Easter question(s) - research

[starrkers]

Is Easter seen as a holiday season for trips away with friends in the US?

What kind of trip would a bunch of friends take together - too late for skiing, too early (I think) for watersports, so what?

How long are people usually away from work/studies for Easter?

 

[R. Richard]

Is Easter seen as a holiday season for trips away with friends in the US?

What kind of trip would a bunch of friends take together - too late for skiing, too early (I think) for watersports, so what?

How long are people usually away from work/studies for Easter?

In high school and, to an extent in college, Easter Week is a break where students go to the SoCal beaches in the west and Fort Liquordale in the East. It is not about swimming, surfing or getting a tan, but about running wild in an anonymous setting.

 

[Emerald_Dragon]

Usually it is just a three day weekend. Good Friday, Sat. and Easter Sunday. We usually just visited family if we went anywhere.

 

[sr71plt]

Good Friday isn't either a federal or a state (or even university holiday) here. I don't think Easter proper is a "travel away" weekend for most Americans.

 

[LoquaciousLady]

It's occasionally the kick-off or the ending to Spring Break, the week-long school break for kids through college age. I believe that's the case this year, in fact, in a great many Texas schools. Which means that here in Texas Padre Island will likely be flooded with drunken college students engaged in bacchanalian pursuits like drinking and attempting to find somebody to shag.

Here in Texas, even as early as Easter is this year is probably late enough in the year for water sports of the outdoor variety and I'm sure that's true in most southern states as well. I'm also fairly certain I recall some ski trips that time of year in my youth to places in northern New Mexico and Colorado.

Easter is pretty much a three-day weekend unless, like I said, it gets bumped into spring break. Then you get the full week, or if you're lucky, a week plus the preceding Friday.

Hope this helps.

 

[R. Richard]

I forgot to add. There are really rwo Easter Weeks the high schools and state colleges usually share the same Easter Week/Spring Break. The universities have the other week, so they won't get involved with the lower class riff-raff.

 

[starrkers]

Hmm. May have to tweak things a little to make it more plausible.

Thanks guys. You rock.

 

[Weird Harold]

Is Easter seen as a holiday season for trips away with friends in the US?

Easter isn't really seen as a holiday in the US any more. It's become a "Hallmark and Hershey Holiday" for the majority of people who even think about Easter. There are still a significant number of people who celebrate Easter as a religious Holy Day with sunrise services and easter egg hunts for the kids. (there is an annual easter egg hunt on the White House lawn for the politically connected, but that's the extent of official recognition of Easter.)

There may still be a few major Easter Parades or small town Easter parades, but they aren't the big events they were in the early part of the century; they had mostly died out by the mid-seventies AFAIK. A quick google turned up Easter Parades in New York, San Francisco and:

The 9th Annual Official New Orleans Gay Easter Parade aka New Orleans Gay Easter Parade, aka Gay Easter Parade Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008, 4:30pm

What kind of trip would a bunch of friends take together - too late for skiing, too early (I think) for watersports, so what?

As RR noted, "Easter" has morphed into "Spring Break" which is an annual invasion of Gulf and Southern California beaches. Spring Break is biggest in central Florida (around Daytona?) where an advertising campaign in the sixties and seventies created a monster.

Google can probably turn up a decent history of the Spring Break pehnomenon that has generally replaced "Easter" as our "spring has sprung" celebration.

Skiing, however is NOT out of the question -- the high mountain ski resorts of the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada maountains generally stay open through the end of April or Mid-may, depending on snow conditions.

ETA:

Las Vegas' only ski resort located at the apex of beautiful Lee Canyon at the foot of Mt. Charleston caters to skiers from November 'til March.

Lee Canyon usually closes Easter Weekend or the Weekend after, but has stayed open 'til the end of April a couple of years when the snow-pack lasted longer than normal.

How long are people usually away from work/studies for Easter?

Schools generally take a week to ten days off between semesters around Easter but since Easter is on a Sunday, most jobs don't lose any business days for Easter -- any break from the job is charged against vacation time.

The school break was historically scheduled around Easter but legal challenges to schools taking a break for a "christian holiday" gradually moved it from the week ending with Easter to whenever the end of the fall semester falls.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

Is Easter seen as a holiday season for trips away with friends in the US?

What kind of trip would a bunch of friends take together - too late for skiing, too early (I think) for watersports, so what?

How long are people usually away from work/studies for Easter?

Easter is more of a holiday in Canada, and usually the spring break for school is around Easter. Most of the ski resorts in the US and Canada would be in operation at Easter.

 

[DesertPirate]

Easter is more of a holiday in Canada, and usually the spring break for school is around Easter. Most of the ski resorts in the US and Canada would be in operation at Easter.

