There Seems To Be A Disparity Between The Two Aspects Of This Holiday...

There is a tradition, I have been told, which dictates when we are supposed to take down our Christmas decorations. This, however, does not surprise me - after all, there are many traditions surrounding the holiday season. These range from the overtly religious (such as lighting the menorah) to those with more social inclinations (such as the giving of gifts to your family and friends.) As someone who has some interesting issues with obsessing over things being "just right", I find traditions fascinating, and I think that it is often important to follow them (assuming no-one is, you know, hurt or anything...) simply because it is traditional.

There, however, are a couple of traditions which I tend to like more than others. For instance I'm quite fond of the way that people open Advent Calendars to start the countdown to Christmas - even though the advent starts on the fourth Sunday before December 25th, and so most people open their Calendars either too late (or too early, in very rare occasions...) I'm also fond of the tradition of wearing paper hats whilst eating Christmas Dinner, for no other reason that the fact that it has always been done (interestingly enough, as far as I can tell, this practice also dates back to Saturnalia, read the wikipedia article I linked above...) The tradition I enjoy most of all, however, is a celebration which I call Dwainemas. It's basically celebrated in the same way that Tino's family celebrate the solstice - I just wanted to give it a cool name...

The tradition that I mentioned in my opening, however (i.e. the removal of Christmas decorations neither before, nor after, Epiphany - January 6th) has somehow been superceeded by another tradition that seems to be sneaking closer and closer to the start of each year. A tradition that, in its own right, probably shouldn't exist (well, okay, I'll get to that point later...like...in a couple of months...) A tradition which is pushed onto us by shops in their insidious attempts to push consumerism and such onto us. Not that I'm particularly anti-consumerism. Indeed, I like purchasing things as much as the next guy. Still, though, I think that this is going just a little too far...Maybe I'm just getting old...

Oh, but I am yet to tell you of the action taken by the supermarkets that has managed to draw such ire from me. What could they have possibly done to offend me so? The answer, dear Internet friends, is this. Can't quite tell what that is, netizens? Well..admittedly that image is a little blurry, but the one that I took has my mother's crutch in the photo (she broke her leg a little while ago) and she now refuses to let me put anything that is attached to her in any way on the internet anywhere (after a picture I once put on Facebook embarrassed her slightly...) Anyway, the picture is of Easter Eggs.

Yes, that's right, Easter Eggs. I cannot believe that, as little as one week after Christmas ended, various shops around Australia (I'm looking at you Woolworths) began advertising the fact that you could purchase Hot Cross Buns and Easter Eggs to prepare for the "upcoming holiday". What upcoming holiday? Australia Day?! I just...I find it so incredible that people would be willing to purchase these things for the express purpose of using them at Easter so long before it actually occurs. For one thing, the buns will go stale. Secondly, and more concerning, is that any chocolate bought for Easter at this time of year is going to be eaten well before the holiday actually arrives, and I don't want anybody eating anything that was meant for me, without having had me offer it to them first.

I mean, sure this allows us to eat multitudes of delicious food before the time of year that it's meant to be eaten. Many people I know have long lamented the fact that you can only purchase Cadbury Cream Eggs at a certain time of year. But still, if you're going to start selling them now, then you may as well just bump up the price a little and put them on sale year round. It may slightly defeat the supply/demand chain that makes them sell so well when they are available, but that's what the price increase is for.

So here's the deal, supermarkets of Australia. You stop pushing your holidays into my face before the current one has technically ended, and I won't be forced to sit here and do absolutely nothing to stop you...That's right, you think about the consequences of that. In fact, and better yet, how about you don't start selling things for a holiday that is two holiday blocks away. Australia Day is yet to come to us, and you're already selling Easter things. Really. Shame. Tut. Tsk.

The moral of this story is that, whilst it might seem that I'm having a small rant about consumerism and how the major supermarkets play on our love for giving/receiving gifts in the holiday period, I am in fact simply bitter about the fact that I can't really have a "full Easter". This is, of course, because of a two-fold issue caused by a combination of my improved diet regime, and the fact that I'm lactose intolerant. Well, nuts to you, milk chocolate, I prefer your darker brother anyway. He knows where all the good nightspots are. He knows how to have fun. He can introduce me to people, man...