Is it bad luck to do laundry on a Sunday? It’s a tough one to face up to, because for a lot of us— working Monday to Friday—means Sunday lines up as the perfect day of the week to do our laundry! But, hey, an excuse to skip doing the laundry is an excuse to skip doing the laundry. You might get funny looks at the office on Monday morning though, especially when that salsa stain is still there on your shirt.
So, to get to the bottom of this superstition, we’re going to start by looking at the possible origins of the belief. After that, we’ll consider whether or not there’s any logic to the belief. And before coming to our conclusion, we’ll let you know about some other days where it might be considered bad luck to do your laundry.
So, Where Did This Belief Originate?
With so many superstitions, it’s hard to pinpoint the origin with any degree of certainty. However, with this one, we’re fairly confident that this one began as a Judeo-Christian religious belief. According to Jewish and Christian belief, it is correct to do as God did, and rest on the seventh day of the week. However, that’s where a little bit of confusion comes in: Christians see Sunday as the day of rest, whereas Jewish people see Saturday as the day of rest.
So, that’s where the belief likely comes from—it’s immoral to work on the seventh day according to religious beliefs. Of course, it’s easy to see how we got to “bad luck” from the original “immoral”. But, because we see the origin of the belief as it being more of a sinful thing versus an unlucky thing, can we really consider it to be a true belief that doing laundry on Sunday will bring you bad luck?
How About Doing Laundry On Easter Sunday?
The same belief extends to Easter Sunday—Christians see doing laundry on this day as, shall we say, not ideal. Understanding the religious origins of this belief, it’s definitely easy to understand why Easter Sunday would be a more intense version of the belief. This is because Easter Sunday is not only the most important Sunday in the Christian calendar, it’s the most important day of the year for Christians. So, doing laundry on Easter Sunday is a big no, no.
Again, though, whether a sinful act can be translated into an act that will foster “bad luck” is debatable—as with all beliefs, it really depends on your own feelings about it.
Also noteworthy under this heading: it’s also frowned upon to do laundry on Good Friday.
Is There Any Logic To This Superstition?
With lots of superstitions, there are very sound origins to the belief. That is, there are reasons people might have wanted to avoid a certain behavior because there was an increased risk associated with that behavior. Therefore, said behavior was labeled as “bad luck” by our ancestors. One of the examples we covered in our “Is A Hat On The Bed Bad Luck?” article was that hats were pretty gross back in the day—the fiber was cured with human urine! So, telling somebody it was “bad luck” to put a hat on the bed was more polite than saying, “Hey, your hat stinks of pee! Yuck!!!”
So, is there are similar logic to not doing laundry on a Sunday? At first, it might not seem so. However, there is definitely a logic to it. There’s a ton of logic to setting aside a day for rest. Having a day where nobody in the family does any work whatsoever is very smart indeed. This is because it would allow for bonding between family members. Moreover, rest is invaluable—working seven days a week is simply too much for anybody.
Are There Any Other Days I Shouldn’t Do Laundry?
It sure seems like people don’t want to do their laundry. Because, believe it or not, there’s a whole raft of days that people don’t want to do their laundry. Hey, it’s understandable, isn’t it? Even with modern washers and dryers, doing laundry is still a chore—sorting, folding, and putting up.
So, if you’re one of those people—you know, a human being—and you want an excuse to put off doing your laundry, here’s a list of days when it’s bad luck to do it:
- Any Sunday
- Easter Sunday
- Good Friday
- New Year’s Day
- New Year’s Eve
- Chinese New Year
- Any Tuesday (according to Bosnian beliefs)
- Any Friday (again, Bosnia, thank you!)
- Any Thursday (a belief in India—another day of the week down!)
- Christmas Day
Wow, who knew picking which day to do your laundry was so difficult! Is New Year’s on a Monday this year? Maybe if we all think really hard, we can come up with reasons to avoid doing laundry on all seven days of the week. Although, that would lead to a pretty stinky society, wouldn’t it? When will we have AI laundry robots to do the laundry for us?
Conclusion: Is It Bad Luck To Do Laundry On A Sunday?
Bad luck for doing laundry on a Sunday probably lands in the good old “maybe” pile. This is because, yes, it is a long-held, and widely believed, traditional belief. The origins of this belief are clear to see—it likely originated from the Judeo-Christian tradition of resting on the seventh day. However, the traditional belief would have been that to work—do laundry, that is—on the day of rest would have been sinful. Something being sinful isn’t the same as something being bad luck.
It may be that you’re the kind of person who equates the two—sinfulness and engendering bad luck. If so, then you can probably consider this one to be bad luck. For us, though, it’s a solid maybe!
Here’s the final answer:
Is It Bad Luck To Do Laundry On A Sunday? Maybe.
