Two of the most important events in the nation`s history take place Sunday. They are, of course, the 50th inauguration of an American president and Super Bowl XIX. If our founding fathers had been thinking when they started inaugurating presidents, they`d have given the occasions Roman numerals like the Super Bowl has. This would be Inauguration L.
The real inauguration takes place on Sunday this year because the Constitution says it will take place on Jan. 20. The inauguration most people will see with the parade and everything will be held on Monday. This is a fake inauguration, staged primarily for television.
I`m not sure why the real inauguration isn`t on Sunday. The National Football League certainly wouldn`t dream of having a private Super Bowl game on Sunday and then a staged replay of it on Monday.
Back in 1821, when the inauguration of James Monroe was being planned, someone looked at the calendar and realized the official date fell on a Sunday. Because all government offices had always been closed on Sunday, the Supreme Court was asked what should be done. The Supreme Court said there was nothing about that in the Constitution so the planners decided to put it off a day and have it Monday. As a result of the decision, the United States was technically without a president for 24 hours.
Inauguration Day has been postponed six times when it fell on a Sunday to avoid having the ceremony on that day.
It`s silly. The real inauguration ought to have been scheduled for the official date, Sunday, Jan. 20. Furthermore, government officials could have made darn sure it would be over before the Super Bowl game starts at 6 p.m. Eastern time. There will be seven inaugural balls in Washington, but seven giant television screens could have been put up so celebrants could honor the President and watch the Super Bowl game at the same time.
Sundays have changed in America. We don`t set them aside so carefully as we once did. Even religious people draw an imaginary line at about noon Sunday. They put on their good clothes and go to church in the morning but around 12 o`clock they change their mood and their clothes. Sunday afternoons they watch a game on television, do some work around the house or go to one of the increasing number of stores that are open Sundays. I don`t think they`d object to a Sunday inauguration any more than a Sunday Super Bowl.
In the Bible, Moses is quoted as saying God gave him 10 rules of life, or commandments. One that Moses said God wrote in stone for him was, ”Observe the Sabbath day, keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. The seventh day is a Sabbath. . . . On it you shall do no work, neither you, nor your son or your daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox or your ass or any of your cattle. . . . Your manservant and your maidservant shall rest as well as you . . . .”
I personally doubt that God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses quite that way. God wouldn`t have separated the regular people he seemed to be talking to from ”manservants and maidservants,” as though they were a race apart.
The Bible doesn`t say anything about either Sundays or the Super Bowl.
People don`t pay much attention to the Sabbath now. A lot of Catholics go to church Saturday evening to get mass out of the way for other activities Sunday, and as for as the biblical admonition to work six days, the labor unions have taken care of that.
It does seem as though we should set aside one day when we aren`t hustling around trying to sell each other something. Saturday has a personality of its own, and I love it. But Sunday shouldn`t become just another Saturday. Even so, the inauguration should take place on Jan. 20, no matter what day that falls on.
