Fun fact: Today is 'Good Friday' which means there is a dancing ban (Tanzverbot) in Germany, for 24h in most states. This does not only mean parties but also sport events. In Bavaria even concerts without dancing are prohibited.
[Okay it the actual laws are more complicated but you get the idea ;) ]
@superruserr Most people in Germany don't care about the dancing ban I guess and are just glad to have a longer weekend too :)
Seafood would be weird from my perspective. But while thinking about it that's maybe because I wasn't raised religious; German-style fish is common on Good Friday.
Sweet buns with raisins are common too, but without cross symbolism.
So Easter Friday and Monday are federal holidays in Australia?
Yes.
I don't think seafood isn't a religious thing (AFAIK). Seafood is also a big thing for Christmas here in Oz.
I don't think it'll be a big thing if you're not completely surrounded by ocean.
@superruserr Yeah, makes sense.
I was thinking about religious, christian fasting on Good Friday which I really don't know the rules of except it allows fish instead of meat so that's what people are eating.
@0x11de784a Hmm, didn't think of that. Most of the population resides around the coastal areas so seafood is a big thing (if that's in your diet in the first place).
@superruserr I'd guess you're right about that living on the coastal areas might have more influence on that. But I don't know much about coastal life, religious fasting nor seafood :D
@0x11de784a thank god BBQ is not prohibitted :)
https://bsd.network/media/jVEKPf_kGXJkPPec3ss
@mapet Nice! Yeah, I'll try to get my share of that nicer weather too.
It's much worse than just that, @0x11de784a Here's a list of 760 films which aren't allowed to be shown in movie theaters today http://static.piratenpartei.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/FSK-Keine-Feiertagsfreigabe-1980-2015-B.pdf
However, if you live in Bochum, then *just for 2018* there's an exception to the law regarding Monty Python's "The Life of Brian" https://www.tagesspiegel.de/weltspiegel/monty-python-das-leben-des-brian-darf-in-bochum-an-karfreitag-trotz-grundsatzverbots-gezeigt-werden/21110304.html
You can't make this stuff up
@jpmens Haha thanks! Good example for German bureaucracy!
But seriously, why is Mary Poppins on that list?
@0x11de784a I forgot to mention something you possibly know: this is just for movie theaters: these films can be shown on TV, yes, also on good friday.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiwillige_Selbstkontrolle_der_Filmwirtschaft#Feiertagsfreigabe
@jpmens Didn't know about the list in the first place so that's new too, thanks!
@0x11de784a In #Australia, the 'holidaying' focus is more around it being a long weekend with no work on Friday and Monday.
There's hot cross buns - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_cross_bun (a very British tradition)
And there's a lot of focus on having as much seafood as possible (ie http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-25/sydney-fish-market-scales-up-operation-for-easter-weekend/7276552)