Summer's End

I’m writing this at the tail end of an almost perfect weather-wise four day weekend here in New Zealand that began with Good Friday, a public holiday and ended with Easter Monday today, also a public holiday. Good Friday is not a public holiday in the U.S. Most workers in the States who want to take it off would have to use one of their personal days. Most of the financial markets in the U.S., including the New York Exchange are closed on Good Friday and since I worked for a good number of companies on the Street, I was able to frequently enjoy the three day weekend. Christmas is the only religious holiday that is also a U.S. public holiday. Why does Wall St. observe Good Friday? Wall St. lore has is that the last time markets were open that day was in 1907 when there was a severe financial panic which had JP Morgan, in that pre-Federal Reserve Bank era, pledging his own wealth to stave off a complete meltdown of the credit markets. The only problem with this legend is that this panic started in October, long after Easter occurred that year. However I’m unable in my brief research of the subject to find a more plausible explanation. I knew about Boxing Day before I came here, the holiday that is the day after Christmas and celebrated in the U.K., New Zealand and Australia, but was pleasantly surprised to learn that there is an Easter equivalent. I guess it was created to help recover from over indulgence on Easter after consuming all of those chocolate rabbits. We don’t have four day weekends like this in the U.S. because of the Federal Reserve Bank. Their policy is that banks should not be closed for more than three consecutive days.

What I find to be odd about this extended Easter holiday is the sense I get, after nine months of living here, that Kiwi’s are no more particularly religious than Americans and lack the equivalent of a Bible Belt region of fervent devotion. It’s true that the 3^rd largest city in New Zealand is Christchurch and was founded by devout Anglicans from Britain in the 19^th century who had their own John Winthrop like shining city on a hill aspiration. So the long holiday probably has a real legacy from a time when no one questioned that New Zealand was a Christian nation and is still being observed because who wants to argue against a nice long weekend? Jackie Mason said he gave up on atheism when he discovered that they have no holidays. Kiwis also have the Queen’s birthday in June as a public holiday; this interestingly enough is not the case in the U.K.

When a radio announcer here said this morning that this was the last big holiday of summer I immediately was taken back to those Labor Days of youth when I accompanied my parents to a traditional end of summer Sunday dinner at my Aunt Florence’s apartment in Queens. Despite her loving hospitality and delicious feast it was always hard for me to shake off that feeling of longing and regret I felt at summer’s end. Today my seasonal clock was still in a northern hemisphere mode when you can begin to entertain fantasies of boogie boarding at the beach and backyard barbecues soon to come. Bryan and I decided to seize the day with what could be our last summer fling so we had a dip in the beach that's just across the street from our apartment here in Oriental Bay. Besides the almost cloudless sky it was also a most un-Wellington windless day and the bay was more like a tropical lagoon in its stillness and clarity. The moderate coldness of the water made it refreshing and we marveled at being able to spot through the clear water some very large starfish. The beginning of autumn was evident in the chilly air despite a strong sun and we didn’t linger on the sand for too long afterwards. Later I barbecued some shish kebabs in the small veranda at the back of our flat and thought about past summers spent by the sea on Long Island, Maine and the Jersey shore.

Happy Easter!