Another German here. I'm legitimately surprised by this article saying that the entirety of Sunday is considered Ruhezeit. It's true that most stores are closed on Sunday, but I've done plenty of vacuuming and laundry on Sundays and never had anyone complain.

Just to be sure, I just checked the house rules attached to my lease contract, and they define Ruhezeiten as Mon-Fri 13-15, 22-6 and Sat-Sun 13-15, 22-8. This is in East Germany, maybe the entire Sunday thing is a West German thing?

I remember not being allowed to mow the lawn on Sundays. Nobody would call the cops on you, but your neighbors sure wouldn't like it.

I was helping my mother in law mow the lawn a sunday afternoon, just like swedish people does it. Turns out that is a nono. West Germany.

Why 13-15? Is siesta a thing in Germany too?

I kind of miss when the UK had much stricter Sunday trading laws.

I'm not religious, but there was something kind of nice about having at least a part of the week when pretty much everyone was off work, and most things were closed.

Of course it was also a massive pain in the backside if you needed something and the shop was shut.

Man I would like something like this here, even a very weak version. Last Christmas day our neighbors across the street had an all day "party", turned the stereo up so far you could hear the bass through the whole neighbourhood, and I couldn't think at home, had to leave for most of the day.

I get people want to celebrate, but does the music/bass need to be that loud, really.