Easter Monday in Australia

Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday. It is a public holiday throughout Australia each year.

Easter Monday is a popular day for music festivals that attract many Australians. ©iStockphoto.com/korhan hasim isik

What do people do?

Many people spend Easter Monday with family or friends, carrying out home maintenance or attending sports matches. Easter Monday is the last day of many music festivals held during the long weekend. These include the National Folk Festival, the Byron Bay East Coast Blues and Roots Bluesfest, the Australian Gospel Festival and a range of local events.

A number of large sporting events end on Easter Monday. These include: the Stawell Easter Gift athletics competition; the Three Peaks Race, which consists of sections sailing around Tasmania and sections running up and down three mountains on the island; the Easter Racing Carnival in Sydney; and the Brisbane to Gladstone yacht race. Other events, including horse race meetings in Melbourne and major football fixtures, are held on Easter Monday.

Many people enjoy the Easter eggs that they received during the weekend. They may also eat an Easter bilby, a chocolate model of a small, endangered mammal native to Australia. A recent campaign attempted to persuade children that the Easter bilby, rather than the Easter bunny, brings Easter eggs. This is because rabbits are seen as pests that destroy natural habitats and agricultural crops.

Public life

Easter Monday is a public holiday throughout Australia. Schools, businesses and other organizations are closed. Many large stores and shopping centers are closed. Small stores and those selling building materials, household goods or motor vehicle parts may be open. If they are open, they may have shorter trading hours than on regular Mondays.

Public transport services are often restricted and may not run at all. There may be congestion on the roads and at airports as people return from vacations and when sports and cultural festivals end.

It is important to note that in the year 2011, Anzac Day and Easter Monday both falls on Monday, April 25. The Council for the Australian Federation (CAF) announced an agreement that states the observance of Anzac Day will be on Tuesday, April 26 due to this overlap with Easter Monday. However, all states and territories in Australia have their own legislation in place that designates Anzac Day as a public holiday on April 25, so there have been varied approaches to when the two holidays will be observed.

The Parliament in Tasmania rejected a proposed substitute holiday for Anzac Day and Easter Monday, thus both holidays will be observed on Monday, April 25, in 2011. Meanwhile, Victorians will have a substitute public holiday for Anzac day that will be observed on Tuesday, April 26, in 2011.

 In South Australia (SA), the Minister for Industrial Relations Paul Holloway announced Tuesday, April 26, 2011 as a special public holiday, creating an extended five-day Easter weekend. The Proclamation issued by the Governor of SA states that due to the dates of Easter Monday and Anzac Day both falling on April 25, Easter Monday will be observed on Tuesday, April 26, in 2011. The people of New South Wales will also observe Anzac Day on Monday, April 25, and have a substituted a public holiday for Easter Monday on Tuesday, April 26.

In Western Australia and the ACT, a special holiday was proclaimed for Tuesday, April 26, however neither Easter Monday or Anzac Day have been substituted, because it was not considered appropriate to lessen the significance of either day by  moving the observance to some other time, so Tuesday, April 26 was simply declared to be a holiday.

The Queensland Government has appointed Tuesday, April 26 as a substitute public holiday for Easter Monday in 2011.

Background

Easter Monday is celebrated as a holiday in many Christian cultures. In previous times, the Easter celebrations often lasted eight days. This period was known as the Octave of Easter and is still called that in some church calendars. In many places, there were egg rolling competitions and people poured water over each other. This may have originated in the Catholic custom of taking holy water, which had been blessed on Easter Sunday, home to sprinkle on the house and food. Gradually, the celebrations in the week after Easter became shortened to just the Monday after Easter. The custom of a holiday on this day was brought to Australia by the early English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish settlers.

About Easter Monday in other countries

Easter Monday Observances

Related holidays

• Palm Sunday ―Sunday, April 1, 2012
• Maundy Thursday ―Thursday, April 5, 2012
• Good Friday ―Friday, April 6, 2012
• Easter Saturday ―Saturday, April 7, 2012
• Easter Day ―Sunday, April 8, 2012

Other holidays in April 2012 in Australia

• Palm Sunday ―Sunday, April 1, 2012
• Maundy Thursday ―Thursday, April 5, 2012
• Good Friday ―Friday, April 6, 2012
• Easter Saturday ―Saturday, April 7, 2012
• First day of Passover ―Saturday, April 7, 2012
• Easter Day ―Sunday, April 8, 2012
• Easter Tuesday ―Tuesday, April 10, 2012
• Orthodox Good Friday ―Friday, April 13, 2012
• Orthodox Holy Saturday ―Saturday, April 14, 2012
• Last day of Passover ―Saturday, April 14, 2012
• Orthodox Easter ―Sunday, April 15, 2012
• Orthodox Easter Monday ―Monday, April 16, 2012
• Yom HaShoah ―Wednesday, April 18, 2012
• Anzac Day ―Wednesday, April 25, 2012
• Yom HaAtzmaut ―Thursday, April 26, 2012