Carols by Candlelight

This is a favourite Australian tradition that began somewhere around 1938. These spectacular events are held every year during the week before Christmas Day and were founded by Norman Banks. Story has it that Banks passed by a window lit by candlelight on his way home one Christmas Eve. Through the glow, he saw elderly women sitting in a room and singing along to “Away in a Manger,” which was played on the radio. This prompted him to wonder how many people spent their holidays alone and so he organized a public sing-a-long of Christmas carols with participants holding a single candle. Now, multitudes of people gather in their respective towns and cities at public parks, music halls and stadiums to sing Christmas carols while holding candles. The cities of Melbourne and Sydney even host a huge stage event, billing renowned entertainers. Carols by Candlelight events are broadcast live on television and radio across the country as well as Southeast Asia and New Zealand. The song “Christmas Lullaby” by Olivia Newton-John and Manheim Steamroller is a beloved perennial.

Christmas has not always been such a joyous occasion for some Australians. The holiday was once overshadowed by a very dark period when a massive storm named Cyclone Tracy struck the tropical city of Darwin from Christmas Eve into Christmas Day in 1974. There were nearly 100 confirmed deaths with 15 missing at sea and presumed dead. Approximately 70 percent of the town was destroyed, leaving over 20,000 devastated and homeless. Nevertheless, inspiration came from such great tragedy. The song “Santa Never Made It into Darwin,” penned by pop duo William “Bill” Cate and William “Boyd” Robinson, was released as a fundraiser to provide relief for the people of Darwin. The song won APRA Song of the Year at the 1976 Country Music Awards of Australia and is still sung at Carols by Candlelight concert events as a tribute and reminder.

Christmas Church Services

Boxing Day

Boxing Day occurs the day after Christmas, on December 26. The date is also known as St Stephen’s Day, celebrating not the first St Stephen, a disciple of Jesus, but the second St Stephen who lived around 800 years later and who, apparently was a horse buff. Even so, Boxing Day is not celebrated as a religious holiday.

Some people think that because Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, it must be the day all the boxes that presents came in are thrown away. Actually, the origins of this holiday go back many centuries to where, traditionally, on the day after Christmas, churches would open their alms’ boxes and distribute the contents to the poor of their parish.

In the nineteenth century, Queen Victoria made Boxing Day a formal holiday for all countries of the Commonwealth. It was the day when the maids, drivers, cooks etc. were given the day off, with small gifts, often in boxes, given as a token of appreciation by their masters. Contrary to its name, there are no big boxing events taking place on this federal public holiday. Instead, most Australians cozy up to their televisions to watch a cricket match held at the MCG or the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Boxing Day is also considered comparable to the United States’ “Black Friday,” a popular shopping day promising fantastic sales. A poem by John O’Brien and entitled “Tangmalangmaloo” may express how a great many Australians actually feel about Boxing Day. In it, the poem describes what happened when a bishop questioned his class about religion. An excerpt reads as follows:

“And oh, how pleased his lordship was, and how he smiled to say,
‘That’s good, my boy. Come tell me now; and what is Christmas Day?”
The ready answer bared a fact no bishop ever knew –
‘It’s the day before the races out at Tangmalangmaloo.”

Most countries outside the Commonwealth do not celebrate Boxing Day, but in America, during the slave times, the masters would often give their slaves the day off after Christmas.

In Australia, Boxing Day is the second day in a row marked by food, although they are usually leftovers from Christmas Day that have been reinvented into turkey salad, stir-fried turkey, ham terrine, turkey sandwiches, bubble and squeak, and for dessert, trifle.

Sport features highly on this public holiday. Since 1945, the over 1000km Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race has started each Boxing Day at noon in Sydney and has become one of the toughest yacht races ever with competitors bringing their yachts from around the globe to attempt to win. And, since 1950, the Boxing Day Test Match begins its five-day run on the 26th. For the die-hard cricket spectators – up to 160,000 in seats at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) or the millions on their couch or around the BBQ at home – there’s nothing quite like the crack of the ball against the willow, the roar of the crowd or the sound of a cold can of drink cracking open.

While no particular colours are related to Boxing Day, the cricket ‘whites’ contrast against the green grass of the MCG, and the white sails and hulls of yachts stand out against the blue-green Tasman Sea.

There’s one other major event that hits most Australian cities and large towns on Boxing Day. Although it is a public holiday, the Boxing Day Sales have become a sporting event in themselves, with crowds of shoppers queuing for shop doors to open and to get that ‘special deal’. For many it’s not even about the purchasing, but about the adrenaline of the fight for the bargain.

Christmas and Boxing Day always fall together and if one or both of these days occur on a weekend, the days are ‘made up’ by more public holidays being declared for the weekdays following, so sometimes there can be up to a four-day break for most Australians.

Easter

Top of Form

The days of Easter vary each year depending on the day determined by the Western Christian religious calendar. Until 1994 Easter Tuesday was a public holiday in Victoria (it retains this status partially in Tasmania). The NSW Public Holidays Act 2010 refers to the day after Good Friday as "Easter Saturday," but the Victorian Public Holidays Act 1993 refers to it merely as "the Saturday before Easter Sunday." Easter is the oldest of the Christian festivals. It is celebrated approximately at the end of the first quarter of the calendar year although its date changes depending on the lunar cycle.

Easter remembers the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and globally encompasses three specific days of celebration. In Australia there is a fourth day taken as a part of the holiday.

The first day of the four days is Good Friday, which is the day on which Christians remember that Jesus Christ was arrested and how he died. The following day is known, in some denominations, as Holy Saturday. Then Easter Sunday, or simply Easter, is the day of celebration when Jesus Christ was resurrected from death. Monday is considered a day of renewal.

