First day of the week - Sunday or Monday?

[newmikey]

It should be Sunday at least in all countries with a judeo-christian heritage. Sunday or "yom rishon" in Hebrew which literally translates to "the first day". Previous posters were right about Sunday being the day of resurrection.

I don't know if it was intended or not, but that statement says that religion should determine such things ....... with which I totally disagree.

You are not reading closely or carefully enough, "judeo-christian heritage" just means the country matured with that religion throughout its existence, it does not say anything about the present. Even in my country, the Netherlands, which is very secular this heritage is still clearly noticeable. Usually all legislation clearly shows that heritage as well, the population's framework of rights and wrongs is based on it - like it or not (and I don't just like you).

[Vorteggs]

I'll repeat my question: Which is the first day of week/creation?

Evidently the first day is the number one.

Wish we would like to follow the Bible tradition we only now "day first, day second, ..., day seventh".
No Monday, Tuesday,... no names but numbers.

Subbat is a name but not a number. As it is for Sunday too.

But the beginning and ending there is just numbering.
Why should Subbat or Saturday mean more in this tradition than, as it says, day one, day two and so on.

There (let us not be Bible-centric) are different day grouping (see Far East old civilizations, Mayan, Inka's, Pacific Islands (and Canary there too), and Antares).

The Monday or Sunday choice is just a relativity.

We need to agree on the name only - just for to be in phase.
In working phase

[Vorteggs]

- The traditionalists (Sunday-ists) are two votes behind us the Monday-ists.

- The vote "None" is from Just18 (or 19?.. can't remember well, Altzheimer you know ).

- One of the two three that are not on Earth is joechimp, I think, cause he is from Antares as all of us know.

- No vote for Other means that a very large part of the world didn't voted

Whadaya thing?

You forget that we were allowed to pick two alternatives. So naturally some of us used both the votes you gave us.  

Yes indeed. I've forgotten it.

You are reading my mind quite well...  

[muungwana]

I'll repeat my question: Which is the first day of week/creation?

The question can not be answered without context since different cultures has the day at different days.

I think the whole things is based in astronomy.

Those who looked and studied the sky noticed a certain pattern,they noticed that something repeats every 7 seven days so a week was made to have 7 days.They also noticed something else repeats every 12 months and hence a year was made to be 12 months.

What is important is that there are seven days in a week.What day exactly is the first day is just a matter of convention.

The bible for example says GOD created the world in six days and rested on the seventh and called the seventh day "sabbath". People do not rest at the beginning of work,they rest at the end of work so from the bible's perspective,it makes sense for sunday,a day after sabbath to be the first day and it makes sense for cultures with christian traditions to have sunday as the first day.

Just to be clean,above is what the bible says,lets not debate if GOD exists or if he created the world or anything like that.

Different cultures that grew separate from the bible would have the same seven days but the first day would be on a different day.

In swahili for example, as i have said many times, the language has the first day fixed at saturday. Why is that? I do not know but i suspect it has to do with islam or arabic culture since a lot of time keeping in swahili language is borrowed from arabic language.

If you ask a swahili speaker,"what day of the week is the first day?",the one would be "saturday" because it does not make sense to say "day two" as the first day.

I understand the chinese celebrate new year is February,If you ask a chinese, "what month is the first month of the year" and they would probably say "February" and that would be correct based on their calender.

Do we have anybody from different cultures? Or who people languages that specify days by numbers?This is the easiest way of knowing when that culture thinks when is the first day.

[Bald Brick]

I'll repeat my question: Which is the first day of week/creation?

The question can not be answered without context since different cultures has the day at different days.

I think the whole things is based in astronomy.

Those who looked and studied the sky noticed a certain pattern,they noticed that something repeats every 7 seven days so a week was made to have 7 days.They also noticed something else repeats every 12 months and hence a year was made to be 12 months.

What is important is that there are seven days in a week.What day exactly is the first day is just a matter of convention.

The bible for example says GOD created the world in six days and rested on the seventh and called the seventh day "sabbath". People do not rest at the beginning of work,they rest at the end of work so from the bible's perspective,it makes sense for sunday,a day after sabbath to be the first day and it makes sense for cultures with christian traditions to have sunday as the first day.

Just to be clean,above is what the bible says,lets not debate if GOD exists or if he created the world or anything like that.

Different cultures that grew separate from the bible would have the same seven days but the first day would be on a different day.

In swahili for example, as i have said many times, the language has the first day fixed at saturday. Why is that? I do not know but i suspect it has to do with islam or arabic culture since a lot of time keeping in swahili language is borrowed from arabic language.

If you ask a swahili speaker,"what day of the week is the first day?",the one would be "saturday" because it does not make sense to say "day two" as the first day.

I understand the chinese celebrate new year is February,If you ask a chinese, "what month is the first month of the year" and they would probably say "February" and that would be correct based on their calender.

Interestingly the months September, October, November and December got their names from the Latin words for seven, eight, nine and ten. So September, the ninth month, is actually designated as "month number seven). October is our tenth month, but the name tells us that it is the eighth.

The reason is that the Romans considered March the first month of the year until they found it more practical to begin the year with January. Nevertheless they kept the old names of the months after the change.

Do we have anybody from different cultures? Or who people languages that specify days by numbers?This is the easiest way of knowing when that culture thinks when is the first day.

And one of my points is that different cultures should be allowed to stick to their traditions without interference from busybodies at the ISO -- particularly in cases like this, where the recommended standard isn't that large an improvement. (I suppose that the same Sunday can fall on differently numbered weeks depending on whether it's considered the first day of the week or the last one, but even that tiny problem won't be fixed just because ISO prescribes a standard that half the world is going to ignore.)

