Should Crate Day be a Public Holiday?

ENTERTAINMENT | DRUGS

Written by Kyla Blennerhassett (she/her) | @kylablennerhassett | Contributing Writer

Crate Day began in 2010 when the hosts of The Rock radio station got creative with their marketing strategy. They encouraged Kiwis to spend the first Saturday of December to consume a crate of twelve 745ml beers with their mates. During their twelve-hour show the hosts listed a number of “Crate Day commandments”. The list included the concept of drinking “thy crate of origin” and that the only ‘beef’ that should attend Crate Day “is thy beef for thy BBQ”.Scorching sun, ice-cold beers and meat on the barbecue are all long-standing traditions in Aotearoa. But what started as a day to celebrate the arrival of summer with friends, has quickly divulged into a day of chaos for emergency services across the motu. A study from the New Zealand Medical Journal of hospital emergency department patients in 2019 and 2020 highlighted how alcohol-related admissions in 20 to 35-year-olds doubled on Crate Day in comparison to a regular Saturday. 

In 2021, the leader of the ACT Party, David Seymour announced that “under ACT, [Crate Day] would be a national holiday.” This comment referenced the controversial discussions surrounding Matariki at the time, and whether or not it should be observed as a public holiday. 

When approached for a comment on this statement, Seymour claimed the comment was a ‘joke’. He stated, “It was really a satire of, first of all, the anti-alcohol, anti-fun brigade who permeate our country’s politics, and also the controversy of the time that the government wanted to make Matariki a public holiday, which it subsequently did. My comment was designed to satire those two points, but sadly, we live in a world where you’ve got to be very careful when making jokes.” Whether it was a ‘joke’ or not, Seymour’s original comment brought about a discussion on the culture of Crate Day and how Kiwis celebrate the start of summer. 

Crate Day is a harrowing continuation of Aotearoa’s historically destructive drinking culture. This culture dates back to 1917 when pubs and bars were required by law to close at 6 pm which resulted in the ‘Six o’clock swill’. A 6 pm close was intended to encourage working husbands to come home to spend time with their families. But it instead led to them consuming as much alcohol as they could between clocking off work at 5 pm and licensed establishments closing at6 pm. Lasting for fifty years, the ‘Six o’clock swill’ played a major part in creating a culture of binge drinking that Aotearoa has yet to shake. 

A survey done by CoreData and One Choice NZ found that the COVID-19 lockdowns left a third of Kiwis feeling lonelier than before. Crate Day provides a reason to socialise in person and catch up with friends we’ve lost touch with. But it's impossible to ignore the day's destructive consequences despite what benefits there are for the social well-being of Kiwis. Dr John Bonning of the Waikato Hospital Emergency Department shared his personal experiences of Crate Day in a 2023 interview with The Post. He mentions patients “drunkenly falling over, injuring themselves, or cutting themselves on broken glass bottles; they’ve fractured bones and significantly bled after getting into pointless fights; they’ve seriously hurt themselves or others while drinking and driving.” 

If Crate Day were to become a public holiday, I fear that we would see a drastic increase in people engaging in drunk and disorderly behaviour that endangers themselves and others.

Moreover, if Crate Day were to become an official public holiday to celebrate summer it would be a government-sanctioned day of binge drinking. This would contradict section 237 of the 2012 Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, which mentions the offence of “anything that encourages people, or is likely to encourage people, to consume alcohol to an excessive extent”. The government should not promote the harmful use of alcohol. Rather, it should focus on reducing the negative effects of drinking and alcohol intoxication.

To answer the question ‘Should Crate Day be a public holiday?’ Well, no. Seymour’s ‘joke’ trivialised the dangers the day can bring. Through promoting the day as ‘fun’, he has further cemented Crate Day as a part of Kiwi culture. Not very funny, David.