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“Sunday Rest Day” – Don Charisma’s Opinion

It’s a rather lazy opinion post today, I’m pretty tired to be honest it’s been a long week, and really need to get an early night and a good rest.

In the UK the default religion is Church of England. Which means historically they’ve had control over a lot of English traditions. One of which is Sunday as a rest day. Within the last 20 years (or so) this has changed dramatically. It used to be that no one worked on Sundays, Saturday was a half-day for those that worked on Saturday and I seem to remember even a half day closing on Wednesday. Sunday it was actually illegal for people to work, I believe.

Now Sunday as far as the law is concerned is just like any other working day. Saturday and Wednesday were long gone before that.

Bars can now open 24 hours a day with the correct licence. And there are supermarkets which I think close only on Sunday night for a few hours, but they are open the rest of the time 24/7.

Thailand is different – presumably Buddhism doesn’t recognise the weekend in the same way. Most people seem to work six days per week, so they are pretty hard working. The 7/11 shops and supermarkets are open all night 24/7. Some bars seem to close earlier say 1-2am but in other places they are open much later, I have yet to see a 24 hour bar.

My opinion is that I like having one day off guaranteed to rest, I’m used to Sundays and prefer it to be a Sunday. I also like the idea of a weekend OFF, and the half-day on Wednesday doesn’t sound like a bad idea either.

Questions like – “are we working too hard or too long ?” come up for me. It’s good to be doing things, but people need time to just be and rest as well …

Over to you guys …

Warm regards

Don Charisma

PS (Tony Blair is my celeb name for this post … for fun you may think up a tenuous connection if you like, please keep it clean and respectful, otherwise I may not be able to post)

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77 thoughts on ““Sunday Rest Day” – Don Charisma’s Opinion”

  1. My dad said they worked six days a week. Now except big supermarket, gas station, snack bar and a few shops who works all the day (because they want), others work from monday to friday or many shops midday on saturdays too.

  2. I think people work so hard trying to make a living that they often forget to live. I’m used to getting my weekends off and a few times for the year I’ll take a day off and make it a longer weekend. We need that. I suppose when they replace us with robots then there would be no need for weekends or rest ever.

    1. For sure … I’ve heard of people dying shortly after retiring, spent their whole lives doing and then they die when they have time to relax, very ironic …

  3. I think when I moved to the UAE my weekends and days off got so distorted that it all seems to run together nowadays!! I think it’s important to include rest time in your week but not always possible for it to be the same fixed day every time. And I’ve got to say, being a mum working from home, what IS a day off???

  4. There are virtually no Sundays or days of rest in Las Vegas either. Since I am making my own schedule these days, I feel like too much down time leads to gluttonous lounging on the chaise with a mimosa in one hand and a cig in the other. I just take a break when I feel like I need to. In any regard, people do tend to work too hard for way too long and when it’s time for vacation, they need a few days, just to decompress, before actually relaxing! Good post. 🙂

  5. We had the “Blue Law” here on Sundays many years back and there were even certain items you couldn’t purchase on Sundays. Pantyhose is only one of the few. I remember that b/c inevitably I’d have a run in mine and needed new ones for church. No bars were opened. You could order drinks at a restaurant though. All of that is crazy I know. But those days are long gone now. I tend to agree, there should be a day of rest every week.

  6. Personally I love having one day to sit back, drink a good coffee, wine or both, connect with the people I share my life with and forget about the weeds growing, goats hooves that need trimming or the mountain of slowly mouldering apples currently begging my attention. As a rule, this day tends to be Sunday. Funny thing is that a lot of people would consider that I don’t actually have a job to take time off from as I receive no monetary gain from what I do every “work day”.
    I believe some people are working both too hard and too long; they do so for money. It’s a basic fact that we need money to survive. Somehow along the way, however, the concept of what surviving entails seems to have become a tad warped.

    1. For sure, another commenter mentioned consumerism, and I think that probably plays a large factor in people working so hard … fight club was something like “working to buy shit we don’t need” … although probably a bit on the anarchistic side, there’s certainly some truth in that 🙂

  8. I think a good thing about different worldviews is that not everyone holds the same days sacred…so some people could rest on Sundays when others wouldn’t mind being active, and those others can have different days of rest too. It’s one of the things I like about living in NYC. I’d hate to have some issue on a Sunday, like needing to replace a light bulb, or the cats running out of food, and no place be open to go and take care of it!

    As for if we’re working too hard, I guess it depends where one is and what the economy and labor laws are like there. I mean I could give a more detailed answer, but it would be specific to what’s going on in the U.S

  9. Sunday is the day I work. I have a gig at St. Francis Xavier. It’s a pretty big crowd too. Love the music.
    Leslie

      3. I had a young lad come up to me last night and he told me how much he loved my flute music. Just maybe he will be inspired to learn an instrument himself. Very rewarding.
        Leslie

  10. Everything used to close early on a Thursday or not open at all around this part of the UK, Saturdays were half day and Sundays it was a ghost town. I remember when everything closed for at least a week often two over Christmas and Easter too. But then consumerism took hold and we had to be buying things 24/7, 365 days a year. It would be so nice to have those rest days back. I also remember it was kind of traditional for Hairdressers to close on Mondays because they opened Saturdays, some around here still do that.

