Do your work colleagues actually know it's Easter this weekend and that Friday and Monday are Bank Holidays?

[cakeorwine]

After some recent emails and conversations, I think some people just don't know. Maybe they are just out of the loop on these things.

Whether people are working or not I don't understand that anyone can't know it is Easter! Here there are adverts everywhere for Easter sales and specials, and of course people are buying eggs like there's no tomorrow.

Yes but they start doing that weeks in advance, especially if Easter is late. If I went into a shop with a huge display of Easter eggs and decorations and then checked my phone to find that Easter wasn't for another two weeks I wouldn't be surprised.

Sorry, I just think it is weird, and I've never heard of anyone not knowing when Easter is, or any holiday really, whether people are working or not. Are people really so disengaged from what is happening in life these days?

Also, I know Easter eggs have been for sale since just after Christmas, but Easter sales and specials generally happen much nearer the time.

Yes, they know. We don't get them off though, so it doesn't make much difference.

It was mentioned in the office yesterday and there was a good handful of us shocked to realise it was this weekend. I knew it was coming up (Easter eggs have been in the shops for the last couple of months) but didn't think it was so soon. We don't have children though, and the general consensus in the office was that only those with young children do anything for Easter.

Sad state of affairs for a Christian country. Means no Lent observance, no going to church, etc.

I've been aware for ages as I have booked a nice long weekend away from it all and I can't wait!

I have had to remind a couple of colleagues that it's the Easter weekend coming up and to plan accordingly as there were a few people who didn't seem to be aware, some of whom have kids.

I echo what everyone says- the early easter has taken everyone by surprise.

For my new workplace we need alot of emergency cover over the long weekend so there was a bit of a scramble to diarise it last week. No extra pay as far as I am aware- just everyone has to take their turn.

I don't know anyone who observes lent or goes to church, I know we're technically a Christian country but I don't know any Christians.

I think the weather has been so shit it doesn't feel like spring or that the clocks are about to change. I haven't done any Easter prep at all, just not feeling it!

I'm not Christian but I know that alot of people who 'aren't Christians' (do you mean 'practicing Christians?' )do go to easter Sunday or the nativity and Christmas Eve mass. I used to with DH (who is CofE) when the Dcs were young and it was about the only time he stepped into a church. Usually the Easter dawn service was packed to the gills.

I mean, I don't know anyone who would describe themselves as 'Christian' in any way, or who go to church ever. I guess it's partly geographical, partly generational. Some of my friends were forced to church for special events as children, but none go now.

The only person I know who does either of those things is a minister in a church.

I genuinely don't know a single other person who goes to church and I certainly don't know anyone who gives something up for lent.

That's been the case for a good twenty years, at least.

So what? I can think of much better things to do with a long weekend than waste time listening to someone drone on about a god I don’t believe in!

Following a particular religion - or a religion at all - is, thankfully, not compulsory in this country. A happy state of affairs, not a sad one.

For those saying ‘but I don’t have kids’, have you not noticed the shit tonne of chocolate eggs in every store you enter and hot cross buns bobbing up all over the place. And has not that led you to wonder ‘hmm, it must be Easter soon?’.

Obviously, there will be exceptions, but no, not really. I do think Easter, and bank holidays in general are culturally slightly different in Scotland.

My Friday meeting has representatives from three companies, and no one has objected.

Due to differences in bank/local holidays between different council areas, and the different ways that private sector employers treat bank holidays, it's just not the same "everyone is off" event. Some things will be closed, but lots will be open. Only xmas and new year is treated as important really.

My in-laws moved to Scotland from England and were shocked that Easter just wasn't significant in the same way here. It is just a normal sunday for me, and before kids I genuinely would have no idea when it was, and couldn't have cared less.

Obviously that is different for church goers.

The supermarkets have been selling Easter stuff for over two months, it is mostly contained to a display at the front of the store and one aisle that we don't go down so I've managed to ignore it assuming Easter was still a while off.

You know, not everyone does family gatherings just because it's Easter. We only do a very small gathering at Christmas, never Easter.

Easter weekend isn't for celebrating for us, it's just a nice long weekend off to catch up on life admin, jobs, extra time with the horses and maybe a little day out if the weather is ok.

We don't have children but I never forget when "free" my long weekend is each year 😁

No idea. We get bank holidays off as a given at my work but most people (myself included) all seem to work them by choice and get a day in lieu as our work is flexible and most people don’t seem to care about bank holidays. The only time people don’t do this tends to be Christmas.

I did know, but I forgot. I work for myself though, so no colleagues to remind me, and all my clients are in North America so their holidays tend to differ from ours. Had not clocked that this Fri was a bank hol til I read your post, but I did know Sunday was Easter Sunday!

IME it doesn't matter when Easter actually is, you will ALWAYS get someone telling you it's early or late this year.

No-one ever says "Easter's just at the right time this year, isn't it?"

That's why I'm never actually surprised at when it is - I always just assume it's going to be later or earlier than I expected 😁

I work with Americans.

They know. They just don't care. Same as usual really.

Oh have a (bank holiday) day off! Christian country by whose standards? I don't mean to be rude but if you're a practicing Christian and celebrate Easter than great, go ahead and hopefully it will be meaningful and spiritual for you. But a lot of the time when people make comments like this, it's just a rose-tinted veiled criticism of other religions and those with no religion. It's fine to have no religion - we're not a moral vacuum and there's nothing sad about it.

In Northern Ireland Good Friday is a Bank Holiday but not a Public Holiday so almost a normal working day for most. By the way I think NI is the only place in the world to have Easter Tuesday as a Public but not a Bank Holiday.

Some of us find it a very positive change, that most people aren't bound by religion any more.

We may have a state religion but in practice we're a largely secular country. Many of the people who tick a religion box on the census (it had a leading question) are likely 'apatheists' if not agnostic/atheist judging from the numbers who actually participate.