Sunday

Sunday (pronounced /ˈsʌndi/ or /ˈsʌndeɪ/  ( listen)) is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In some Christian traditions it is first-day Sabbath and in many it is Lord's Day. For many Christians it is the day set apart for worship of God, due to their belief in Christ's resurrection on a Sunday, according to the Gospels.

According to international standard ISO 8601 Sunday is the seventh and last day of the week. Now according to the internationally accepted civil calendar, the Islamic calendar and in the Hebrew calendar, Sunday is the first day of the week.

Sunday is a day of rest in many countries of the world, part of 'the weekend'. In most Muslim countries, and Israel, Sunday is a working day.

The Gregorian calendar repeats every 400 years, and no century starts on a Sunday. The Jewish New Year never falls on a Sunday. (The rules of the Hebrew calendar are designed such that the first day of Rosh Hashanah will never occur on the first, fourth, or sixth day of the Jewish week; i.e., Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday). Only those months beginning on a Sunday will contain a Friday the 13th.

Contents

Etymology

A depiction of Máni, the personified moon, and his sister Sól, the personified sun, from Norse mythology (1895) by Lorenz Frølich.

The English noun Sunday derived sometime before 1250 from sunedai, which itself developed from Old English (before 700) Sunnandæg (literally meaning "sun's day"), which is cognate to other Germanic languages, including Old Frisian sunnandei, Old Saxon sunnundag, Middle Dutch sonnendach (modern Dutch zondag), Old High German sunnun tag (modern German Sonntag), and Old Norse sunnudagr (Danish and Norwegian søndag, and Swedish söndag). The Germanic term is a Germanic interpretation of Latin dies solis ("day of the sun"), which is a translation of the Greek heméra helíou.[1] The p-Celtic Welsh language also translates the Latin "day of the sun" as dydd Sul.

In most Indic languages, the word for Sunday is Ravivar or Adityavar — var meaning day, Aditya and Ravi both being a style (manner of address) for Surya, the chief solar deity and one of the Adityas. Ravivaar is first day cited in Nakshtra Jyotish, which provides logical reason for giving the name of each week day. In the Thai solar calendar of Thailand, the name is derived from Aditya, and the associated color is red.

The first Christian reference to Sunday is found in the First Apology of St. Justin Martyr (c. 150 AD). In a well-known passage of the Apology (Chapter 67), Justin describes the Christian custom of gathering for worship on Sunday. "And on the day called Sunday [τῇ τοῦ ῾Ηλίου λεγομένη ἡμέρᾳ], all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits . . .", he writes. Evidently Justin used the term Sunday because he was writing to a non-Christian, pagan audience. In Justin's time, Christians usually called Sunday the Lord's Day because they observed it as a weekly memorial of Jesus Christ's resurrection.[2] The Roman Catholic Church believes that the resurrection of Christ occurred on the day following seventh-day Sabbath, which is Sunday, and makes it a portal to timeless eternity that transcends the seven-day weekly cycle.[3][4]

Position in the week

The official ISO 8601 Calendar Standard states that Monday is the first day of the week. In the Judaeo-Christian tradition Sunday has been considered as the first day of the week. In European countries calendars almost always show Monday as the first day of the week[5]. There are also countries where both types of calendar can be found, which causes trouble for computer software that attempts to determine a user's calendrical preferences based purely on their location.

A number of languages appear to reflect Sunday's status as the first day of the week. In Greek, the names of the days Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday ("Δευτέρα, "Τρίτη,", "Τετάρτη," and "Πέμπτη") mean "second," "third", "fourth", and "fifth," respectively. This suggests that Sunday was once counted as "Πρώτη," that is, "first." The current Greek name for Sunday, Κυριακή, means "Lord's Day". Similarly in Vietnamese, the working days in the week are named as: "Thứ Hai" (second), "Thứ Ba" (third), "Thứ Tư" (fourth), "Thứ Năm" (fifth), "Thứ Sáu" (sixth), "Thứ Bảy" (seventh). Sunday is called "Chủ Nhật," a corrupted form of "Chúa Nhật" meaning "Lord's Day." Some colloquial text in the south of Vietnam and from the church may still use the old form to mean Sunday.

A similar system of naming days of the week occurs in Portuguese. Monday is "segunda-feira," which means "second day," also showing Sunday ("domingo") to be counted as the first day. Modern Latin uses "feria secunda" for Monday.

In the Maltese language, due to its Siculo-Arabic origin, Sunday is called "Il-Ħadd," a corruption of "wieħed" meaning "one." Monday is "It-Tnejn" meaning "two." Similarly Tuesday is "It-Tlieta" (three), Wednesday is "L-Erbgħa" (four) and Thursday is "Il-Ħamis" (five).

