As many readers will have noticed, the supermarkets began selling Easter items like eggs and hot cross buns early in January, just as they were clearing out the remaining Christmas stock. I must say this is a sorry commentary on what is supposed to be a consumer society
* First off, what about those of us who want to celebrate Christmas and Easter at the same time? If the stores could get their act together and put on the Easter items a couple of weeks earlier this would be easy, but they seem to stick to the tradition of one festival at a time
* Valentines Day is only a couple of weeks away, but there’s scarcely anything in the way of Valentine’s items. Given that Valentines falls in the middle of the Easter season surely it’s not beyond the capacity of the marketing guys to come up with Valentine-themed Easter eggs, or Heart-Cross buns
* There’s no risk of going short on gluttony during Lent, but there’s a long drought from Easter to Halloween, with only Mother’s Day and Father’s Day to provide options for excess consumption. Surely they could invent an Australian version of Thanksgiving and put it in midwinter.
In case anyone missed the invisible irony alert at the beginning, < irony alert off >
John Quiggin 
I think they are still in the process of trying to invent christmas-in-july for Australia, not sure how well it is taking though.
Glad you have seen the light, terrific ideas, here have a cigar, I knew all that education would have you come up with something worthwhile someday.
It has always surprised me that we do not have a birthday each month. OK those born on the 31st miss out but perhaps they can be compensated by getting twice as many presents. Of course having your birthday on the day of the week would be fairer but perhaps presents each week should be left to the next generation who will be better adapted to consumption.
Preceding Lent is Carnevale (lit. “good bye meat”). If we all went meat-free for 6 weeks we would improve our budgets, improve our waist-lines and improve the environment. I just began my annual self-imposed 6 weeks without alcohol and coffee and my liver is already complaining about being sober. Go on, give it a try!
“Surely they could invent an Australian version of Thanksgiving and put it in midwinter.”
Is this the real reason there is pressure to move Australia day to May? Its all a plot by Woolies!
I didn’t miss the invisible irony alert. The larger irony implied in the post is that capitalism continues to function with its endless inducements to over-consume at the precise juncture when it is critical to conserve what we have left of our environment and resources.
If only we could do away with over-indulgence and harness the power of capitalism to transition from a fossil economy to a renewable economy. Hmmm, if we re-directed all the resources used for war plus excessive amusements and luxuries do you think we could do it?
I haven’t seen this in print but I’ve heard that welfare agencies in Australia are considering food stamps. Will HCB’s and chocolate eggs be eligible for purchase? Perhaps addicts will be able to sell some of their food stamps for cash and get their chocolate eggs that way.
Ikonclast the answer to your question is yes we can do it. For Australia I estimate the investment needed to get to zero net emissions to be $20 billion per year for 10 years. Clearly an achievable target.
I’m not sure about those numbers but I think we ‘can’ do it too. The question is ‘will’ we do it? I doubt we will unless dirigism becomes the formal national policy in energy matters.
The form of dirigism I envisage is a manadated and directed program implemented by government to ensure transition to a 100% renewable energy economy within one generation, i.e. about 25 to 30 years.
However, no political party in Australia has the will or the vision to do it and the fossil fuel lobby groups have all the pollies in their pocket (except the Greens I guess).
Why not ceebrate orthodix eater and christmas as well
I notice Chinese New Year getting local government approval (street closures, bunting etc) but where is it with Woolies/Coles? Definitely a worry that St Valentines has been crowded out – not enough foody emphasis or time perhaps. Halloween (sweeties) or even a mid winter pagan solstice (nuts/preserves) could be worth a try. For sheer adventurism a Zimbabwe solidarity week (near empty shelves) or a Ramadan month ( stores open after sunset/staff holidays) could be under consideration this recession.
Perhaps the valentines paraphenalia hasn’t emerged in the shopping centres because it’s dawned on the retailers that there is no market for romance in our functional – does this person meet my criteria for a relationship – society anymore (although I did see an advertisment for long stemmed red roses on tv the other day, but that was late at night after the sniff and stiff ad, so was probably directed at guilty philanderers!).
Mind you, I’m sure the adult shops will start promoting valentines soon – if they haven’t already.
Well – given the time between “good reasons for consuming” is getting shorter and shorter in many retail outlets perhaps its now time to announce the “Permafest” and run it all year round and treat it as a perfect substitute it for all festive seasons?
Re Xmas in July…
another invention of Tourism Australia to get you to the Blue Mountains or Bowral in winter when its too damn cold to go walking…
Here, here to Thanksgiving in July! The hardest part for this American expat adjusting to life down under is the utter lack of holidays in winter. And here, I though Aussies were masters of the holiday….
15# Abby
we were masters of the holiday once upon a time… until the masters of the universe demanded a schizophrenic workforce – one group who earned too much working 80 hours plus a week with not enough time for holidays, and the other lot of casuals earning too little money for any holidays at all….something has to change here!!!!
It seems consumerism is a bad thing unless the governments trying to encourage it. Maybe the supermarkets are working for Kevin Rudd and trying to pump prime consumption.
I saw easter eggs in the shops two days after boxing day.
Pathetic.
We do have our own version of Thanksgiving: (Melbourne) Cup Day. Although it is currently only a gazetted holiday for Melbouurne, I’ve worked in Sydney and Canberra on the day and to all intents and purposes it’s a get out of work day there too.
There’s no more Australian holiday than Cup Day, especially when you add the de riguer Monday RDO/Curriculum day/sickie to turn it into a 4 day holiday for a 3-minute horse race.
We could add Hossie’s Birthday (1 August) to space out that horrendous gap between Liz’s Bithday and Cup Day. (Liz’s birthday should be changed to Kingsford-Smith day – 9 June – anyway) but we do need something in July and September, since Jeffrey got rid of Melbourne’s September Show Day. Maybe, Imita Ridge Day (16 Sept) which although a withdrawal by the AIF/CMF forces on the Kokoda Track, was actually the turning point against the Japanese.
If necessary, we can trade away part of Eostre? Although I’d rather we get a bit closer to the number of public hols the French have.