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An American living in Sydney has shared the “strange” period he experienced this Easter weekend that he has never had at home.
TikToker a_summer_abroad, who describes himself as a “Texan living in Australia,” garnered hundreds of comments on Saturday after sharing a video about a unique set of retail rules that gave him culture shock.
“There’s something strange about Australia, well at least Sydney, I’m not sure if it’s all of Australia,” he began.
An American TikToker has shared a strange rule Australia has at Easter.
An American TikToker has shared a strange rule Australia has at Easter (pictured)
‘So this country is super secular, at least compared to America, and when I say that, in America it’s assumed that someone is religious unless they say otherwise; In Australia it’s the opposite, someone is not supposed to be religious unless they say otherwise, but anyway.
‘This country is not very religious. Easter week. Sydney: I don’t know if it’s the whole country, but at least Sydney: the whole city closes at 10 and nothing is open apart from Maccas and a couple of bottle shops, but all the bars have to close at 10.
And I don’t know if it’s all weekend. I hope it’s not, but yes, closing everything at 10 on a Friday is pretty crazy.”
He said that in “super-religious America” nothing closes for a religious holiday, and described Christmas as different because businesses close because “nobody’s coming,” not because it’s “the law that they close.”
He said he didn’t understand “giving everyone a long weekend and not allowing them to do anything.”
“Different cultures, I guess,” he said.
Hundreds of people commented, and the comment I liked the most let you in on the Aussie secret that “we’re religious about our days off.”
“Long weekends and holidays are our religion,” said another.
“And we eat fish on Good Friday even if we’re not religious,” wrote another.
‘I don’t understand how, as a religious nation, the United States is not behind a long Easter weekend. ‘Australians wouldn’t give up these holidays for anything!’ wrote another.
The TikToker said that although Australia was a “very unreligious country”, the entire city shuts down over the Easter long weekend.
In the photo, Easter Mass in Melbourne
A commentator told him the truth: that in most states there were laws about Good Friday, Anzac Day and Christmas Day trading hours.
New South Wales actually has some of the strictest Good Friday laws in the country, banning takeaway alcohol sales and limiting licensing to 12pm to 10pm.
As to whether stores can open on Good Friday or Easter Sunday, according to NSW Fair Trading, restricted trading exists to “strike a balance between the rights of workers to spend time off, the opportunity for retail workers to obtain additional income and public expectations.