- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

Tomorrow is usually the biggest grocery shopping day of the year, because Friday is a statutory holiday before a big eating weekend.
Good Friday is the only strictly religious holiday of the five federal stat holidays. Attendance numbers show that Easter and Christmas have become less about church-going and more about chocolate and Santa, even among those who identify themselves as Christians.
In the not-so-distant past there was nothing happening on Good Friday in Grey County but fasting, church-going and processing with a big wooden cross. Easter treats didn't appear until Easter.

Today, the fact that you have Friday off but you can't go shopping appears to be a good excuse to throw full-on parties.
Lots of Easter egg hunts are intentionally scheduled for Good Friday to draw tourists, including a few at Blue Mountain and one in Guelph specifically for "dogs and their families". In Owen Sound, there's a church fish and chip fundraiser at Harrison Park Inn, complete with pie, and it's 1969 and the summer of love at the Heartwood Concert Hall. Good Friday is the big dance night with a cash bar at the Sunday Morning Hockey League Easter Tournament at the Bayshore.
And wait – did we say you couldn't shop? The new Foodland is open 24 hours on Good Friday, and the Port Elgin Walmart Superstore would be happy to take your money that day.
None of this is a judgement – what you do this Friday is strictly your call.
But don't let anyone tell me that newcomers and young people are trying to change "our culture". We're apparently doing a fine job of that, quite voluntarily, all by ourselves.