From what we have seen over the last month or so, Easter is a pretty big deal here, but in a very secular manner. It is a bit puzzling that this same, largely non-religious country (the Prime Minister is a professed atheist even) teaches Scripture in the public schools. Anyhow, Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays so it's always a 4 day weekend. This year ANZAC Day, also a public holiday, fell on Easter Monday so today (Tuesday) is also a public holiday - a 5 day weekend! (ANZAC Day is a day of remembrance for Australian and New Zealand troops that fought in Gallipoli in WWI, now generalized to all veterans.) Back to Easter. Lots and lots of various types of chocolate eggs here but not much of the other stuff that we are used to - jellybeans are scarce, plastic fillable eggs are rare, no Peeps (except for us thanks to our recently-returned-from-the-US friend and neighbor Jenny!), no Reeses eggs, etc.
There are chocolate bunnies but there is also a campaign to promote the use of the chocolate bilby as the seasonal chocolate animal of choice here. Why? The bilby is a native Australian burrowing rodent that was endangered. The rabbit, on the other hand, is not native to Australia and has done lots of damage to Australian crops and wildlife habitats. Maybe next year we'll try a chocolate bilby!
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Chocolate bilby |
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| Looking south along the Pacific coastline. |
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| Entry to Sydney Harbor with the North Head in the background. |
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| Watsons Bay |
3 comments:
Have you learned to say the word "no" like an Aussie? Near impossible for an American I think. It seems to have five syllables in Australia. And how about the "t" in the middle of a word changing to a "d" sound - We'll miss you in the wada this summa, Hoova family!
Jen
Funny you mention that because I think my favorite phrase so far to hear the Aussies say is "Oh no!" It has at least 6 syllables!
Seems like places have different ways of doing things everywhere. When I first moved to the States I was in shock to find SO MANY candy-related things for Easter! In Argentina, we do Easter Bunnies (most times hollow) and Easter Eggs, but no they type you normally see here, Easter Eggs in Argentina are also hollow and have "suprprises inside", depending on the "fanciness" of the egg you buy that can range from M&M type candy or fancy bo-bons, plus some even have little trinkets for the kids. They are found in dark, milk, and white chocolate and many times the edges (where the two "halves" of the egg come together are decorated with sugar gum and so is the front. Funny enough I saw that CostCo had a bunch of similar eggs in their deli section this year... Whatever the case, glad you had a nice time.
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