[Just17]

But if the standard is ignored then it is no problem to those that ignore it   

[muungwana]

An ignored standard is a minor inconvenience if the ignorer is using a another known standard and the two can easily be converted back and forth. This is evident even in this thread where people have said they do not care the standard used as long as it is explicit in its form and does not carry with it any ambiguity.

If the two are well known and people are used to them,they can easily switch back and forth btw them,sometimes without putting any thinking to it.

In swahili time for example,day starts at 7:00 am and ends at 6:59 pm.
night starts at 7:00pm and ends at 6:59 am.

So if somebody asked me what time it is.

In English,i would say its 8 pm.
In swahili,i would say "saa mbili usiku",literal translation is "two hours at night".Thats because in swahili,its been two hours since the night has started,where as in English,its been 8 hours since "pm".

Every swahili person i know set their watches in english time and we all read them in swahili time, the translation happens sometimes without being aware of it.

In a sense,people can and should keep their own way of doing things.They should just be explicit and consistent.

[Rudge]

An ignored standard is a minor inconvenience if the ignorer is using a another known standard and the two can easily be converted back and forth. This is evident even in this thread where people have said they do not care the standard used as long as it is explicit in its form and does not carry with it any ambiguity.

If the two are well known and people are used to them,they can easily switch back and forth btw them,sometimes without putting any thinking to it.

In swahili time for example,day starts at 7:00 am and ends at 6:59 pm.
night starts at 7:00pm and ends at 6:59 am.

So if somebody asked me what time it is.

In English,i would say its 8 pm.
In swahili,i would say "saa mbili usiku",literal translation is "two hours at night".Thats because in swahili,its been two hours since the night has started,where as in English,its been 8 hours since "pm".

Every swahili person i know set their watches in english time and we all read them in swahili time, the translation happens sometimes without being aware of it.

In a sense,people can and should keep their own way of doing things.They should just be explicit and consistent.

The things I learn at this forum are awesome! LOL

[ppiklapp]

Okay let's put this away as there will never be an agreement among the peoples of the world as which day is the first one of the week.  Like the question of what is your favorite ice cream flavor, no one answer is completely correct or completely wrong.

By the way has anyone tried the Bacon Sundae that Burger King was selling?

[µT6]

what most seem to think is that the week ends on friday or saturday depending if you work until saturday

it begins saturday or sunday depending on the previous too

it is a optimistic approach i think

[GreggB]

As has already been stated, considering Sunday as the first day of the week is a matter of tradition. And isn't good examples of tradition - i.e. something that is done because that's the way it's always been done - even though it's no longer relevant.

[µT6]

yes, traditions is what makes us do most things in life

i don't see sunday as the first day of the week but i will try to see it that way from now on

lots of people give a bad approach to monday because it is the beginning of the week but if sunday is the first day of the week, things could improve, maybe?

that form a personal point of view, for the rest of the world, monday you begin to work, monday marks the begin the week

[Crow]

As has already been stated, considering Sunday as the first day of the week is a matter of tradition. And isn't good examples of tradition - i.e. something that is done because that's the way it's always been done - even though it's no longer relevant.

If you have to decide every day what it is needed won't do much in the day, so you switch many things to automatic. Societies has done the same, the fact that many things are based in religion only shows the importance of that factor through the centuries giving stability in a common ground of beliefs and communication.

Let's not downplay the importance of traditions, it is very useful to countries, is one of the things that help the cohesion of societies giving identity and linking generations. When traditions breaks and nothing takes it's place people lost roots, changing a tradition is not a matter of just decide and vote, it takes many generations to consolidate.

There are beautiful examples on how traditions has kept nations united in difficult times (I won't discuss if politics has taken advantage of that), of course, some traditions are terrible and hopefully education can help to change them but a careful consideration is needed of what we want to dump and what we want to keep.

[muungwana]

Let's not downplay the importance of traditions, it is very useful to countries, is one of the things that help the cohesion of societies giving identity and linking generations. When traditions breaks and nothing takes it's place people lost roots, changing a tradition is not a matter of just decide and vote, it takes many generations to consolidate.

I am sure all turkeys in north america will vote in a less than a turkey's heart beat to do away with the tradition of eating turkey on thanksgiving  

I agree with you,traditions makes us who we are,they give us a sense of belonging,it connects us to the past,the presence and the future.

Societies move forward when good habits/ideas/values are incorporated into tradition,they go stray when bad ideas/habits/values find their way into cultures.Its very hard to get rid of them of bad habits and values when they are rooted in culture.

[ppiklapp]

Let's not downplay the importance of traditions, it is very useful to countries, is one of the things that help the cohesion of societies giving identity and linking generations. When traditions breaks and nothing takes it's place people lost roots, changing a tradition is not a matter of just decide and vote, it takes many generations to consolidate.

I am sure all turkeys in north america will vote in a less than a turkey's heart beat to do away with the tradition of eating turkey on thanksgiving  

I agree with you,traditions makes us who we are,they give us a sense of belonging,it connects us to the past,the presence and the future.

Societies move forward when good habits/ideas/values are incorporated into tradition,they go stray when bad ideas/habits/values find their way into cultures.Its very hard to get rid of them of bad habits and values when they are rooted in culture.

One, it is not traditional to eat turkeys on Thanksgiving, it is just habit.  Turkey was not on the menu during the first several celebrations of it.  Venison was on the menu for most of them.  So the idea of eating a turkey for Thanksgiving is a modern myth.  As for traditions, one way or the other, most fall by the wayside.  The only tradition I really hold to is having Chili on Christmas Eve.  That tradition was started by my Great Grandmother to cut down on the whining from the children about opening presents, which was always after the dishes were done.