Labor Day is a bittersweet holiday—the last gasp for summer picnics, barbecues, sunbathing, and perhaps most poignant of all: the midday snooze. No other season lends itself so readily to daytime lounging as summer, with its soporific heat, slowed-down pace, and somnolent rhythms. Pity the poor commuter rushing too and fro in the sweltering months; he’s fighting a futile battle against the forces of summer, and sweating it out in the process. The seasonal siesta looks a bit different in Arkansas versus Andalucia, Mali versus Mumbai. But what these pictures—all captured in recent months in countries all around the globe—underline is the universal love of lazing, and that special feel of a summer afternoon.
