Early Risers
According to this article in the LA Times, Protestant churches are abandoning their traditional sunrise services on Easter:
"While some Christian churches still faithfully hold sunrise services on Easter, the popularity of such events has waned among younger people and families with children who are reluctant to get out of bed that early.
"Traditionally a Protestant practice, sunrise services are held just before dawn in honor of Christ rising from the dead after the crucifixion."
We find that sad, but not surprising. It seems more people are sleeping in these days. We always predicted that Monday Night Football, in order to keep its appeal among the aging baby boomers, would push the start of its games back to 8:30 or 8:00 (EST), or undertake other measures to make sure the games would end before 11:30. It hasn't happened. In fact, based on what we see among friends and family, the games seem to be ending later, yet getting more popular. Fortunately, we're Detroit Lions fans and, since no one wants to watch them, they rarely play on Monday night.
If people are, indeed, sleeping in more and staying up later, we wonder why. We're guessing it's the same gorilla that has quietly and radically been changing the country for the past thirty years: better electronic entertainment. We have nothing but anecdotal evidence for this theory, though. If anyone has a better idea or any studies that support our theory, we'd love to hear from you.
