I’ve decided to ignore yesterday’s Waitangi Day, since it’s always so bloody contentious anyway, and instead declare today my own special national holiday: Duck Day. Since it’s raining so much, meaning it’s lovely weather for them.
I’m sick of hearing the same old whinging every year about the Waitangi Day situation, the in-fighting and backstabbing, the money-grubbing and lack of progress. It’s not our national day, how can our national day be one that is so divisive?
Instead we should adopt Duck Day, because how can anyone not like ducks? Even if you don’t like them as people, surely you can’t dislike them in a nice orange sauce with braised fennel?
Sure, there are some who might say Duck Day should be marked in May, at the start of duck-shooting season, but I reckon we need something now.
So, happy Duck Day everyone. I hope it’s all good.
And yes, I know you technically aren’t getting a holiday (although I am because I’m on annual leave as we speak) but no one got a day off work for Waitangi Day, either.
And we won’t be getting one for Anzac Day, apparently, because it’s the same day as Easter Monday. But has anyone considered that we ARE actually getting Anzac Day off work, and it’s Easter Monday that we’re missing out on?
You see, I don’t feel so bad about that because I think Anzac Day is more important and much more inclusive than Easter Monday.
Easter Monday is a day for Christians only, and not everyone is a Christian (no offence to all my God-fearing friends).
Besides that, Anzac Day is a day that doesn’t divide the country, it unites us all, not matter what race, no matter what our history. New Zealand stood up as a strong nation in its own right back then and the day has evolved to mark other conflicts, peace-keeping missions and other ways Kiwis have been involved. It shows us all as equals: it’s a day where we are all simply Kiwis, and where we all know it’s something to be proud of.
I’ll take that over whinging and in-fighting any day.