Sunday is the first day of the week. For Christians, it is the day set aside for rest and for worship of God. Sunday was the day sacred to the sun among the old Teutonic peoples. Its name means the “day of the sun.” The French call Sunday dimanche, the Spanish call it domingo, and the Italians call it domenica. These names come from the Latin dies dominica, which means Lord’s Day.
The early Christians lived hard lives and had to work on Sunday as well as the other days in the week. But they made Sunday a day for special worship, because they believed that the resurrection of Jesus occurred on that day. By the A.D. 300’s, both the church and the state officially recognized it as a day of rest in Europe.
In the United States, all government agencies and banks are closed on Sunday. Some states and communities have laws that restrict the hours during which stores may open on Sunday, prohibit certain types of businesses from opening, or restrict the sale of certain products, such as alcoholic beverages. Such laws are called blue laws (see Blue laws).
