# Any except Jews start day at sundown?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 26, 2024, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198 "2024-12-26T18:20:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/1 "2024-12-26T18:20:18Z")
The account in Genesis of the seven days of creation–And the evening and the morning was the first day–is, I assume, the reason Jews celebrate a day as starting at sundown and ending on the next day. I would have thought that some fundie sect of Christianity that believes in the literal truth of the bible, would have adopted this understanding. Perhaps celebrated Sabbath, from sundown on Saturday to sundown on Sunday. But I can find nothing on the web that suggests there is such a sect.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/2 "2024-12-26T18:22:09Z")
My recollection is that the liturgical day in the Roman Catholic church and the Anglican communion starts at sundown.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/3 "2024-12-26T18:24:44Z")
Right, and hence you can meet your obligation for Sunday mass by going on Saturday evening.
Though in practice, that’s usually stretched a bit, such that a Saturday evening mass might be as early as 4:30 or 5:00, even in the summer when that’s long before sunset.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/4 "2024-12-26T18:31:08Z")
Prior to 1968, Saudi Arabia reset their clocks to 12 AM every day at sunset.
> **[Saudi Arabia Standard Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia_Standard_Time#History)**
>
> Saudi Arabia Standard Time (Arabic: التوقيت القياسي السعودي, romanized: At-Tawqīt al-qiyāsiyy as-suʿūdiyy), abbreviated as SAST, is the standard time zone of Saudi Arabia. The time zone is 3 hours ahead of UTC (UTC+03:00) with no daylight savings.
> SAST is defined by the 45th Meridian East. Before a standardized time zone was introduced, the country used Arabic time, in which clocks were set to midnight at sundown. Because of confusion between various other systems also used in the kingdom, th Un...
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/5 "2024-12-26T18:54:17Z")
[Here’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath_in_seventh-day_churches) a Wikipedia article on 7th day churches. They seem to not only have the “Sabbath” on Saturday but deem it lasting from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. What I know about 7th Day Adventists is that this “day” start is purely religious and they generally go along with the local time and calendar otherwise.
Note: So many Christians call Sunday “the Sabbath” in the US but is not officially the Sabbath in historical Christianity. (In fact calling yourself a Sabbath Keeper in olden times got yourself in a ton of trouble.) So I go with “Sabbath” for Saturday and “The Lord’s Day” for Sunday.
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/6 "2024-12-26T19:04:45Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> The account in Genesis of the seven days of creation–And the evening and the morning was the first day–is, I assume, the reason Jews celebrate a day as starting at sundown and ending on the next day.
This is correct. As to your question, I dunno.
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### Author:  [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/7 "2024-12-26T19:11:47Z")
Orthodox Church is also sundown to sundown. Due to some of the church being very far north… there is a 6pm to 6 pm tradition.
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/8 "2024-12-26T19:21:41Z")
> [@ftg](#):
>
> Note: So many Christians call Sunday “the Sabbath” in the US but is not officially the Sabbath in historical Christianity. (In fact calling yourself a Sabbath Keeper in olden times got yourself in a ton of trouble.) So I go with “Sabbath” for Saturday and “The Lord’s Day” for Sunday.
I was alwas curious why Pope Gregory (I forget his number) who finalized the calendar that bears his name didn’t make Sunday the seventh day. Any Christian would know that the sabbath is supoosed to be on the seventh day. In his calendar, the seventh day is Saturday.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/9 "2024-12-26T19:51:51Z")
Because the Resurrection occurred on Sunday, so that’s the first day of the week.
John 10:1, 2
> 20 **Early on the first day of the week** , while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
See also @ftg 's post, above.
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### Author:  [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/10 "2024-12-26T19:57:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Though in practice, that’s usually stretched a bit, such that a Saturday evening mass might be as early as 4:30 or 5:00, even in the summer when that’s long before sunset.
The argument made by my local diocese growing up was “a time that is after sunset on any day of the year counts” so Saturday evening mass could happen hours before sunset in the summer so long as that same clock time was after dark in the dead of winter.
Really the argument is, “staying out late Saturday night and sleeping in Sunday morning rocks, so lets get the stuff I have to do in that timeframe out of the way as early as possible”.
I imagine that the Reykjavik diocese gets away with a lot. 🙂
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2024, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/11 "2024-12-26T22:44:32Z")
A sect? A lot of Medieval Europe used to do that, not just Jews:
> **[Florentine calendar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florentine_calendar)**
>
> The Florentine calendar, also referred to as the stylus Florentinus ("Florentine style"), was the calendar used in the Republic of Florence in Italy during the Middle Ages. Unusually, both the beginning of the day and the beginning of the year differed from the traditional Julian calendar.
> The Florentine day began at sunset and ended at the following sunset, such that the whole day was shifted forwards by (up to) several hours when compared to the modern day (running from midnight to midnight). ...
We even just had a thread on this board regarding when “Christmas eve” is.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2024, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/12 "2024-12-27T12:09:23Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> My recollection is that the liturgical day in the Roman Catholic church and the Anglican communion starts at sundown.
I think it’s a bit messier than that. There’s a motu proprio of 1969 titled [Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the New General Roman Calendar](https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=10842) which says:
> [@Pope Paul VI](#):
>
> The liturgical day runs from midnight to midnight, but the observance of Sunday and solemnities begins with the evening of the preceding day.
In a way, the second half of this sentence contradicts the first, but it seems that the canon law line of argument is that the liturgical day begins at midnight but you’re still allowed to fulfil your duty to attend mass the evening before because some special rule says so.
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### Author:  [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2024, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/13 "2024-12-27T15:03:01Z")
Yes, in the Episcopal/Anglican Church(es) that is the case. This came up as a question to my Bishop a few years ago, and the response was that the liturgy of the feast day could be held after sundown of the previous day. This was welcomed by priests and deacons who could face an Easter vigil on Holy Saturday, ending at 1:00am Easter Sunday, then have a sunrise Easter service a few hours later, followed by a later morning service.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2024, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-except-jews-start-day-at-sundown/1012198/14 "2024-12-27T15:28:02Z")
While it’s theoretically tradition for an Easter Vigil service to run from sundown to midnight, and there’s enough optional material available to actually fill that span of time, in practice I’ve never seen a church that actually schedules that. It does usually start after sundown, but then takes maybe a couple of hours.