Multicultural Manners : Know the Sabbath

On a Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn, Fay drives to a nearby hardware store to buy batteries. Gleefully, she finds a parking space on the crowded street. Because it is Sunday, she ignores the posted parking signs and meters and spends 30 minutes in the store. When she returns to her car, she discovers a ticket on her windshield saying, “Parking Meter Expired.”

What went wrong?

To her dismay, Fay found that parking rules were suspended on Saturday but not Sunday) because this was Borough Park, a largely Orthodox Jewish community.

Here, residents were strict in observing their Saturday Sabbath rules. They could not engage in commerce, carry anything, push buttons or drive cars. Consequently, they parked their cars on Friday afternoons before sundown and left them there until the end of Sabbath on Saturday night. Local government officials cooperated by substituting Saturday as the local free parking day.

Seventh Day Adventists also observe a Saturday Sabbath, whereas Muslims honor their Sabbath on Fridays. A U.S. cultural agency once forgot this when, during the days of the Shah of Iran, the Washington agency unknowingly scheduled visiting Iranian musicians for a Friday noon performance, a time when observant Muslims would pray at their mosque. The musical troupe was upset, but requested and got a different performance date.