# Does every tribe and every nation honor Sunday at the first day of the week? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 23, 2020, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823 "2020-08-23T14:17:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/21 "2020-08-24T00:14:19Z")
The _Oxford English Dictionary_ lists “weekend” in the sense of “the conclusion of a week’s time” going back to 1300 or 1400 (but notes that this sense is “obsolete”), and in the sense “The end of the week” as far back as 1638. But, in the sense of > [@](#): > > The period between two working weeks, typically regarded as a time for leisure or recreation. Also with distinguishing word indicating an activity pursued during this period. > The usual sense > Since the advent of the five-day working week, the weekend has usually been characterized as extending from Saturday morning or Friday evening until Sunday night. During the late 19th century, a British worker’s leisure period often began on Saturday at noon. it’s definitely later. They do give a quotation for this sense all the way back to 1793, but I’m not really sure how they determined “weekend” was being used in this meaning and not one of the older senses: > [@](#): > > W. B. Stevens _Jrnl._ 27 Feb. (1965) i. 70 Wrote to Dewe that I would put on my seven league boots next weekend and stretch my course to Appleby. Perhaps there was more in the original context to indicate the word was being used in the modern sense. An 1844 quote also seems maybe a little ambiguous to me: > [@](#): > > 1844 _Age & Argus_ 13 Apr. 2/3 I am not one of those who think that Almighty God ever designed that human beings should be employed from morn to night—from week end to week end. It seems to me that could have meant “I am not one of those who think that Almighty God ever designed that human beings should be employed from morn to night—from [the end of the week] to [the end of the week]”–which to me could still be read as not really quite meaning “the period between two working weeks [that is, Saturday and Sunday] typically regarded as a time for leisure or recreation”. Otherwise, it seems to be late 19th century: > [@](#): > > 1870 _Food Jrnl._ 1 Mar. 97 ‘Week-end’, that is from Saturday until Monday,—it may be a later day in the week if the money and credit hold out,—is the season of dissipation. > > 1879 _Notes & Queries_ 5th Ser. **12** 428/2 In Staffordshire, if a person leaves home at the end of his week’s work on the Saturday afternoon to spend the evening of Saturday and the following Sunday with friends at a distance, he is said to be spending his _week-end_ at So-and-so. Note, though, that even the 1879 quote is still not referring to what we would consider the full “weekend”–“the end of his week’s work on the _Saturday_ afternoon”; nowadays we would more likely say the “weekend” begins at 5:00 P.M. (or whenever) on _Friday_, and ends at either bedtime Sunday evening, or when you have to get up on Monday morning. As in > [@](#): > > 1937 _Times_ 26 Nov. 21/5 The letter began with old Lady Chervil’s unvarying formula:—My dear Mrs. Miniver, Chervil and I shall be delighted if you and your Husband will stay with us from Friday 19th to Monday 22nd November. (She would have gone to the guillotine sooner than use the expression ‘week-end’. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/22 "2020-08-24T12:27:09Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > I just remember talking to friends about how hard it was to do cross-border work involving countries with different non-work days Major timezone & dateline differences matter too, even among countries / societies using the same weekday / weekend convention. For some years I lived in the US central timezone and one of our key customers was in New Zealand, 17 hours and 1 day in the future compared to us. Except during those months of the year when one of us had switched to DST and the other had not. And of course they did DST during our (Northern) winter and from their POV, we did DST during their winter. It was a real head-scratcher for the less scientifically inclined folks on our team. We had about 3 hours per day on just 4 days of the week when we could reasonably hold a conference call without inconveniencing one end or the other. ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/23 "2020-08-24T15:18:02Z")
All absolute statements are false, including this one. The Sun is the biggest and the fastest moving of the “planetos”, so the first day of the week is named after it, at least in many languages and cultures. But this is a big planet (well, not relatively speaking), and there are a lot of cultures and languages, and they don’t all put the same emphasis on astronomy. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/25 "2020-08-24T16:05:34Z")
> [@Rucksinator](#): > > All absolute statements are false, including this one… No, it’s not, and never will be. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/26 "2020-08-24T16:27:10Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > I’m not sure when the week officially starts and ends in Egypt, but the “weekend” days are Friday and Saturday. In the Emirates as well, I assume, as the restaurant chain we know as TGIF is called TGIT there. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/27 "2020-08-24T17:42:30Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > In Hebrew, the days Sunday through Friday don’t even have names, just numbers. (“First Day”, “Second Day”, through “Sixth Day”.) Only Saturday has an actual distinct name, “Shabat” (Sabbath). Portuguese does that too, more or less. Saturday and Sunday have special names, but Monday to Friday are numbered as market days, like farmers market. Monday is _segunda-feira_, meaning second market, Tuesday is _terça-feira_ meaning third market, up to Friday, _sexta-feira_, meaning sixth market. So much of Portuguese is close to Spanish that it sure must be a puzzler to Spanish speakers to hear these totally unrecognizable day names coming up in conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/28 "2020-08-24T17:45:50Z")
> [@naita](#): > > In Norway the week starts on Monday. As does the international standard week: What about the decimal week?😉 ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/29 "2020-08-24T19:03:08Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > > [@Rucksinator](#): > > > > All absolute statements are false, including this one… > > No, it’s not, and never will be. To every generalization, there is at least one exception (this generalization being the exception to itself). ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/30 "2020-08-24T23:04:18Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > What about the decimal week? Or the Roman eight day week. Or the Igbo four day week (every “weekend” is a single “market day”). A standardized calendar makes sense, IMO, if only as a communication tool between cultures. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/31 "2020-08-24T23:16:51Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > > [@naita](#): > > > > In Norway the week starts on Monday. As does the international standard week: > > What about the decimal week?😉 I was kind of kidding, but France after the French Revolution, in addition to producing the metric system, also established [a decimal week (as well as a new system of months).](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_calendar) Unlike the imaginative names of the months, the names of the days were purely descriptive. - _primidi_ (first day) - _duodi_ (second day) - _tridi_ (third day) - _quartidi_ (fourth day) - _quintidi_ (fifth day) - _sextidi_ (sixth day) - _septidi_ (seventh day) - _octidi_ (eighth day) - _nonidi_ (ninth day) - _décadi_ (tenth day) The Revolutionary Calendar lasted only about 12 years, a lot less than the metric system. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/32 "2020-08-24T23:56:12Z")
