Sunday Facts and Trivia

The word ‘Sunday’ was derived from:

• Old English word ‘sunnandaeg’ – day of the sun
• Latin word ‘dies solis’ – day of the sun
• Ancient Greek ‘hemera heli(o)u’ – day of the sun

It is therefore hardly surprising that Sunday became known as it is.

First and Last Day of the Week

According to the international standard Sunday is the seventh and last day of the week. However, according to the internationally accepted civil calendar, the Islamic calendar, and the Hebrew calendar, Sunday is the first day of the week and is therefore a working day in most Muslim countries.

Health and Colour

The ancient system of health care called Ayurveda which centres on holistic health recommends wearing pink or maroon and being around pink or maroon flowers on this day of the week.

Songs

Songs named after this day include:

• Easy Like Sunday Morning – Lionel Ritchie
• Sunday Bloody Sunday – U2
• Tell Me On A Sunday – Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Everyday Is Like Sunday – Morrissey

Books

If you were born on a Monday, the nursery rhyme of Mother Goose, states that you would be ‘wise and good and gay’, and fiction books with Sunday in the title include:

• Lord Sunday – Garth Nix
• Sunday’s Child – Tom Lewis
• Seven Days From Sunday – M H Sargent
• Sundays at Tiffany’s – James Patterson

History

• ‘Bloody Sunday’ has been named after quite a few historical events which occurred on a Sunday, including:
• 1887 – a demonstration in London, England, against British repression in Ireland
• 1900 – a day of high casualties in the Second Boer War, South Africa
• 1905 – a massacre in Saint Petersburg, Russia that led to the 1905 Russian Revolution
• ‘Black Sunday’, was named after the 1935 worst dust-storm in American history
• ‘Cold Sunday’ was a meteorological event which took place in 1982, when cold air swept down from Canada and plunged temperatures across much of the United States far below existing all-time record lows

Religion

• ‘Easter Sunday’ represents the resurrection of Christ for many Christians
• ‘Palm Sunday’, formally ‘Passion Sunday’, is the Sunday before Easter
• Many Christians today consider Sunday a holy day for church attendance and a day of rest

Sport

For many people Sunday is a day for recreation. ‘Super Bowl Sunday’ is the name given to the championship game of the National Football League in the United States and is now considered a de facto national holiday.

Food

The ‘Sunday Roast’ is a traditional British main meal served on Sundays, usually in the early afternoon for lunch, consisting of roasted meat and potatoes together with accompaniments such as Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, vegetables and gravy. It is popular throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, United States and Canada.

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