Easter is here, a rare four-day weekend when many of us will travel for getaways, see family and friends, or host those who have travelled to us.  
 
Yet Easter can be a trap for the unwary. 
 
This evening, people will be going to bars and restaurants and the supermarket, and you will be able to purchase alcohol like any other day of the week. And then tomorrow, Friday, you won't. Then, on Saturday, you will. But on Sunday, you won't.  
 
You can have a tipple with a ‘substantial meal’ – not just a bowl of fries or a hot cross bun. You must be in and out within two hours in case, heaven forbid, someone has a drink while not eating. 
 
The law varies across the country. It can be a confusing mess of contradictions. 
 
It is a bizarre arrangement. Why is it that on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, different rules regulate how alcohol can be served than on other days of the year?  
 
It seems to be a hangover of a bygone era when most New Zealanders identified as Christian and desired to preserve Easter's sanctity. But as a country, we are no longer so devout. At the 2023 Census, 52% said they had no religion. Only 32% identified as Christian. Rather than church attendance people these days are more likely to indulge in egg hunts and egg painting.  
 
Many attempts have been made to liberalise Easter trading, including a recent Members’ Bill by ACT MP Cameron Luxton. His Bill, and others, have come unstuck in the form of an (un)holy alliance between the religious and the unions, who fear that relaxing restrictions on Good Friday and Easter Sunday will result in more places being open and more people being ‘forced’ to work. 
 
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty, who is Catholic, has played Easter Bunny and come up with a compromise. His Members’ Bill, which passed its first reading last week, would allow licensed businesses already permitted to open on ANZAC Day morning, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Christmas Day to sell alcohol under their usual licence conditions.  
 
Mr McAnulty’s Bill is common sense and it will make a difference. However, it falls short of the liberalisation needed.  
 
Why not relax all Easter trading and compensate workers so they are better off for working on these holidays if they choose?  
 
But in the meantime, enjoy an Easter egg with your friends and family and raise a glass (if you can) to some sanity.