Ingrid Tiriana: Easter? I'm happy to be a home bunny

Easter means many different things to many different people and, as far as I'm concerned, that's perfectly OK.

I don't think it should be just about chocolate but it doesn't have to have religious significance for everybody, because not everybody is religious and that will always be the case.

For many people, of course, Easter is of huge religious significance and that is also fine.

Just as it's also fine that some people work or open their businesses over Easter.

Easter has been many things to me over the years. When I was a youngster, it meant the annual Easter-egg hunt in the garden - an exciting, magical morning of racing around checking the shrubbery for the dyed hard-boiled eggs my parents would spend all the previous night preparing.

There would also be a few chocolate eggs, but mainly real ones which we would eat over the long weekend.

The religious significance of Easter became more apparent as I got a little older and while I still acknowledge that, the holiday has also become a great opportunity to spend time with family and/or friends. Sometimes that has meant heading away somewhere, at other times mooching around home and perhaps attending or organising a social gathering.

Not being much of a gardener, Easter hasn't usually meant digging around in the dirt, although until recently - when the nieces and nephews grew too old for it - I continued the Easter-egg hunt tradition.

It's just as well they are too old for it now, because there aren't too many inventive places to hide eggs in what can only loosely be called a garden.

Generally, staying home is the preferred option over Easter.

The madness of traffic jams on state highways isn't my idea of an enjoyable or fulfilling way to spend a long weekend.

It seems more like enduring than enjoying.

It certainly doesn't strike me as being quality time with the family or being conducive to relaxing and recharging the batteries.

But each to their own, I guess.

For many people, Easter - or any long weekend for that matter - is a chance to take stock, relax and chill out for a few days.

For others, it is perhaps an opportunity to spend some quality time with the kids, enjoy a family outing or two, or spend time with extended family.

For some, it's about a break from studies, a chance to recharge the brain and, for others, it's a time to enjoy the company of friends or take a break away from home.

Others might like to treat themselves to a sleep-in, maybe get some things done around the house or do some gardening. For some, it is just another week at work but with the chance to earn a few extra dollars working the public holidays.

For businesspeople, it might mean the opportunity for increased sales.

These days a lot of people can't afford to just stop and shut up shop for four days.

Some don't like that reality but everything changes and evolves, and the days of towns shutting down to celebrate, commemorate or observe a significant date or event on the calendar are long gone.

Working seven days a week is just how life is for a good proportion of us now, and that makes long weekends which we do manage to have off very special indeed - a few days to ourselves, a few days to be treasured and used in the best way possible.

For many of us, then, today is the last day of our Easter break and it's back to work tomorrow - hopefully refreshed and having achieved whatever it was we set out to gain.

Ingrid Tiriana is a freelance writer based in Rotorua.