Anyone else annoyed by how Easter falls this year?

[Pyjamapyjamapyjama]

Easter is a big deal in my culture (I'm not British) and we always travel to my parents to celebrate. I cannot drive for a medical reason and usually take my kids there by train (it's a good 3 hours away), going on the Thursday before and returning the Tuesday after. However this year the schools go back on the Tuesday directly after Easter Monday which is incredibly irritating as no trains are running over Easter weekend and I have 0 desire to drag two kids and a baby on replacement bus services. I can't host myself as my home isn't large enough.

So annoying!!

So it moves, by definition not fixed!

Where I am, the Easter weekend is in the middle of the school holidays this year, as it always is.

Sounds like you’ve chosen to prioritise your cultural expectations so you’ll have to travel back and take the Tuesday off. I don’t suppose anyone at school will be too upset by that?

It's the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. It's got nothing to do with which calendar you follow!

Well if you think that the date isn't "rational" then why celebrate it? It is, after all, a religious festival and calculated based on a religious rational. So for people of faith it is rational. And if you aren't a person of faith you could have your long weekend any old weekend you want. I still maintain that since nobody is going to change the date of Easter then it's up to the schools to change theirs - would going back on Wednesday ruin the entire school calendar?

I don't celebrate it. (I work for an American team, they don't have Good Friday and Easter Monday and so do indeed shift my long weekend, I'm lucky!) But unfortunately our public holidays are tied to it in the U.K. and the extra long weekend inevitably has an impact on school calendars.

Easter is always early or late, it's never on time. I feel sorry for Easter.

[goes off to check my son's term dates]

Ours is the same OP and also means probably travelling from seeing family on Easter Monday with school the next day. It is what it is. I'm sure local authorities or academies or whoever makes up term dates has to take many factors into account (e.g. term lengths, exams).

Yes it annoys me when schools have the two weeks with Easter at the end of it.
@Pyjamapyjamapyjama Do you do anything church based on the Monday? You could say tell them that due to religious reasons you won't be travelling on the Monday as it's still part of Easter celebration so your children won't be back until Wednesday.
Schools are meant to allow time off for religious events - usually you just have to show proof. A note from your Vicar/Pastor should count as proof that you were engaged in a religious event and could not travel.

Can you just take them out of school on the Tuesday? Ours would tell you to phone in sick. I thought it was unusual to have the easter weekend at the end of the holidays but we've got an inset day on the Tuesday so I guess that helps for any families going away.

No sorry. Easter Monday is my birthday and the second week of school hols so I’ve taken the week off 😃

IMO Easter should be a fixed date and fall on the first Sunday in April.

Agreed! I can't really see how moving it around each year according to when the full moon is has anything much to do with the church anyway.

Our school holidays are always the first two weeks of April, so this year Easter is after they’ve gone back to school! Now that’s annoying.

Well the church pinched the date from the pagans didn't they 😁

It is 'rational' if you accept it is a Christian celebration. If it's just about the chocolate you can celebrate it any time.

I’m not sure what not being British has got to do with it. Just so you know, in my culture Easter is a big thing ….. I am British.

As you were …. carry on complaining.

Mine break up on the 4th and go back in the Wednesday following Easter

On the basis of the old adage 'book early to avoid disappointment', here are the Easter Sundays for the next six years, if that helps. You can actually look up the dates for the next 100 years (and more), should you fancy it but six years should help.

2026 - 5th April
2027 - 28th March
2028 - 16th April
2029 - 1st April
2030 - 21 April
2031 - 13 April

Schools shouldn't have to arrange holidays around Easter. It should be on timings so that breaks are appropriately spaced for pupils and staff. We are a secular country and Easter being a moveable feast shouldn't be prioritised. The four-day observance is catered for in bank holidays.

It is 'rational' if you accept it is a Christian celebration.

How is linking it to the moon rational for Christians? I'm genuinely interested!

Surely if the date were chosen because it’s a Christian celebration it would be a fixed date - the anniversary of the event it commemorates. Instead it moves around with the full moon because it’s pagan. The Christians just shoved the ‘ next Sunday after’ bit on to make it look religious.

Easter Monday isn’t a bank holiday in Scotland and our kids go back to school that day.

Oh dear god!! Tell me this is tongue in cheek!

Personally I'd prefer it if Easter was always the first weekend of April or something and didn't move as much.

Which is exactly what the OPs school has done, and she’s whinging!

That one on the 21st will almost certainly be outside of school holidays entirely. It works name the term far too long. We did it sometime in the early 00s - had two weeks off school separately to the Easter bank holiday weekend. It was a far more sensible than dragging out the term for those of us who were teaching and the pupils who would have been shattered.

It's the train service you should be annoyed with. They did this at Christmas too (because obvs no one wants to get home or back to work again over Christmas, thank you, Greater Anglia).

And no, it's not because of the 'poor drivers, don't they deserve a holiday too'. It's because repairs etc are cheaper for the train companies outside of commuting hours. So yeah. Look to the public transport system in this country and shake your ire there.