On January 10, 1970, according to a couple of sources I found, the Catholic Church said that it would be okay to fulfill your Sunday mass obligation on Saturday night. This helped relieve the congestion in churches at that time and to help those that were required to work or had to travel on Sunday.
I’m old enough to remember many businesses not being open on Sundays. The “blue laws” that were in effect then kept most gas stations, grocery stores, and retail businesses closed all day. The only reason you might have to work was if you were employed in a hospital, fire station, or police department.
These laws began to loosen as I grew older. Some gas stations were open. You could pick up a gallon of milk at the store, and you could grab some fresh donuts for after church. By the time I was a teenager, I worked Sundays on a regular basis. Today, about the only thing that is banned on Sundays is the sale of alcohol.
Our school district has a policy in place that keeps extracurricular events from occurring on Sundays, unless there is prior permission because of special reasons. I love this policy, though there are many against it.
Sundays should be one calm day in the storm that has become the lives of many. Many families look at their weekly calendar and find themselves running almost every night. Why not have one day where you can relax and spend time together?
A couple of my 8th-graders wrote persuasive essays on why they should be allowed to play on Sundays. One thing they pointed out was that they are with their families on Sundays. That may be true, but many families find themselves running in different directions with various kids.
Growing up, we often went to one of our grandparents’ houses after church, had lunch, and visited during the afternoon. Dad and I spent many Sunday afternoons watching football. We did chores around the house and sometimes had 4-H meetings at night.
The world has blossomed into a 24/7 mall where we feel like we should have access to anything we need on a Sunday. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
Listen, whether you attend church or not is only partially pertinent to this situation. I don’t want to make this a whole religious thing. However, families that do attend church need to be given that opportunity.
When it comes to sports events on Sundays, these should never start until after noon. Many basketball tournaments for our youth run all day Saturday and start up again Sunday morning. The same thing goes for baseball tournaments in the summer.
I umpire in Owatonna, and they start tournaments Friday night, run them all day Saturday, and start again at 8 or 9 Sunday. I do not help out on the Sunday games.
Shorten your tournaments if that’s what you need to do to at least avoid Sunday morning. Every year, the Quad Cities Baseball Association has hosted an end-of-the-year tournament for the league. I’ve been in charge of that for many years and can only remember twice we played on Sunday. Both times it was only because weather on Saturday forced us to move a game to Sunday.
Over the years, many people have commented to me that they are appreciative that they can have one day over the weekend to themselves. Sometimes this means shortening the length of games, but that’s worth it to get things done.
I know I won’t win the battle of people playing in tournaments on Sundays. It would be nice to at least wait until the afternoon. There was a baseball team last year that, if they had won a particular game on Saturday, would have had to play Sunday morning. A few boys on that team said they wouldn’t be there because they would be attending church.
That’s an unfair position in which to put kids and their families. Again, whether you are a churchgoer or not, you should respect those that choose to go.
I’m sure I’ll face some of these decisions with my daughter’s basketball team in the near future. We’ve managed to avoid Sundays so far, but there may not be much choice in the years to come.
It’s been a slow progression since 1970, but that’s a good place to point for when things really began to change. Once the Catholic Church said it was okay to serve your Sunday obligation on Saturday, people started to assume the “Day of Rest” no longer applied.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is resistentialism, which means the spiteful behavior seemingly shown by inanimate objects, as in, “My lawn mower is manifesting resistentialism by not wanting to start every spring.” Thanks to Neal and Shelley Pederson for this goodie! Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!