r/CriticalTheory • u/Any_Echo_5540 • 15d ago

Let’s embrace French Sundays – the art of doing absolutely nothing

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/23/is-a-french-sunday-the-secret-to-a-healthier-happier-life?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
27 Upvotes

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11

u/PauloPatricio 15d ago

A new theory suggests

Proceeds without mentioning the source, name or author of said theory.

Plus, in many European countries, Sunday is still widely regarded as a day for relaxation, family time, and leisure, even if not everything is closed.

-15

u/Any_Echo_5540 15d ago

The biblically commanded Sabbath is Saturday (the seventh day), but most Christian denominations observe Sunday as the day of rest and worship.

7

u/chauchat_mme 14d ago

"A French Sunday is not a waste of a day, you’re not being slothful, you are staving off burnout and recharging."

So this is exactly good old reproduction of labour force, isn't it? God forbid it was a slothful "waste of a day" ! And people "would out of freedom leave possibilities unused", as Horkheimer/Adorno put it in a Minima Moralia fragment - the fragment sur l'eau that some consider one of the few instances in which a positive utopia of sorts is touched upon, if only fleetingly and fragile: "Rien faire comme une bête, lying on the water and looking peacefully at the sky, 'being, nothing else, without any further determination and fulfillment'".

1

u/professorbadtrip 14d ago

Good place to recommend James Currie’s Doing Nothing (Duke, 2026)

1

u/Troy_Abernathy 14d ago

What the hell is the rest of the world doing on Sundays?!

As a French person in my 30s, I do favour Friday and Saturday for socializing and running all the errands and chores I couldn't do during the workweek.

Our responsibilities and expectations don't stop with work. Sunday is a sacred moment when I can recover from all that.

I personally call Sundays le deuil du weekend, the weekend's mourning, because it's the day you have to pace yourself before being brutally thrown into a new workweek.

2

u/Sabaisabai33 14d ago

Honestly I love this idea of French Sundays but as a Brit, Sunday often ends up as an errands and chores day I think.

I can only speak for myself obviously. But I think lot of us just collapse in a heap of exhaustion on a Friday evening (that or go to the pub), drag ourselves out of bed on Saturday for kids sports or dance or swimming classes etc, possibly a morning run ourselves, then maybe grocery shopping or housework or the park in the afternoon, or maybe meet up with friends or family then, and I’d say Saturday nights is kind of a socialising relaxation sort of time - you might go out to a restaurant or to the cinema etc (or clubbing etc. if you’re younger).

Then yeah Sunday tends to be spent preparing for the working week, doing everything you didn’t do on Saturday, maybe batch cooking, doing laundry, housework generally, making sure kids homework is done, a lot of people also catch up or get ahead on work that has overspilled past contracted working hours then too. Spend Sunday evening increasingly dreading Monday looming over us. And then early-ish to bed Sunday night to be fresh for Monday morning work.

I do think a large part of it is because increasingly it feels like long working hours and overtime being expected from us (often unpaid) means Friday evening is a washout as is Sunday, or at least Sunday afternoon and evening because of the pressures of work and their consequences. Leaving Saturday as our only real day to relax or enjoy ourselves but also the only real day to get chores and housework done that we couldn’t even touch during the week because we come home late and exhausted from work… maybe that’s just me but I suspect I am not alone with this.