First day of the week - Sunday or Monday?

[Bald Brick]

This is funny. Me and JRex were having this very discussion the other day.

I was actually taught that Monday was the first day of the week but there is not a printed Calendar, that I am aware of, that would confirm this data.

They all start with Sunday.

That is because the Christians controlled the calendar for centuries, thus Gregorian Calendar after the Pope that standardized the calendar.  So they made it so their worship day was listed first.  It is too bad that we just can't shake their influence long enough to catch a breath and think for ourselves.

Now you are turning this into a discussion about religion. Tread carefully. (Besides you are actually wrong. The concept of Sunday as the first day of the week predates not only Pope Gregory XIII, it predates Christianity.)

[GreggB]

I was actually taught that Monday was the first day of the week but there is not a printed Calendar, that I am aware of, that would confirm this data.
They all start with Sunday.

As far as I know, most European (including British) calendars start the week with Monday. It's an ISO standard. Another case of the world moving on but North America being stuck in the past.

Gregg.

[Bald Brick]

I was actually taught that Monday was the first day of the week but there is not a printed Calendar, that I am aware of, that would confirm this data.
They all start with Sunday.

As far as I know, most European (including British) calendars start the week with Monday. It's an ISO standard. Another case of the world moving on but North America being stuck in the past.

Gregg.

Why on earth would starting the week with Monday mean "moving on"? It breaks an old tradition in many countries, but apart from that: does it matter? I haven't noticed any difference during the decades since we switched to the new system.

[GreggB]

Tradition is fine... to a point - but starting the week with Sunday makes no sense in today's world. People start their weeks on Monday, and end it with the "Weekend". Why would the week-end be split between two weeks?

[taelti]

Tradition is fine... to a point - but starting the week with Sunday makes no sense in today's world. People start their weeks on Monday, and end it with the "Weekend". Why would the week-end be split between two weeks?

Think of this this way, you can 'start' the week with a holiday and still end it with a rest day. This perspective dampens the Monday blues you know. 

[Xenaflux]

Using text books ( New Interchange ) printed in England, they all teach that Monday is the first day of the week.
Saturday and Sunday are called the weekend. ( nice pictures supplied too     )
If Sunday is called the end of the week ( 7th day ) how can it be the beginning too ( 1st day )

[Crow]

GreggB says: " People start their weeks on Monday, and end it with the "Weekend". Why would the week-end be split between two weeks?"  you realize that "weekend" is for the English speaking people, "fin de semana" for us begins Friday afternoon (you can go to bed late Friday and Saturday) and Sunday is the day when you go (went, society is changing) to church, you wanted to start the week in a good way, you can't count Sunday as leisure because it was the day when you came to a social compromise like a baptism or a wedding and went to home early because you had to shine your shoes and get your things ready for Monday.  Religion has shaped many things in society, and traditions is a big part of that, in religion you have many reasons for what we do now.

I love this kind of discussions because they are the perfect example of the different maps we people have, usually we think we are right and we are just discussing different views of the world, (the world see it through different color glasses said a teacher).

Well is fun to a point, in real world some people try to force their world vision to the rest and that's how wars begins, everybody say "hey, I'm right. YOU don't understand" "this is the right way to do things"  "you must be crazy if you think/act like that"   but that is for another forum  

Edit. hehehe did't see the Xenaflux post and the reference to a text book printed in England

[µT6]

different map?

now you want a mayan calendar too?

[muungwana]

in swahili:
 "saturday" is "jumamosi", "mosi" means "one".
"sunday" is "jumapili","pili" means "two".
"monday" is "jumatatu","tatu" means "three".

So in swahili time,the first day of the week is saturday,sunday,is the second day of the week and monday is the third day.

Days of the week and different times of the day in swahili are based on islam calender and time so i assume most of the islamic world has the same calender.

This is one of my favorite questions to ask people.I ask almost everybody who i care about their opinions of things.

I personally view monday as the first day of the week.

[GreggB]

The "weekend", not working on Saturdays and weeks starting on Monday are all fairly recent arrivals. Just trying to keep up with the latest release.

Back in the fifties, I remember my father working Saturday mornings and calendars starting at Sunday. I also remember black and white TV, not having a phone, drink-driving and people smoking where ever they felt like it.

Times change.

Gregg.

[GreggB]

So in swahili time,the first day of the week is saturday,sunday,is the second day of the week and monday is the third day.

I have the misfortune of having to use SAP ESS for timesheet entry. It's week starts on Saturday - perhaps SAP is written in Swahili? On second thoughts - I take that back - I don't want to cast aspersions on Swahili.

Gregg.

[Bald Brick]

Times change.

But not always for the better.

[Just17]

GreggB says: " People start their weeks on Monday, and end it with the "Weekend". Why would the week-end be split between two weeks?"  you realize that "weekend" is for the English speaking people, "fin de semana" for us begins Friday afternoon (you can go to bed late Friday and Saturday) and Sunday is the day when you go (went, society is changing) to church, you wanted to start the week in a good way, you can't count Sunday as leisure because it was the day when you came to a social compromise like a baptism or a wedding and went to home early because you had to shine your shoes and get your things ready for Monday.  Religion has shaped many things in society, and traditions is a big part of that, in religion you have many reasons for what we do now

......

So, Friday and Saturday were the days for debauchery, and Sunday the day to repent and start the week 'clean' again   

[Crow]

GreggB says: " People start their weeks on Monday, and end it with the "Weekend". Why would the week-end be split between two weeks?"  you realize that "weekend" is for the English speaking people, "fin de semana" for us begins Friday afternoon (you can go to bed late Friday and Saturday) and Sunday is the day when you go (went, society is changing) to church, you wanted to start the week in a good way, you can't count Sunday as leisure because it was the day when you came to a social compromise like a baptism or a wedding and went to home early because you had to shine your shoes and get your things ready for Monday.  Religion has shaped many things in society, and traditions is a big part of that, in religion you have many reasons for what we do now

......

So, Friday and Saturday were the days for debauchery, and Sunday the day to repent and start the week 'clean' again   

I think that was the idea        

[kjpetrie]

I think it's time to move on. I'll start my week on Tuesday and end it on Thursday. The period in between can be non-days when I can choose to get up or not.

And while we're at it, let's get rid of that silly 365-day year. 360 would be a better number but the only one that makes real sense is 500, with 10 50-day months. And let's give the days 25 hours because 24 is just silly. I mean primitive people might have needed the sun, but we've grown out of that. Farmers should sow their seed in the first month and harvest it in the last and if the crops don't like that we should punish them until they do. After all, who's in charge of this world?