No crazy relatives here.  At least, I am far away from them and we have finally stopped bothering each other over this sort of stuff.  My relatives are mostly agnostic/atheist except for my sister's family which is over the top JW.

I never understood the whole Easter thing even when I was church going.  Why celebrate that someone was tortured and killed at the behest of their father?  He is doing it for me?  What if I am not especially comfortable with the idea of someone else suffering for my sins?  And if he did suffer just for me, why am I supposed to be still worried about my sins?  I'm supposed to call up (pray) and say - forgive me - and it is all over with anyway, right?  And now we color eggs, eat them deviled or done up in egg salad, eat candy in the shape of fuzzy animals, all in celebration of this dude being crucified?  No sense, just no sense at all.

Please, please, don't try to explain it to me!    Thanks in advance.

Your Friday sounds better than what most of my religious friends have planned. Hell, it sounds better than my plans: you're in Japan, fer cryin' out loud.

I'll be helping my brother set up a spit for a pig roast on Saturday. And, I'll be looking for some Crooked River beer. Or other beer, for that matter. And drinking some beer.

ZING!

We'll be at the Zoo in Seattle on Saturday, then we'll come back home on Sunday (too late for church, awe shucks) and do familiy stuff.  Eat food, color and hide eggs for my daughter, etc. etc.

Hopefully we'll make it to the theater for Clash of the Titans!

I can't recall ever feeling that Good Friday was particularly significant. Easter was about Easter eggs, and an excuse for a family get-together.

The Jesus story was never more to me than just that, a story, one of those things a lot of grown-ups seemed to care a lot about.

Good Friday was always a bit annoying because so many shops were closed. We aren't anywhere near as Sunday/Holiday observant now as we used to be here.

Our supermarkets were closed all day today, one of the few days they still do that, and a lot of small stores which normally open during the day. But I just went out for a cycle ride, and the pizza place and video rental store were both open in my local shopping center (this was around 5pm). How disrespectful of them. But then the pizza place is called 'Hell Pizza', so it ain't that surprising , I guess.

Not AFAIK. I am pretty sure they are not the only restaurant or fast food or other place that normally opens in the evening that remains open on these days.

We have a long tradition of regulating trading hours here, which seems to have been progressively relaxed. Once, major stores did not open on any Sunday, for example.

It seems (I just looked it up), there was an announcement at the beginning of this year. Part of it says:

Just to give you a flavour of the regulatory system here.

I have always found that claim of 'three days' funny, since the actual account suggests a day-and-half at most - Friday afternoon to early Sunday morning.

One day, 3 days, I'd say lack of blood and oxygen pretty much fuck you. I'd like to see a medical explanation for this hocus pocus. A window is one thing. Absurdities are another.