What day is the first day of the week?

I agree, work all week, party all weekend, and start again on Monday. I have the same discussion with my kids (and wife, come to think about it). Is there a euro ruling that I don't know about?

Sunday is the first day of the week in the tradition of Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity & Islam) because the traditional sabbath (the day on which God rested) is Saturday--specifically from sunset Friday to nightfall Saturday. Many Christians (excluding 7th Day Adventists) began observing the sabbath on Sunday because that was the traditional day of the resurrection. There seems to be some disagreement about whether this happened very early in the Christian era or in the 4th century during the reign of the emperor Constantine.

You will also find that in the middle east (e.g. Israel) weekends are offset by one day from the U.S. and Europe.

God rested on Saturday (the Sabbath runs from local sundown on Friday night until sundown on Saturday). Early Christianity switched it to Sunday so as to be more Roman and less Jewish.

In 321 CE, the Emperor Constantine declared that Sunday was to be a day of rest throughout the Roman Empire:

"On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for gain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost."

The Church Council of Laodicea circa 364 ordered that religious observances were to be conducted on Sunday, not Saturday. Sunday became the new Sabbath. They ruled: "Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day."

-- yoinked from religioustolerance.org

For a real lesson in the "Sabbath" try travailing in Israel.

On Friday most of the Moslem sites and shops are shut, at least during the major pray times of the day.

Friday sunset is when all the Jewish sites and shops close. In the very orthodox areas of Jerusalem even some of the roads are blocked of so that vehicles do not disturb the rest of the devout.

On Sunday the Christians have their day off. (Unless they think there is a profit to be made.)

Put it all together and try and coordinate your travel and site seeing to fit in with local customs. It's great fun and really interesting.

An interesting typo/Fruedian slip there...

travailing (sic) actually means to work (very hard in fact), as in biblical phrases such as a woman in her travail, i.e. in labour (childbirth)

So working in Israel...

A supplimentary question: I believe that there is(was?) a large Muslim community in Jerusalem. As their holy day is Friday, do that area, shops owned by Muslims etc close on Friday? If so, this should increase the fun!

Well, let's see from my native tongue of so long ago.

Sunday=the sun's day, in German, Sonntag=the sun's day.

Monday=Moon's day, in German Montag, the same thing.

Tuesday=Tiu's day, however in German it is Dienstag=the Nordic god Dien (Mars) day.

Wednesday=Woden's day, in German, Mittwoch=the middle of the week.

Thursday=Thor's day, in German, Donnerstag=the same Nordic god, just called Donner.

Friday=Frieda's day, in German, Freitag-the Nordic goddess Freya's day.

Saturday=Saturn's day, in German Samstag=the Nordic god Sam (Saturn) day.

But in parts of Germany-Sonnabend=the day/evening before Sunday

Well, this still does not define the first day of the week, but a German monk who was bothered by the Pagan names of the days took it upon himself to rename Wednesday (Mittwoch) as the "middle of the week". So in their example, Sunday (Samstag) is the first day. He did not get to rename all of them!

Ing. Robert Forbus

Re: What day is the first day of the week?

I believe the transliteration of the Chinese names for the days of the week are:

Monday = Day 1

Tuesday = Day 2

etc.

So it would appear that Chinese agree that Monday is the first day of the week. Could it be the voting of 1.3 billion people caused ISO to define Monday as the first day of the week? I doubt it. After all ISO was long before the Chinese were even suspected of becoming a major economic power.

Unlikely. It wasn't until 1949 that the Chinese accepted it was 1949.

Isn't all this just a protocol? If Einstein can discard the concept of absolute time then maybe one needs also to discard the concept of an absolute weekday. After all, at midnight in New Zealand it is still the beginning of yesterday in Hawaii.

In Brasil, Domingo is Sunday, Monday is Segundafeira which means second day.

And we know from watching Spanish language TV here in the US that Saturday is the largest day -- Sabado Gigante!

Get your son to tell his teacher to get up to date. According to the ISO Monday is the first day of the week. For details follow the link below.

http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/prods-services/popstds/datesandtime.html

Quote:

I always thought that Monday was classified as the first day of the week (from the bible,"god rested on the 7th Day- Sunday).

Where does your assumption come from that the seventh day in this context correlates with Sunday? You use the reference "from the bible", and open quotes. But you never close the quotes, implying that the bible identifies Sunday as "the 7th day". Do have a specific reference for this?

I did write that i'm not that religious.

But I work on Monday to Friday -- commercial shops open

Saturday is sometimes work and sport -- commercial shops open

Sunday, go to church (when child) , mow lawn, clean out shed, have a BBQ, go to a park, play with kids, get smashed. no major shops or government shops open. No work

Monday to Saturday is six days, the only day left is Sunday the seventh day.

Sunday sounds like a rest day.

No specific reference. Therefore the Question

I wish it were still like that. Sydney is now a 7 day a week 365 days a year operation. The only time the shops are closed is Christmas day and even then some of them open at noon. Everybody says this is great for the economy but it certainly has an impact on recreation time with the family.

