Thanks to 2011's happy confluence of the lunar cycle, a Christian festival and the Australian calendar, Australians have enjoyed the mother of all long weekends. If the current tsunami of secularist zeal achieves its utopian dream of a land free of any public religious expression, then let's hope this was a good one.

Observant Jewish Australians have always been resigned to taking religious festivals out of their normal annual leave allocation. Do we want a land free of the alleged "discrimination" that favours Christians over other religionists? Well then, we'd better abolish public holidays associated with the Christian calendar.

Could be a worry though, this brave new world that beckons. Consider the impact on the retail industry if the great festivals of the jolly fat Santa and the chocolate-laying bunny had to come out of annual leave. (No discrimination, please. We're secular.) Avvagoodweegend! (And do pray it's not the last.)