Do you love Easter? I do because it has all the fun stuff of Christmas without the pressure. Yes, I know it is about the resurrection of Jesus three days after his death by crucifixion. But it is also celebrated with indulgence in my favourite food group: chocolate.
Cooler weather lulls us to sleep at night and the Coast sparkles in a new beauty as the season changes.
A friend referred to autumn this year as ‘fake autumn’ and some of us are quite mad at the fact it is still stifling hot when we are meant to be pulling out our flannelette pyjamas, drinking hot chocolates and lighting fire pits in the pretence that we, too, can live the life of our southern counterparts for a least a few months a year.
But back to my point that there is zero pressure when it comes to Easter compared with Christmas. We can eat what we want – fish tacos on Good Friday, roast on Easter Sunday and mountains of Easter eggs in between.
We do not have to buy 2959 presents for family members we hardly ever see.
The roads do not become so clogged with tourists that getting a bottle of plonk becomes equivalent to setting off to cross the Nullarbor. We can read, eat, sleep, head to our beaches and parks and just be sloths. And repeat.
There seems fewer family fights at Easter. Christmas brings out the beast in us all and I have had Decembers with screaming matches, break-ups, friends fighting over silly stuff and hysterical crying over the pressure of getting it all done in time for the big day.
One Christmas, our dog ate the turkey that he grabbed off the kitchen bench before it was served and all I could do was reach for a drink.
Another Christmas, I was in a car accident while travelling to see my father who lived at the Gold Coast. Grabbing some takeaway on the highway in a gridlock of cars was not living my best life.
So, if you are looking for me over Easter, I will be bunkered down, eating my weight in those tiny little solid eggs (the best ones by far) and breathing in my kids while they celebrate the Easter Bunny and egg hunts and being perfectly content staying up late watching movies.
Now, if someone could just speak to fake autumn for me and get her to cool down a little, that would be grand.
Sami Muirhead is a radio announcer, blogger and commentator. For more from Sami, tune into Mix FM.
