Frenchman's Bay, Maine

Frenchman's Bay, Maine

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

All Saint's Day

All Saint's Day is a holiday here in Germany, a fact I forgot until I tried to go buy more tea, yogurt, and eggs at a local store--the windows were shuttered and the parking lot was empty. Silly me! At least I usually remember now not to try and go shopping on Sunday, the day of rest.

When we first arrived, it bothered me that I couldn't just dash out and buy what I needed on any day or night (most stores also close between 5:00 to 8:00 pm), but I've begun to appreciate this new schedule. People, even shopkeepers and workers, benefit from consistent times off. And since the root meaning beneath "holiday" is "holy day," it makes sense to devote the day to things other than commerce. No eggs? Maybe I can go next door and borrow some. As for the tea, hmmm...anyone have some nice Earl Grey they'd let me brew up?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

yeah we get caught out too. There's no sunday shopping here - though they recently relaxed the laws a little and the small grocery only stores can open now on Sunday afternoon.

There are two periods where Sunday shopping is allowed. Advent Sundays and also during the summer holidays. (The latter I think because many people go to the countryside for the weekend and shop when they come home late on Sunday night)

This weekend the shops are shut (all of them on Saturday) That's because All Saints is celebrated then. It means shopkeepers get the day off and 24/7 teams get paid double time for their labour that day, but for most of us with Saturdays free - it really doesn't give rest to anyone.

Hope the neighbour could help out. (grin)

Anonymous said...

When we first moved to Canada the shorter shop hours sometimes caught us off guard. After moving back to the states I find it much more civilized not having every store open day and night.
Funny thing is, it became nice knowing we didn't have to shop on Sunday or in the evening and could spend that time with our family