BRITAIN : Few Feeling Blue as Sunday Shopping Rules Are Retired : As churchgoing dwindles, families enjoy Sabbath at the mall.

LONDON â€”  In Britain, Sunday once was sacrosanct. There were restrictions on the operation of shops, movie theaters, pubs, restaurants, sports events. The rules narrowed the options of people here on Sundays to churchgoing, prayer-reading, long walks and dining on the traditional roast meat, often with relatives.

But Britain’s blue laws are going the way of bowler hats and winning cricket teams--much to the delight of a large majority of the populace.

And if evidence was needed, this holiday season has provided it: Many stores opened on Christmas and will do so New Year’s Day--both Sundays--and on the national holidays the Monday after.

Stores throughout Britain now bustle on Sundays--with the Holy Day one of the busiest shopping days of the week. Even “never-on-Sunday� bastions such as Harrods and Marks & Spencer have gone along with Sunday openings during the holidays--and have been surprised by the volume of their business.

While churchgoing has dwindled markedly in Britain, Sunday shopping has become a family activity. Families march off together to main street stores and suburban malls from Inverness in Scotland to Dover on the English Channel.

“It’s not necessity shopping,� says Sue Sadler at Marks & Spencer, Britain’s leading chain store. “It’s leisure shopping. We have found that families tend to come along together, which means it is a day for quite large family purchases.�

As for Parliament, in the past year it has liberalized Sunday opening laws in recognition that about 11 million people partake of the new shopping times.

“It is the busiest of the week in terms of sales per hours,� said a spokesman for Sainsbury’s, a supermarket chain.

In Britain, public holidays are called “bank holidays� to signify that commercial and financial activity ceases. But in the past month, the largest banking chain, National Westminster, has tried experimental Sunday openings. “Customers appreciated the service,� says Anthony Frost, a NatWest bank official, who added that seven-day banking “may happen in the future.�

It has taken years for the British to junk their Sunday blue laws, which have been severe, especially compared with more liberal Continental countries. Curiously, though, hundreds of years ago, Sundays for most people in Britain were festive--holidays for music, dancing and drinking.

But the Puritans, after winning the Civil War in the 17th Century, took an inflexible view of the Fourth Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.� Puritan-minded authorities decreed the Lord’s Day should be devoted to churchgoing, Bible-reading and meditation; they banned work, trade, sports, play and any other non-religious pastime.

For generations, British society suffered under the tension of how strictly to observe the Christian Sabbath. What was actually allowed often depended on the liberality of the local minister and justice of the peace. The Victorians continued the tradition. Novelist Charles Dickens complained about the rigidity of strict observance, particularly for children.

In recent years, the move toward more Sunday openings was led first by small shopkeepers, then larger retailers who ignored closing laws, revised in 1950 but left ambiguous.

Traditionally, blue Sundays were supported by clerics and unions, the latter because they feared employees would be forced to work excessive hours. But both groups have become reconciled to changing circumstances.

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Thus, as 1995 dawns, the old-fashioned British Sunday is dead--and unlamented. So much so that, come the New Year, horse and greyhound racing will be legal on Sundays, leading one wag to exclaim, “The British Sunday is going to the dogs.