Hey Masu,

Come live over in Perth.

I work 8 days (12 hr) on 6 days off.

No shops are open on Sundays and cannot buy alcohol.

No spontaneous parties. When you want to buy something more substantial than a loaf of bread at IGA, Stiff.

3 hours behind during summer.

Median house price is more expensive than Sydney.

I'm not sure about the house prices though. Median in Sydney is over half a million. You won't get anything more than a dog box for less than a million though and if you want a decent house like the one I live in it will set you back about two million. Fortunately this house was purchased back in 1970 for a mere 20,000, not a bad little profit eh! I do however like Perth but my favourite is Darwin.

just looked it up Median house price in Perth is $450,000. You Win.

Lived in Perth for 6 years during the 90's. THE best town. mindil beach markets, the Vic, and Lims with the Cage.

Party Place

As is Singapore.

I'm not extremely educated on the Bible and only have limited amounts of information regarding the different religions. But it just so happens that this question came up several times in the past year between me & other co-workers, and my friends.

Reading the dictionary it will tell you Sat. is the 7th day, and that only some view it as the sabbath. The definition of Sunday will say it's the 1st day, and that it IS the sabbath. Quite a contradiction in reference to the Bible.

I've spoken to 7th Day Adventists and I've also spoken to Catholics about this. From the Catholics, I was told that it was changed in honor of Jesus' ressurection because the Bible said it was a holy day. (I wish I had the page # for you, but I don't)

Now the 7th Day Adventists will argue that since God himself did not change the sabbath, it is still Saturday. Even though it was a holy day when Jesus had risen. It was also mentioned to me that the 4th commandment states "Remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy".

Both have convincing opinions, but if I were to choose, I would say I'd listen to what God has commanded. Not what someone "thinks" is appropriate or right.

The only thing I haven't researched was to find out exactly what day of the week matches God's first day of work creating our world. I think some say our standard year isn't correct either. If the days of the week weren't named from the beginning or the correct # of days been kept known until the names were adopted by man, I don't think we will ever really know.

Just believe and have faith. The best anyone can do, I suppose.

Historically there were many different week systems in the ancient world, but today we definetely follow the roman style, like it or not. Even the names of the days that we use have roman origin, like it's been said already. Jewish week was also a 7 day week, so there was no problem merging the 2 systems when the Roman Empire became "Chrisitan".

From both Jewish and Roman point of view first day of the week is Sunday.

Jewish holy day is the Sabbath, which is Saturday, the seventh day.

Christian holy day is Sunday, the first day, the day Jesus rose from the dead. Christians at the beginning didn't say that Sunday was the seventh day, they just chose to celebrate the first day instead and ignore the Sabbath, based on the New Testament teaching that "for some people all days are the same and that's ok"

Later on people like me read the Bible, they see the command that "you shall make the seventh day holy", they go to church on Sunday, so they wrongly assume that Sunday is the seventh day; it makes them feel good because they think they are keeping that specific command in the Old Testament. So they hold on to the wrong ideea that "Sunday is the seventh day".

Decimalisation hasn't affected this area yet. Will a day ever be 0.1 of a week instead of 0.142857, all recurring? How perversely inconvenient...

God forbid. I don't think I would like to work 8 days a week instead of 5. But If you give me a 3 days weekend I'm fine. In this case the work/fun ratio would be better, since 7/3 is smaller than 5/2.

See PWSlack, I can make myself understood using fractions instead of real numbers. I don't even attempt to write 7/3 with decimal point. You can try.

Touché, Monsieur/Madame.

why dont we ask the one who gave us???? or better yet go around the world and find out what is commonly being used as the first day of the week regardless of

Religious belief

I've just decided time is an illusion, lunch time doubly so. Out to lunch, missing presumed fed. (Copyright Douglas Adams)

This site is starting to worry me. I was just about to bring up the bit about time being an illusion as per Douglas Adams but you beat me to it. The thought of others having a pattern of thinking as deranged as mine is a great worry.

If you want to be really be really worried, I have relatives in Sydney.....

I've refrained from doing the Douglas Adams Quote, but I'm very happy that someone else succumbed to the temptation. It just didn't seem right that it wasn't said.

Doesn't everybody have relatives that live in Sydney?

Yes. According to research, half of the Australian population is related to two people who got married in a church in Thornborough, Buckinghamshire, in 1758...

Seriously, if one goes back twenty or more generations, then everyone is related to everyone else. It makes one wonder why "us and them" is so prevalent.

Not related to the first day of the week, though...

I was watching a program some months back called "In Search of the Real Adam". To cut a long story short there is a certain genetic defect that all men posses. Through some smart detective work they have traced this back to a single male that lived in Africa around 95,000 years ago. There were other males alive at the time but all the male relatives of them have since died out leaving a single man as the great…..great grandfather of every man alive today.

When all else fails and confusion reigns, sit back, relax, remember the answer to life the universe and everything is 42 and that the "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy consists of five books.