Slavic languages implicitly number Monday as day number one, not two. For example, Polish has "wtorek" (2nd) for Tuesday, "czwartek" (4th) for Thursday and "piątek" (5th) for Friday. Although "Monday" in Polish is "poniedziałek", which means "a day after Sunday (Niedziela)". Hungarian péntek (Friday) is a Slavic loanword, so the correlation with "five" is not evident to Hungarian speakers.

Sunday and Sabbath

Christians from very early times have had differences of opinion on the question of whether Sabbath should be observed on a Saturday or a Sunday. The issue does not arise for Jews, for whom "Shabbat" is unquestionably on Saturday, nor for Muslims whose day of assembly (jumu'ah) is on a Friday.

The first given evidence for a differentiation, between traditional Jewish "Shabbat" observance and the religious observance of the first day of the week, appears in Acts 20:7 where the disciples met and "broke bread" together. Some believe this was a participation in the ordinance of the sacrament. (In previous verses, the Days of Unleavened Bread had just ended, including Passover, so it could not have been the anniverary commemoration, but it could have been a communion service done in remembrance.) Seventh-day Sabbatarians say that the believers met on all days of the week to "break bread" together for the sake of meals and fellowship, such as in Acts 2:46, regarding the incident in Acts 20:7 as nothing outside of usual practice.

Col. 2:16 suggests that early Christians had been judged by others in their traditions of eating foods and in observance of particulars of Sabbath and festivals. Also, the Jews had defined "forty minus one" works to be abstained from on "Shabbat," and Jesus and his disciples had been accused of breaking some of these customs during his ministry.

The Apostle John also refers to the "Lord's Day" ("kuriake hemera") in Rev. 1:10. "Kuriake," meaning "Lord's," later became the Greek word for Sunday. Some early Christians observed Sabbath on Saturday, though resting on Saturday was prohibited by the church in 363 A.D.; over the first centuries an increasing number of Christians gathered for worship on Sunday.

The ancient Romans traditionally used the eight-day nundinal cycle, but after the adoption of the Julian calendar, in the time of Augustus, the seven-day week came into use. For a while, the week and the nundinal cycle coexisted, but by the time the week was officially adopted by Constantine in AD 321[6] the nundinal cycle had fallen out of use. The Roman calendar included the day of the Sun [Latin "dies Solis"] for worship of the sun (see Sol Invictus). On 7 March 321, Constantine I, Rome's first Christian Emperor (see Constantine I and Christianity), decreed that Sunday ("dies Solis") would be observed as the Roman day of rest [CJ3.12.2]:

"On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost." [7]

Many Christians today consider Sunday a holy day and a day of rest and church-attendance. Denominations which observe Saturday as Sabbath are called "Sabbatarians"; however, the name "Sabbatarian" has also been claimed by Christians, especially Protestants, who believe Sunday must be observed with just the sort of rigorous abstinence from work associated with "Shabbat". For most Christians the custom and obligation of Sunday rest has not been as strict. A minority of Christians do not regard the day they attend church as important, so long as they attend, as the apostles and desciples gathered on Sundays, on Saturdays, and whenever they could; some of these still regard Sabbath as being Saturday. How strict or lax the particulars of the day vary, though some cessation of normal weekday activities is customary.

In Orthodox Christian families and communities, working and requiring somebody else to work are prohibited (including buying goods or services, use of public transport, driving a car, gardening, washing a car, etc.). Allowed exceptions include religious services, electricity, and urgent medical matters. In Roman Catholicism, those who work in the medical field, those in law enforcement, and soldiers in a war zone are dispensed from the usual obligation to avoid work on Sunday.

The majority of Christians observe Sunday as the Lord's day. However, throughout history one sometimes finds Christian groups that continued or revived the observance of Saturday Sabbath. More recently in history, Christians in the Seventh-day Adventist, Seventh Day Baptist, and Church of God (Seventh-Day) denominations (along with many related or similar denominations), as well as many Messianic Jews, have revived the practice of abstaining from work and gathering for worship on Saturdays.

Many languages lack separate words for "Saturday" and "Sabbath." Eastern Orthodox churches, as well as many Roman Catholics, distinguish between Sabbath (Saturday) and Sunday, which some Christians traditionally call the Lord's Day (Rev. 1:10). However, many Protestants and Roman Catholics do refer to Sunday as Sabbath, though this is by no means a universal practice among Protestants and Catholics. Quakers traditionally refer to Sunday as "First Day" eschewing the pagan origin of the English name.

In Roman Catholic liturgy, Sunday begins on Saturday evening. The evening Mass on Saturday is liturgically a full Sunday Mass and fulfils the obligation of Sunday Mass attendance, and Vespers (evening prayer) on Saturday night is liturgically "first Vespers" of the Sunday. The same evening anticipation applies to other major solemnities and feasts, and is an echo of the Jewish practice of starting the new day at sunset ("Shabbat" starts on Friday night).