In her book, The Liturgical Year, Joan Chittister writes, “Easter, the scholars tell us, is the oldest feast in the history of Christianity, but it really only came into focus as a distinct celebration in the late second century… The truth is that Easter, Resurrection, has been celebrated in the church every Sunday since the first week after the resurrection itself.” – Joan Chittister, The Liturgical Year

Australia, and much of the western world, follows the Gregorian calendar. The date of Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after the March equinox. Many Eastern Christians who live in Australia use the Julian calendar, which can put their dates of Easter up to several weeks after western churches. The official Australian Easter long weekend gets its dates from the western Gregorian calendar.

Prior to Easter, many Christians in Australia recognize the season of Lent – a period of 40 days of partial fasting, and abstinence from meat, that prepares the person for the celebration.

The period of Easter, and the public holidays surrounding it, has a large impact on all of the country for almost all people regardless of their faith. For many weeks before the weekend, shops sell hot-cross buns – a spicy fruit bun with a cross of dough paste on top – and Easter eggs and rabbits, usually of chocolate. The histories of these items are varied and mixed with folklore, but the cross on the bread can be related to the wooden cross that Jesus was hung on, and the eggs are often related to the new life that his death and resurrection promises.

On the weekend of Easter, families and community groups set up Easter egg hunts where children search through houses and gardens for chocolates and treats that have been hidden by parents and friends and, on the Friday and Sunday, Christians attend church services.

The Easter long weekend is one of two major holiday periods in the year, Christmas being the other, when many people travel. Schools often cause their holidays to fall around Easter meaning that children and parents will take at least several days away to enjoy the Autumn weather.

Labour Day

Labour Day commemorates the achievements of the Australian labour movement. The celebration of Labour Day has its origins in the eight hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest. On 21 April 1856 Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne, Australia, stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight hour day. Their direct action protest was a success, and they are noted as the first organized workers in the world to achieve an eight hour day with no loss of pay, which subsequently inspired the celebration of Labour Day and May Day.In Tasmania the public holiday is called Eight Hours Day and in the Northern Territory it is called May Day.

The holiday varies considerably between the various states and territories. It is always on a Monday, creating a long weekend. Marches or parades only occur in Queensland now, and not always there depending on the state government at the time.

Labour Day is celebrated in March in Western Australia, Tasmania and Victoria, in May in the Northern Territory, and in October in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.

8. Queen's Birthday

In all states and territories except Western Australia, Queen's Birthday is observed on the second Monday in June. Due to the fact that Western Australia celebrates Western Australia Day (formerly Foundation Day) on the first Monday in June, the Governor of Western Australia proclaims the day on which the state will observe the Queen's Birthday, based on school terms and the Perth Royal Show. There is no firm rule to determine this date before it is proclaimed, though it is typically the last Monday of September or the first Monday of October. In 2011 the Queen's Birthday holiday in Western Australia was moved from Monday, 3 October 2011 to Friday, 28 October 2011 to coincide with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which was held in Perth. In 2012, Queensland celebrated the Queen's Birthday on the first weekend in October, the June holiday for that year being a special holiday to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Following 2012, the holiday has reverted to its normal June date in Queensland in line with the other eastern states.

The day has been celebrated since 1788, when Governor Arthur Phillip declared a holiday to mark the birthday of King George III. Until 1936 it was held on the actual birthday of the Monarch, but after the death of King George V it was decided to keep the date at mid-year.

On that day the "Queen's Birthday honours list" is released naming new members of the Order of Australia and other Australian honours. This occurs on the date observed in the Eastern States, not the date observed in Western Australia.

The Queen's Birthday weekend and Empire Day, 24 May, were long the traditional times for public fireworks displays in Australia. Although they still occur, the tradition has recently been overshadowed by larger New Year's Eve fireworks, as the sale of fireworks to the public was progressively banned by the states in the 1980s. The sale of fireworks in the Australian Capital Territory was also banned on 24 August 2009.

Other holidays

- Proclamation Day is in December in South Australia only.

- Canberra Dayis held on the 2nd Monday in March in the ACT. Prior to 2008, this holiday was celebrated on the 3rd Monday of March.

- Melbourne Cup Day is held on the first Tuesday of November - the day of the Melbourne Cup. It was originally observed only in the Melbourne metropolitan area. From 2007 to 2009 in ACT, Melbourne Cup day was also a holiday called "Family and Community Day". The holiday continues from 2010 but no longer coincides with Melbourne Cup day. In Victoria, the Public Holidays Act 1993 (Vic) was amended on 24 September 2008 and made the Melbourne Cup Day holiday applicable in all parts of the state (unless another day is observed in substitute). It also made the holiday applicable to employees covered by federal awards.

- Recreation Dayis the first Monday of November, and celebrated in Northern Tasmania where Regatta Day is not a holiday.

- Regatta Day is the second Monday in February, and is celebrated in Southern Tasmania. Previously it was held on the second Tuesday in February.

- Geelong Cup Day is held on the fourth Wednesday of October in the city of Geelong, Victoria.

- Queensland Dayis celebrated on 6 June each year, but is not a public holiday.

- Adelaide Cup Day is held on the second Monday in March in South Australia (held in May before 2006.)

- Western Australia Dayis celebratedin Western Australia on the first Monday in June.

- Picnic Day is celebrated in the Northern Territory in August, and also in May.

- Tasmania has Easter Tuesdayas a bank holiday (for bank and government employees only).

- New South Wales has the first Monday in August as a bank holiday (for bank employees only).

- Many cities and towns observe local public holidays for their local Agricultural Show. For example:

- Darwin Show Day in Darwin area in late July.

- Royal Queensland Show Day in Brisbane area in August.

- Gold Coast Show in Gold Coast area in October.

TASKS

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 839