Sunday: what’s special about it?

No, I don’t mean service workers, hospitals, or other shift-working businesses. Today, Sunday is increasingly becoming the sixth or seventh working day, even for ordinary office workers who, having remote access to corporate mail or a stack of printed documents, voluntarily prefer to finish in a calm home environment what they did not have time to complete on working days. Someone moonlights or takes overtime, and someone only on Sunday can find time to think about a serious new project. Even Sunday communication in social networks somehow imperceptibly turns into “work in social networks”, and here everyday life finally merges with weekends.

In a word, the centuries-old Christian tradition of devoting the seventh day to rest and spiritual practices, which was interrupted in our country in the 20-40s of the twentieth century, and then returned in the form of a seven-day working week with a day off on Sunday, is somehow gradually loosened.

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Of course, Russia never resembled either Victorian England, where on Sundays it was impossible to send letters or go to a restaurant, or to other European countries, where shops on the “day of the sun” are constantly locked up. But for Russians of all classes, and for Soviet citizens, the day off was a day filled with special meaning.

“Whether we are believers or not, this day is still not like the rest,” says Jocelyne Bonnet, ethnologist and author of a study on this topic *. “He occupies a special place in European consciousness and culture. It helps to regulate our social life, but also the life of our soul. Depriving yourself of a weekly day of rest and rest can cause a strong internal imbalance.

“When problems arise in a family, we know that often it is due to a lack of communication and time that children and parents spend together. And we are in a hurry to reduce this time? – the psychoanalyst Svetlana Fedorova is surprised. – Remember, the etymology of the word “Sunday” suggests that on this day we are given the opportunity to rise, return to ourselves, turn to our souls, understand and do what we really want. Turning Sunday into another working day is a step towards cultural and social regression!”

Let’s try to regain the lost meaning of Sunday and learn to enjoy it again.

Cultivate symbols

“Sunday, unlike the change of days and seasons, is not a given of nature, but an achievement of culture,” explains Jocelyn Bonnet. Invented by the Babylonians, the seven-day week had at first a religious basis. Religion teaches us that God created the heavens, the earth and the sea in six days, and rested on the seventh day. It so happened that the Jews set aside Saturday for serving God and spiritual concerns, while Muslims chose Friday, and Christians chose Sunday. “The mythology of Sunday rest is an important distinguishing feature of the culture of all Christian Europe,” the ethnologist notes. This day of rest, which at the beginning of its history was one of the components of religion, and in the era of the industrial revolution became a social conquest, is mythological insofar as it is part of the cultural heritage. And self-awareness: “To work five or six days is to be human,” continues Jocelyn Bonnet. – Work seven days – a slave. We should once again revive the cult of Sunday as a non-futile day, filled with soulful deeds, not burdened by either work (as far as possible) or consumerism!

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Recreate the rituals

“Sunday was once marked by very special social rituals: a church service, a family dinner, a Sunday walk…” recalls sociologist Jean-Claude Kaufmann. “Even the body had its own rituals,” says Jocelyn Bonnet. – Everyone put himself in order, put on the best clothes, “Sunday”. “Today we are not witnessing the disappearance of rituals, but rather their specialization,” adds Jean-Claude Kaufman. “Each of us makes his own arrangements, and the Sunday of some is not like the Sunday of others.” Some traditions are preserved, such as a Sunday walk: to get somewhere in nature, out of town, into the forest, or even just wander the streets … Others change: Sunday lunch tends to turn into a Friday or Saturday dinner, church services are supplemented or replaced by trips to exhibition, cinema or theater. Finally, some Sunday rituals have only recently appeared, such as brunch or a Sunday run. Or like a trip to the shopping center – maliciously-minded readers will note …

One way or another, there is something important that is designed to distinguish this day from the rest of the six, namely: Sunday classes should be different from everything that we do on other days. It doesn’t matter if we are making chairs, cooking something unusual or getting behind the wheel – in any case, we indulge in activities that take us away from everyday life for this short and blissful time.

Release Sunday

In fact, it turned out very well that Sunday is only part of the weekend. Which starts off rather briskly on Saturday with some unpleasant backlog, continues on a more relaxed Sunday, and ends on a sad Sunday evening. Therefore, in order to enjoy Sunday to the fullest, you need to free yourself from shopping, cleaning, friendliness and children’s lessons – in a word, from everything that could not be done in a week. Try to fill the end of Friday and Saturday with these things and unload your day off as much as possible. Otherwise, the sadness of Sunday evening threatens to visit you much earlier …

Don’t demand too much

Sunday is the day when the whole family gets together, but it is also the time when everyone can afford to relax and … throw out everything that has accumulated on loved ones – fatigue, aggression, anxiety. Among the thousand reasons that can cause irritation, there may be the pressure of the Happy Sunday stereotype, supported by glossy advertising pictures. Here is how Jean-Claude Kaufmann explains it: “The harder the week has been, the more we expect Sunday to help recuperate. We are trying to realize an ambitious and controversial program, doing as much as possible for our life partner, as much as possible for the family, and as much as possible for ourselves.”

In fact, while we usually get to do a little exercise in the morning and walk with the kids in the afternoon, couple relationships often don’t get enough time. “After all, most of all we dream of relaxing at the end of the day, lying, for example, in front of the TV,” the sociologist notes. “And this is hardly compatible with the efforts that partners in a married couple sometimes need to make in order to find a second wind.” As a result, Sunday, which in principle is intended for shared pleasures, brings disappointment, which is the stronger, the less we were ready for it. Meanwhile, the recipe for weekend happiness is simple: reconsider your tasks and moderate your ambitions, because we cannot embrace the immensity. And at the same time, come up with a plan that the whole family will be happy with – one and only, but stick to it strictly!