Consternation from some people at a suggestion by the board of Australian Rules football that they are considering playing a match next year on Good Friday.
This seems to be the latest skirmish in the long running battle between religion and the rest of the community.
Half a century ago religion held sway and Sunday was without any vestige of commerce , sport or entertainment. As a result, two schools of thought diverged in opposite directions. To some, it was a rest day given to only one thing - attendance at church. To others - it was a day of absolute and crushing boredom.
Change came slowly. At first the only shops open on a Sunday were corner stores and milk bars, but then came the supermarkets - and with shift work a need for longer shopping hours that was reluctantly granted. Then the cinemas began to open for matinee sessions on a Sunday - and soon this extended to the evening - and amateur sport saw an opportunity to gain an audience and extend it's reach.
Obstacles fell in quick succession from that point and soon major sport was playing on Sunday - and the pubs were open. Sunday was just another day of the week.
But - that was Sunday. What about the two great religious days of the year - Christmas day and Good Friday ?
We are still at the stage when commerce ceases on those days. The shops do not open. Commercial activity ceases - it is just as it was half a century ago.
Do we really want Christmas day and Good Friday to go the way of Sunday ?
That is a question hard to answer. A vast number of people are not religious and another huge swathe of the population is not Christian - and yet these are Christian holy days.
The proposal to play a football match on Good Friday is the first bite of a termite white anting that religious holiday. If it happens - a deluge will follow - and the last holy days will follow the demise of Sunday.
Perhaps this is inevitable - but most will feel a tinge of nostalgia for the past !
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