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Sunday begins at the Little Entrance of Vespers (or All-Night Vigil) on Saturday evening and runs until "Vouchsafe, O Lord" (after the "prokeimenon") of Vespers on Sunday night. During this time, the dismissal at all services begin with the words, "May Christ our True God, who rose from the dead ...." Anyone who wishes to receive Holy Communion at Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning is required to attend Vespers the night before (see Eucharistic discipline). Among Orthodox Christians, Sunday is considered to be a "Little Pascha" (Easter), and because of the Paschal joy, the making of prostrations is forbidden, except in certain circumstances. The Russian word for Sunday is "Voskresenie," meaning "Resurrection day." The Greek word for Sunday is "Kyriake" (the "Lord's Day").

The Czech, Polish, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian and Ukrainian words for Sunday ("neděle," "niedziela," "nedelja," "недеља" and "неділя" respectively) can be translated as "without acts (no work)."

Common occurrences on Sunday

In the United States, professional American football is usually played on Sunday, although Saturday (via Saturday Night Football), Monday (via Monday Night Football), and Thursday (via Thursday Night Football or Thanksgiving) see some professional games. College football usually occurs on Saturday, and high-school football tends to take place on Friday night or Saturday afternoon.

In the United States and Canada, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League games, which are usually played at night during the week, are frequently played during daytime hours - often broadcast on national television. Major League Baseball usually schedules all Sunday games in the daytime except for the nationally televised Sunday Night Baseball matchup. Certain historically religious cities such as Boston and Baltimore among others will schedule games no earlier than 1:35 PM to ensure time for people who go to religious service in the morning can get to the game in time.

In the UK, some club and Premier League football matches and tournaments usually take place on Sundays. Rugby matches and tournaments usually take place in club grounds or parks on Sunday mornings. It is not uncommon for church attendance to shift on days when a late morning or early afternoon game is anticipated by a local community.

Also in the United States, many federal government buildings are closed on Sunday. Privately owned businesses also tend to close or are open for shorter periods of the day than on other days of the week.

Many American, Australian and British television networks and stations also broadcast their political interview shows on Sunday mornings.

Many American and British daily newspapers publish a larger edition on Sundays, which often includes color comic strips, a magazine, and a coupon section.

Most NASCAR Sprint Cup and IndyCar events are held on Sundays. Formula One World Championship races are always held on Sundays regardless of timezone/country, while MotoGP holds most races on Sundays, with Middle Eastern races being the exception on Saturday. All Formula One events and MotoGP events with Sunday races involve qualifying taking place on Saturday.

In Ireland, Gaelic football and hurling matches are predominantly played on Sundays, with the first (used to be second) and fourth (used to be third) Sundays in September always playing host to the All-Ireland hurling and football championship finals, respectively.

North American Radio stations often play specialty radio shows such as Casey Kasem's countdown or other nationally syndicated radio shows that may differ from their regular weekly music patterns on Sunday morning and/or Sunday evening. In the United Kingdom, there is a Sunday tradition of chart shows on BBC Radio 1 and commercial radio; this originates in the broadcast of chart shows and other populist material on Sundays by Radio Luxembourg when the Reithian BBC's Sunday output consisted largely of solemn and religious programmes.

One of the remains of religious segregation in the Netherlands is seen in amateur football: The Saturday-clubs are by and large Protestant Christian clubs, who were not allowed to play on Sunday. The Sunday-clubs were in general Catholic and working class clubs, whose players had to work on Saturday and therefore could only play on Sunday.

Professional golf tournaments traditionally end on Sunday.

National and regional elections in Belgium and Peru are always on Sunday, because voting is mandatory

Named days

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Barnhart (1995:778).
  2. ↑ Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., ed. Chapter LXVII.—Weekly worship of the Christians.. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.ii.lxvii.html. Retrieved 2007-01-13. 
  3. ↑ John Paul II (1998-07-05). APOSTOLIC LETTER DIES DOMINI OF THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY AND FAITHFUL OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON KEEPING THE LORD'S DAY HOLY. The Vatican. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_05071998_dies-domini_en.html. Retrieved 2007-01-13. 
  4. ↑ "THE THIRD COMMANDMENT". Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition. http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c1a3.htm#2174. Retrieved 2007-01-13. 
  5. ↑ J. R. Stockton. "Calendar Weeks". http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/weekinfo.htm#TSW. Retrieved 2010-01-05. 
  6. ↑ Zerubavel, Eviatar (1989). The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week. University of Chicago Press. pp. 45. ISBN 0226981657, 9780226981659. http://books.google.com/?id=Cd5ZjRsNj4sC. 
  7. ↑ Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time. Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; translated by Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 3 (1902), p. 380, note.

References

Days of the week

Monday · Tuesday · Wednesday · Thursday · Friday · Saturday · Sunday