As Australians, we do love our public holidays.
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We have 12 of them this year - which is a tidy average of one a month.
We love them so much that we hate to be deprived of one. Take the situation with Australia Day - the actual day itself fell on a Saturday.
But no way were we going to miss out on a public holiday, so Australians get to enjoy Australia Day itself and then get a holiday for it today.
But surely that’s having your cake and eating it too. If Australia Day - or any public holiday happens to fall on a weekend, well that should just be too bad. Suck it up and go to work on Monday.
That’s what happens in NSW when Anzac Day falls on a weekend - the day is declared a public holiday and everyone turns up for work on Monday.
And no doubt some of them whinge about not getting a day off for Anzac Day.
That’s the problem with these sorts of public holidays in lieu - people focus more on getting a day off rather than the importance of the day itself.
So we end up with the situation where many people putting their feet up today who would have no clue about the meaning and origins of Australia Day.
We should be observing the day itself, not the day in lieu.