This may mean nothing at all. Extrapolating from two data points is always dangerous. And when those data points are opposite to one another, confusion is added to the mix. But here goes…
Among the many business conference calls I’ve had in the past 48 hours, two were with Europeans (in Europe): one a German customer, the other a potential French supplier. I’ve known each one for awhile, but not closely enough for us to have talked about religion.
Data point number one, with the German customer: After an hour-long call, and completely un-prompted by anything I’d said (some evangelical I am!) he wished me a “Happy Easter”. That took me by surprise not only because we hear so much so often about how Europe has become extremely secular but also because, here in the U.S. — at least in my little blue secular corner of it — one never hears such a thing except among intimates. (In all of my domestic calls with customers and other business colleagues all last week, not one ever said anything of the kind or even hinted that it was a holiday weekend.)
Data point number two, with the potential French supplier: After an hour-long business call late on Good Friday afternoon his time (I’d thought he was in the U.S. at the time) I apologized for catching him by surprise on the verge of a holiday weekend. (I didn’t make any explicit mention of Good Friday or Easter). His response:
What? what holiday are you talking about? I didn’t know it was a holiday weekend… What holiday is it?
He was not being sarcastic. He really didn’t know about the biggest holiday on the Christian calendar. Now, allowing for the possibility that this gentleman does not celebrate Easter, it was still a strange thing to hear. (His name hints that he may be Jewish). I have many Jewish and quasi-secular friends. They are all aware that it is Easter weekend. To be completely unaware of that fact indicates more about the cultural milieu in which this gentleman lives (Paris) than anything else.
