Christmas Eve fell on Sunday this year. That is one of Germany’s traditional shopping days, but it also clashed with the German Constitution’s provision that recognizes Sunday as a day of rest.
Bakeries, kiosks, and shops in train stations have long enjoyed an exception to this law and there are also special cases made for a limited number of shopping Sundays linked to events. For example, in Berlin, the state has allowed for eight Sunday shopping days in 2017, in connection with Jazzfest or a Sunday celebration of Reunification Day.
But in 2017, when some shops announced they might be open on Christmas Eve, tradition clashed with commercialism.
A Munich alliance made up of churches and unions recently garnered 62,356 signatures for a petition called “Sundays must remain free!” The church-union alliance sent the petition to German department store giants Karstadt and Galeria Kaufhof as a “Christmas present” to the retailers that called for ending the Sunday rest law this past spring. In the end, the department stores will be closed on December 24th.
Various news polls have found that most Germans do not support Christmas Eve as a shopping day. A survey conducted this past November by polling research institute Civey (for Die Welt newspaper) found that 87 percent of Germans believed shops should be closed on Christmas Eve.
But each German state can decide whether or not to allow shops to remain open. In Berlin, supermarket chains Aldi and Kaufland have announced that they will stay closed, while only some, Rewe, Netto, Penny and Edeka supermarkets will be open. Denn’s Biomarkt and most train station supermarkets in Berlin will be open. In Munich, Dallmayr, Eataly and Käfer shops will be open.
“Retailers, like everyone else, want to prepare for Christmas and celebrate with their families. If Christmas Eve is a Sunday this year, the idea of using the Sunday opening hours that day is incredibly cynical,” said Stefanie Nutzenberger, federal executive board member of trade union Ver.di.
Notice that opposition to Sunday shopping involves the churches and unions. Germany’s constitution already has Sunday blue laws in force as to several other European nations.
This is not a worship law, but it is the foundation for future laws that will require worship on Sundays. Worship is at the center of the conflict in the last days. It is so central that Revelation 13 mentions it five times.
“And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” Revelation 13:4.