Easter ponderings

Happy Easter!

I managed not to blog for the whole of March...

Something interesting happened this week...a girl from another country asked why Aussies celebrate Easter and Christmas...like she was surprised at how little 'spiritual' holidays we get, but didn't know the reason for the holidays anyway.

When you grow up in a supposedly "Christian country", it's presumed everybody knows what Easter and Christmas are about...even if they don't believe it. At least, that's how it felt in the 80's and 90's... So at worst the atheists get a day off thanks to the Christians...

These days, it isn't so... people from all over the world are immigrating here, bringing with them their cultures and beliefs... and now we're seeing the reasons for the holidays are no longer obvious and an 'everybody knows' topic. Many kids don't even know what the cross on a hot cross bus is... when I was a kid, you were considered dumb if you didn't know that!

When I mentioned a story about a little kid telling my friend while she was teaching RE (Religious Education), that the cross is to tell you where to cut it...another person said she didn't even know that! She was brought up in Australia and is older than me...

Those are the things that make you ponder.... it's one thing to grow up in a Christian country, and another thing to actually live as a Christian in that country that no longer embraces that foundation. Life has definitely changed in the last 30years!