- published: 29 Feb 2016
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Sunday schools were first set up in the 1780's to provide education to working children on their one day off from the factory.. It was proposed by Robert Raikes, editor of the Gloucester Journal in an article in his Journal and supported by many clergymen. It aimed to teach the youngsters reading, writing and cyphering and a knowledge of the bible . It was a full ninety years in 1870 before children could attend schools during the week.
In 1785 it was reported that 250,000 children were attending Sunday School- there were 5000 in Manchester alone. By 1895, the 'Society for the Establishment and Promotion of Sunday Schools' had distributed 91,915 spelling books, 24,232 Testaments and 5,360 Bibles. The Sunday School movement was cross denominational, and through subscription built large buildings that could host public lectures as well as classrooms. In the early days, adults would attend the same classes as the infants, as each were instructed in basic reading. In some towns the Methodists withdrea from the Large Sunday School and built their own, and the Anglicans set up there own 'National' schools that would act as Sunday Schools and day schools.. These schools were the precursors to a national system of education , and the churches dominance in primary school provision till the present day.
Sunday (i/ˈsʌndeɪ/ or /ˈsʌndi/) is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. For most Christians, Sunday is observed as a day for worship of God and rest, due to the belief that it is Lord's Day, the day of Christ's resurrection.
Sunday is a day of rest in most Western countries, part of 'the weekend'. In most Muslim countries, and Israel, Sunday is a working day.
According to the Hebrew calendars, traditional Christian calendars, Sunday is literally the "first day" of the week. According to the International Organization for Standardization ISO 8601 Sunday is the seventh and last day of the week.
No century in the Gregorian calendar starts on a Sunday, whether its first year is '00 or '01. The Jewish New Year never falls on a Sunday. (The rules of the Hebrew calendar are designed such that the first day of Rosh Hashanah will never occur on the first, fourth, or sixth day of the Jewish week; i.e., Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday).
The English noun Sunday derived sometime before 1250 from sunedai, which itself developed from Old English (before 700) Sunnandæg (literally meaning "sun's day"), which is cognate to other Germanic languages, including Old Frisian sunnandei, Old Saxon sunnundag, Middle Dutch sonnendach (modern Dutch zondag), Old High German sunnun tag (modern German Sonntag), and Old Norse sunnudagr (Danish and Norwegian søndag, Icelandic sunnudagur and Swedish söndag). The Germanic term is a Germanic interpretation of Latin dies solis ("day of the sun"), which is a translation of the Ancient Greek heméra helíou. The p-Celtic Welsh language also translates the Latin "day of the sun" as dydd Sul.