Taos and most of the others ski resorts in NM used to close the week after easter

Now they stay open las long as there is good snow and close around the middle of April.

 

[starrkers]

Taos and most of the others ski resorts in NM used to close the week after easter

Now they stay open las long as there is good snow and close around the middle of April.

See, that's the difference - Aussie ski resorts pray they'll have enough snow come season opening time and hope there's still snow when the season officially ends. Pretty rare that they go over time by more than a week in either direction.

 

[matriarch]

Is Easter seen as a holiday season for trips away with friends in the US?

What kind of trip would a bunch of friends take together - too late for skiing, too early (I think) for watersports, so what?

How long are people usually away from work/studies for Easter?

Spring Break

 

[sr71plt]

See, that's the difference - Aussie ski resorts pray they'll have enough snow come season opening time and hope there's still snow when the season officially ends. Pretty rare that they go over time by more than a week in either direction.

Many ski resorts in the United States just make their own snow. The closest ski resort to me goes through to the end of April too, and it's located in Virginia, the American south.

 

[Weird Harold]

See, that's the difference - Aussie ski resorts pray they'll have enough snow come season opening time and hope there's still snow when the season officially ends. Pretty rare that they go over time by more than a week in either direction.

I don't think Australia has any ski resorts at 5,000 ft elevations does it? (1525+ meters)

The bottoms of the Western Ski resorts mentioned above are all "mile-high" (or better) where the snow comes sooner and stays longer because of the lower temps at higher elevations.

Eastern ski resorts are more like what you're describing for Australian resorts -- I think the TOP of most eastern ski resorts is under the mile-high mark (1600 meters or so.)

 

[Chantilyvamp]

I didnt read all the posts sorry so this might be repeating but in the school i went to in colorado and arkansas we got the monday after easter off only. We didn't get the good friday off. We had a spring break usually 2nd or 3rd week in march. Starting out in the early 80's we had two week but by the time i was in high school they cut it down to one week. It was the same in my university. 3rd week of march we took off for a 8 states in 7 days road trip. Nuttier than a fruit cake we were.

 

[starrkers]

Many ski resorts in the United States just make their own snow. The closest ski resort to me goes through to the end of April too, and it's located in Virginia, the American south.

Our ski resorts routinely make snow, but that's dependent on the weather too - often it is too warm for that.

I don't think Australia has any ski resorts at 5,000 ft elevations does it? (1525+ meters)

The bottoms of the Western Ski resorts mentioned above are all "mile-high" (or better) where the snow comes sooner and stays longer because of the lower temps at higher elevations.

Eastern ski resorts are more like what you're describing for Australian resorts -- I think the TOP of most eastern ski resorts is under the mile-high mark (1600 meters or so.)

Don't really know much about the heights, but our tallest mountain is only 2228m (7310ft) above sea level.

I didnt read all the posts sorry so this might be repeating but in the school i went to in colorado and arkansas we got the monday after easter off only. We didn't get the good friday off. We had a spring break usually 2nd or 3rd week in march. Starting out in the early 80's we had two week but by the time i was in high school they cut it down to one week. It was the same in my university. 3rd week of march we took off for a 8 states in 7 days road trip. Nuttier than a fruit cake we were.

I find this very interesting. Good Friday is the guaranteed holiday here - to the point where even the pubs are shut! (Shock horror!) It's harder to get a drink on Good Friday than any other day of the year.
I used to work in newspapers here and journalists only had two guaranteed public holidays (or a day off in lieu of them) - Christmas Day and Good Friday.

 

[warmAmber]

Good Friday - banks and the stock market are closed in the US .. The week before Easter is often called "spring break"... a book-end for college students from Mardi Gras celebrations.

 

[Chantilyvamp]

I find this very interesting. Good Friday is the guaranteed holiday here - to the point where even the pubs are shut! (Shock horror!) It's harder to get a drink on Good Friday than any other day of the year.
I used to work in newspapers here and journalists only had two guaranteed public holidays (or a day off in lieu of them) - Christmas Day and Good Friday.

Same here in england as well. Kid doesn't have nursery on one of the days because of easter break. My nieces and nephews go to schools in 3 different states in the US. Each one of them has spring break on a different week this year. Right pain in the ass to schedule a break with the families when its spread out like that. One is the 2nd week of march. the other is the the 3rd week of march and the last poor chick got hers stuck 2nd week of april. And I think it was the middle one on the 3rd week of march that was told since they had to use to many snow days already this year that they would loose one day of spring break. And only one of them gets good friday off. One of the other schools fanatically denies it because its a religious holiday and they don't mix religion in the school. Well kinda anyway...they do teach the bible as a literature class.