Sunday, August 28, 2005
Sundays no longer day of rest for many
It's a change emblematic of a societal shift, where the day traditionally known for rest, reflection and togetherness is now filled with work, chores and errands.
The day has become an extension of Saturday, another day needed for errands, soccer practice or shopping.
The observance of Sunday has disappeared, said Alexis McCrossen, a history professor at Southern Methodist University. McCrossen, 38, wrote Holy Day, Holiday, The American Sunday, a book about the history that shaped Sundays because of her own confusion about the disappearance of the day of rest that she enjoyed as a child with her family.
It's not news to IHOP waitress Natasha Lopez, 22. "It's gone. There's no longer a Sunday. It shouldn't even be on a calendar," she said. "When I was little we didn't even watch TV on Sunday, now it's work, work, work."
On an average weekend or holiday, 33 percent of full-time workers are on the job, according to a 2003 survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The same survey found that full-time workers spent about eight hours working on an average weekday compared with about six hours working on an average weekend.
Even those who do go to church, also mow their lawns or run errands on Sunday.
Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, said he believes Sunday mornings still have a slightly Norman Rockwell feel to them.
"It's almost as though, Sunday morning still has a little bit of a sacred air to it: you hear church bells, you get to sleep in."
But that all comes to a screeching halt by midafternoon, he said, when malls open and sports games begin.
"The big change is that you do have a lot of people where Sunday isn't organized around church and the family dinner," Thompson said.
According to the North American Religion Atlas, Arizona is among the least churched states in the nation, with 59 percent of its population unaffiliated or uncounted by any religious body.
So that image of honoring Sundays as the Lord's day doesn't resonate as it once did.
So what happened?
Historically, laws helped make Americans rest. Blue laws restricted alcohol sales. During the 19th century, gardening, bicycling and sports were also banned on Sundays.
By the turn of the 20th century, there was a shift in what rest meant, recreation was embraced.
By the 1960s and 1970s, legal mandates regulating Sundays were fading away, and then came the Internet paving the way for 24-hour commerce. "Today you can do practically anything you want at any time of day, without boundaries or limits."
"There's no rhythm anymore to our common life, you can schedule things at any time," McCrossen said.
"Nobody relaxes on Sunday anymore."
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