like, except in an Ayn Rand adolescent fantasy novel.

Current laws are effectively the accumulated wisdom of 5,000 years of trying to get people to live together. Essentially people act as if they are stupid and selfish. People don't think through all their actions and they don't always take others into consideration. So the pattern has been; a problem arises, it is dealt with, if it repeatedly arises then some rule or law is collectively agreed to say that that behaviour is unacceptable. We don't have to learn from scratch every generation.

networkn

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#3478386 6-Apr-2026 10:41

Rikkitic:

Why do control freaks always assume that letting people organise their own free time will result in Bacchanalian excess? Is it wishful thinking?

Because of the *overwhelming* evidence to support that view. Everytime humans are left to their own excess, they seem unable to control themselves.

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#3478390 6-Apr-2026 10:47

roobarb:

We have licensing laws, zoning laws, restrictions on sales of certain classes of goods, and many many other restrictions. Every day you can't just do what you want to do.

Most of the laws you quoted should be removed or drastically curtailed as well. Less nanny state, less collectivism, more individual freedoms.

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