AUDIO
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Archbishop Peter Jensen's Christmas Message 2011 on the centrality of Jesus to human history
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There is always a sense of relief in my household when the clock ticks past 5pm on Christmas Eve. By that time, the retail frenzy of Christmas is over and one’s mind can start to relax as the holiday season truly begins.
But for some hapless workers, that may be about to change.
The NSW State Government is currently examining proposals to de-regulate shop trading hours on restricted days such as Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and the morning of Anzac Day.
These are designated public holidays and under current rules, shops are required to be closed, or operate on certain days under restricted trading licenses (the latter allows city department stores to open on Boxing Day and after 1pm on Anzac Day, for example). The overall result is a legal presumption of a retail shutdown across the state on key public holidays, with some automatic exemptions for small shops and the granting of other restricted exemptions. The law surrounding retail trading in NSW is complex and each State has its own regulations.
In September, the Minister for Finance and Services, Greg Pearce MP, announced an inquiry into shop trading provisions and invited submissions, which closed on 24 October. A key part of this inquiry involved an examination of ‘a reduction in the number of restricted trading days under s. 4 of the [Retail Trading] Act.’
It is evident from reading the Inquiry Discussion Paper that there is a great openness to the possibility of further extending trading hours into what has traditionally been times of community and family rest. This is particularly true for Boxing Day and Easter Sunday. The report reveals that city retailers are big on seeking exemptions already. There is also pressure from the tourism industry to ensure that Sydney can deliver a 24/7 retail and entertainment experience for visitors.
From a Christian and broader social perspective, these are troubling developments. All in the name of creating employment and business opportunity.
There is no question that Sydney has become a global city. Easter and Christmas are both peak holiday times for local and overseas visitors. But setting time aside for community rest is a social good and ensures that people are not pressured by employers to work. As a church we would want to ensure this time of community rest and reflection is preserved, and that the Christian message of these periods is not lost in more displays of unnecessary mass consumption. Moreover, the further extension of trading is a form of bracket creep; in time there will be inevitable calls for trading on Good Friday. At that point, why bother with Easter holidays at all?
There are plenty of days for shopping and going about one’s business in the rest of the year. In addition, the enthusiasm with which Australians have adopted internet shopping means that the store-based retail experience has less appeal anyway. An enforced break from this activity does everyone good, whether people believe in 'the reason for the season’ or not.
(Banner Photo: Aphexlee)
We need to paint the picture of what this will mean: families will no longer be able to get together on Christmas Day/ Easter Day etc, as some of them will be serving customers at a retail outlet, and others will be called in to do some extra accounting or whatever to ensure the retailers can be open over these times.
Is that what Australians really want?
Maybe the extension of retail activity to 24/7 could be seen by Christians as an opportunity to accentuate their witness as people of God's rest.
I can understand why denominations still devoted to the liturgical year and sacramental worship might contend for the legislative enforcement of Christmas and Easter holidays; it's part of their nostalgia for a waning, magisterial Christendom. But why would biblicist evangelicals contend for such times and seasons? There is virtually no scriptural warrant for Christmas and Easter as festivals. And good SydAngs should have no need for special holydays to concentrate their attention upon the incarnation, cross and resurrection. One day is as holy as the next, no?
Perhaps Christians could find ways of modelling regular restfulness to our 24/7, work hard/play hard, overfed, over-stimulated culture.
It's a relic from Christendom's old liturgical year, and has its origins in non-Christian religious festivals (of Sol Invictus/Helios-Mithras, also Saturnalia, plus pagan Yule - winter solstice, death/rebirth of the sun). The 25th of December (and its trappings) has no intrinsic connection with the Jesus of Scripture; it's all about sun worship in the Northern winter, overlaid with a veneer of sacramental (and sentimental) Christendom.
So how are you justified - as a "Bible-believing" evangelical - in holding this particular date to be especially blessed, unless you agree that the pagans were on to something ;^)
Christians can reflect on the incarnation any time they like; they don't need a state enforced, pagan-derived public holiday to do it. And they can arrange their working lives to spend quality time with their families any time they like (eg. annual leave). And they can give presents to their children any time they like.
Ah, but Christmas = Magic, and it would seem that even biblicist evangelicals have a hard time giving that up!