  13. These days most people dont have the 9-5 Monday to Friday job anymore, few people I know have one. I work shifts so – I wish to have every weekend off but highly doubtful. A few times you do get the “burnout” feeling due to this.

  14. I live in a semi-rural town where the majority of it closes from lunch time on Saturday. The larger supermarkets remain open all weekend but the rest of the town closes down. I’ve become used to it.

  15. Hi Don

    Don’t apologise for posting an opinion piece. Apart from songs and poems, that’s all I ever do!

    You might remember the court case of Celestina Mba, a Christian who had every Sunday off for several years, by swapping shifts with others who wanted other days off, before her employer (a council) put a stop to this.

    At the time, I posted in many places comments that would not have pleased either the Christian Legal Centre) a.k.a. Christian Concern) or the National Secular Society, but which I judge you will find sensible.

    For example, mine is the third comment at
    http://blog.echurchwebsites.org.uk/2013/01/11/mrs-celestina-mba-the-sabbath-and-the-test-of-proportionality/

    My comment there was certainly followed by a lively discussion!

    At

    http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10764312.Jesus_healed_the_sick_on_Sabbath_so_why_can_t_Celestina_Mba_/?ref=rc

    I commented about the Mba case as follows:

    66

    I am disappointed that this case is being fought on the issue of the Christian Sunday and religious rights. The employer is making every staff member work an anti-social rota that is an attack on the week itself, not on Sunday. The right that needs to be defended is the right to a private and family life, not any religious right.

    The fallacy that needs to be challenged is that the only way for a company to provided service seven days a week, is to refuse to give any staff member a regular day off – the SAME day off – every week, in order to exercise his or her Article 8 right to respect for private and family life, whether at church, seeing his children, or playing golf. It is perfectly possible to recruit enough staff who want to work every Sunday, and (for example) to have every Friday or Saturday off, to be able to employ *some* staff who want their weekly day off to be Sunday.

    … God gave the Jews their Sabbath, on Saturday. He gave EVERYBODY the week, the right to have a personal sabbath.

    99

    John

    1. Thanks John, and yes my point I think is that we ought to be allowed at least one day off a week … and it would be sensible I feel for people who have faith to rest on “their day” … however commerce usually wins, they are holding the purse strings, and whilst its annoying their is much that’s like this in life …

      Cheers

      Don

  16. I agree, with this fast paced world we live in we should have one day off. That used to be Sundays here as well in the US. Everything was closed and the only thing you could do would be go to church and gather afterwards at someone’s home for a meal. People of a certain age remember times differently and think the younger generation is missing out on the good old days but when you think about it , everyone remembers their young days fonder and the next generation who grew up with computers and technology will think their younger days were better than the next generation who will grow up in a totally different world than us.
    Enjoyed this post, thank you!

    1. You’re welcome … and only thing I would add is we do have some advantages, but is it actually fond remembering of days gone by or would it actually be better if people could spend time as a family on an assured day off ?

  18. I work Sundays, and in my profession (pastoring) people think it’s the only day I work. Funny. Still I practice Sabbath, on Mondays, sometimes Friday. We can’t keep going and going. Nor should we expect the same of others. Everyone needs a break. To take care of their household, and ideally to rest. When and how that happens … depends on the person, and as you say the region as well.

  19. Bars that are open 24 hrs? Mind is blown…everything here closes 2 am…I wasnt done dancing some of those times! Im not a good one to ask about weekends off though, being a nurse there is no such thing as a weekend or holiday off unless requested or the ‘every other’ rule is in effect. I make due…and still have time to entertain!

  20. Don.. the ideal scenario to me would be: Mon-Fri at work, Sat-Sun off work, a sort of German working week 🙂

    1. The idea scenario would be for me to work wednesday morning and the rest of the week off … but in practice I’d be happy with 6-7 hours a day monday to friday 🙂

  22. I’m inclined to be of the opinion that we are working too hard and too long but only because I think that too much of the time peoples’ lives become more about working for the sake of working, or working purely for monetary gain for it’s own sake, than about working as a means to doing what they are truly passionate about. So I think having designated days of rest is useful for moving away from that trap. Thanks for provoking me into thought on the matter 🙂

  23. Personally, I try to take Sunday off when I can. It is not always possible, but I try. When I was a kid, growing up in the Midwestern part of the US, we had so called ‘Blue Laws”, which prohibited much commercial activity on The Sabbath. In the town I grew up in, there was only one business (a gas station) that was open on Sunday. Sunday was a day for church and rest. That was back in the 50s/early 60s. A lot has changed since then. Gambling casinos for one thing — they are open for business 24/7.

    I enjoyed your post — good job even though you need some rest. Interesting to read how the weekend is viewed in Thailand too. I wonder how people in various other countries view the weekend.

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