Sunday : a history of the first day from Babylonia to the Super Bowl

471 Pages·2011·1.951 MB·English

by  Harline, Craig

S U N D AY
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S U N D A Y
A History of the First Day From Babylonia to the Super Bowl
C R A I G H A R L I N E
New Haven & London
First published in paperback in 2011 by Yale University Press.
Originally published in hardcover in 2007 by Doubleday, a division of
Random House, Inc.
Copyright © 2007 by Craig Harline.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illus-
trations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107
and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the
public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educa-
tional, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harline, Craig.
Sunday : a history of the first day from Babylonia to the Super Bowl
/ Craig Harline.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York : Doubleday, a division of Random
House, 2007.
ISBN 978-0-300-16703-0 (pbk.)
1. Sunday—History. I. Title.
BV111.3.H37 2011
263'.3—dc22
2010032309
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C O N T E N T S
Preface to the Paperback Edition vii
A WORD BEFORE
Super Bowl Sunday, Recently ix
1 SUNDAY ASCENDANT
Origins to AD 800 1
2 SUNDAY MIDDLE-AGED
An English Village in 1300 26
3 SUNDAY REFORMED
A Dutch Town in 1624 67
4 SUNDAY À LA MODE
Paris in the 1890s, in Mid-Spring 103
vi C O N T E N T S
5 SUNDAY OBSCURED
Belgium, August 2, 1914 164
6 SUNDAY STILL
England Between Wars 215
7 SUNDAY ALL MIXED UP
The United States in the 1950s 278
A WORD AFTER
Asse, Belgium, the Annual Kiwanis Barbecue 369
Bibliographical Notes 383
Acknowledgments 437
Index 441
P R E F A C E T O T H E
P A P E R B A C K E D I T I O N
The publication of Sunday in paperback offers the happy and rare
chance to correct typos, tighten paragraphs, clarify language, and gen-
erally tidy up. These editorial changes, I hope, work together with the
handier paperback format and a colorful new cover to make what was
always meant to be a reader-friendly book even more so.
This paperback edition also gives opportunity to thank the people who
helped bring it about, including my agent, John Ware; the editors, design-
ers, and other staff at Yale University Press (especially Chris Rogers,
Laura Davulis, and John Palmer); and Trace Murphy at Doubleday.
As the original hardcover was published only several years ago, lit-
tle has changed in the patterns of Sunday observance depicted there,
though of course new details and developments are always emerging
to add still more texture to this extraordinary day of the week. As
ever, masses of people remain passionate about it—some as passionate
as the character in the Dutch novel Zondag en Maandag (Sunday and
Monday) who exclaims joyously before heading to the beach on his
weekly day off: “If there were no Sunday, then tell me, what would we
live for?” As ever, some people still dread Sunday, because it upsets
their routine, or brings unwanted restrictions, or, ironically, signals ex-
viii S U N D A Y
tra work and stress: “It’s the one day you’re supposed to rest, and yet
with a family how can a woman rest?” said an English mother half a
century ago, expressing a sentiment that hasn’t completely disappeared
among one sizeable part of the population.
Yet love it or hate it, few would question Sunday’s extraordinary
character. Even those many people who have since laughingly asked me
(all believing themselves the first to do so), “What’s next, a history of
Monday?” understand this, as the very question implies the silliness of
the thought: for much of the Western world there simply isn’t another
day that stands out the way Sunday does, or to which entire books
might be devoted. It’s certainly possible to write about the weekend
as a whole, or about selected holidays, or, for those belonging to reli-
gious traditions that celebrate them instead, about Friday and Satur-
day. But in the end no single day of the week strikes the Western
imagination, or memory, as much as Sunday.
I learned this myself when an editor first proposed the idea of the
book to me. I didn’t stop rationally to weigh my desire to write on the
subject, or coolly calculate the potential audience, but instead I imme-
diately and uncharacteristically blurted out “Yes!” I must have felt
much like Pope Paul III in 1540, when he was presented with a pro-
posal for a new religious order that promised absolutely to obey him
rather than relentlessly to cause him headaches: upon hearing this, a
weary Paul suddenly perked up and exclaimed, “Now there’s the fin-
ger of God!” Maybe it was that for me too. Or maybe our enthusias-
tic responses simply reflected our particular prejudices and cares. In
my case, I realized in that instant that Sunday had preoccupied me for
years, and I wanted to understand why: studying its origins and devel-
opment might help, I thought. Maybe Sunday wasn’t just always there,
like birth or death; maybe it, like everything else, had a history too.
Although born on a Sunday, to parents who met on a Sunday, I was
no Sunday child myself, at least not in the usual carefree sense of that
term. Writing this book went far toward changing that: perhaps read-
ing it will do the same for others seeking answers about how and why
various practices and beliefs emerged and then changed over time. But
for an enviable few, this book will perhaps simply evoke fond memo-
ries and uncommonly joyous moments, seasoned by just a touch of the
melancholy that so often permeates the day.
A W O R D B E F O R E
Super Bowl Sunday, Recently
While most in the basement viewing room rush off with the rest of
America to the kitchen buffet, or join the annual great flush that so
worries local water departments, the colored lights, music, and smoke
of the halftime show go up on the big screen. Remaining behind with
my ninety-year-old grandmother, I wonder which of the Jacksons will
be performing this year and what my grandmother will think of it all.
Comfortable in her favorite recliner, she’s no fan of football or pop
music, but she recognizes a cultural spectacle when she sees one and
likes to join in the fun. She also likes, I know, to have yet another look
at what the world is coming to now, as a sort of reassurance that
things were indeed better in her day. It isn’t long before she raises her
eyebrows and utters her trademark “Good Night!”—sure signs of dis-