God's day

Yesterday we worked in the garden instead of going to church. It had been a long week with a lot of travelling and we needed some exercise. The children who live next door came to visit at one point and Mukeshimana gently took me to task for “working on God’s day”. She is about 15, in primary 7 and is also responsible for cooking for 8 people in the household. She has a very charming smile and not very good English, but she has definite ideas about not working on Sundays.
The type of work is important – she was going to cook that day, “because I have a stomach”. Cooking is “soft work”, but digging is hard work. I didn’t ask, but presumably the school meeting which Sheena had been asked to attend in the afternoon was no work at all!
It’s not about going to church – she was not there either.
When I asked if every day was God’s day, she agreed, but she was very definite about not digging. In general this is not a very sabbatarian society : many of the kiosks open on Sunday afternoon and there are a lot of meetings scheduled. It seems that the tradition of not working the land on Sundays is quite well-established, however.