In the movie biz, a week starts on Friday, the day that new titles premiere and old ones are shipped out. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/33 "2020-08-25T07:26:51Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > In the Emirates as well, I assume, as the restaurant chain we know as TGIF is called TGIT there “ **S** o **H** appy **I** t’s **T** hursday” also works. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/34 "2020-08-25T08:06:53Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > In the Emirates as well, I assume, as the restaurant chain we know as TGIF is called TGIT there. [Are you sure about that?](https://tgifridaysme.com/) (Unless I’ve been whooshed.) Your comment did remind of something I found quite amusing while I was in the UAE: there’s a supermarket called [Safestway](https://gulfnews.com/business/retail/uaes-safestway-supermarket-brand-sold-1.61576294). I just checked the [Workweek and weekend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workweek_and_weekend). Brunei has a rough system, IMHO: The workdays are Monday through Thursday and Saturday. > [@Chronos](#): > > And most Christians also, at least for Biblical purposes, regard Saturday to be the seventh day. Christian religious services aren’t celebrated on Sunday because we think that’s the Shabat; they’re celebrated on Sunday because Easter, regarded as being a very important event, was on a Sunday. Checking out the the wiki for [Computus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computus), I see that celebrating Easter only on Sunday was not universally accepted at one time. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/35 "2020-08-25T12:15:39Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > In the Emirates as well, I assume, as the restaurant chain we know as TGIF is called TGIT there. > [@Monty](#): > > [Are you sure about that?](https://tgifridaysme.com/) (Unless I’ve been whooshed.) [I am.](https://tinyurl.com/y24pjf96) Though I suppose it could just be a copycat. (Picture was taken when I was in Dubai in the summer of '98.) ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/36 "2020-08-25T20:35:51Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > > [@Colibri](#): > > > > > [@naita](#): > > > > > > In Norway the week starts on Monday. > > > As does the international standard week: > > > > What about the decimal week?😉 > > I was kind of kidding, but France after the French Revolution, in addition to producing the metric system, also established [a decimal week (as well as a new system of months).] And that calendar started on Sept. 22 1792, which appears to have been a Saturday. So if they started the first ten day week on a Saturday … Each week is ten days, so that doesn’t really matter though I guess. Their week started on firstday. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/37 "2020-08-25T20:44:49Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Though I suppose it could just be a copycat. Egypt was great at copycatting! There was a restaurant near my apartment in Cairo called “Pizza Hat” (complete with the Pizza Hut logo, which, once you have seen it as a hat, is impossible to regard in any other way). I never did know if: 1. They meant to 100% copy the words “Pizza Hut” but made a non-native language speaker unintentional mistake (especially likely with vowel mixups, I suspect, since Arabic doesn’t write them out). 2. They meant to copy “Pizza Hut” but mis-read “hut” as “hat” because of the logo, so wrote “hat” on purpose but thought “hat” was correct. 3. They were trying to avoid having the real Pizza Hut sue them. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/38 "2020-08-25T21:10:07Z")
While you could argue that Monday is the natural “first day of the week” because that’s when the workweek starts, by the same token, you’d then have to say that Friday is the last day of the week. And if the week starts on Friday, then Saturday isn’t the weekend any more, because it’s a day away from the end of the week. It makes much more sense to call Sunday the first day of the week, so the work week is concentric with the full week, and you have two weekend days, one on the front end and the other on the back end. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/39 "2020-08-25T21:30:44Z")
Like so many English words, “end” has multiple opposing meanings. End can mean “edge” or it can mean “rear”. “Those are bookends” = I’d expect to find one each symmetrically at the left and right edges of a row of books. “That’s the end of the train” = there goes the caboose, not here comes the engine. Assuming the workweek is Mon-Fri by whatever names then which version of “end” is meant in “weekend” determines whether Sat & Sun should be the first and last days of the week or should be the last two days of the week. I favor the second definition so in my world Mon is the first day of the week and Sat & Sun adjacent are the last 2. Granted that’s not standard US usage today. Then again neither is 1700 for happy hour, SI units for common measures, and ISO-8601 for dates. But I can hope. Be the change you want to see. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/40 "2020-08-25T22:02:20Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I was kind of kidding, but France after the French Revolution, in addition to producing the metric system, also established [a decimal week (as well as a new system of months).](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_calendar) From all reports, the ten-day week was extremely unpopular in the French Republic. I don’t know what days off they got under it, but I think the typical workman got less time off. At any rate, they went back to a 7-day week in 1802. > [@CairoCarol](#): > > Egypt was great at copycatting! There was a restaurant near my apartment in Cairo called “Pizza Hat” (complete with the Pizza Hut logo, which, once you have seen it as a hat, is impossible to regard in any other way). I never did know if: > > 1. They were trying to avoid having the real Pizza Hut sue them. In most countries, that minor change in the name would not protect them from a trademark lawsuit. And they’d most likely lose it, at least in the US. So the reason must be one of the others. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823/41 "2020-08-25T22:59:31Z")
Oh, I know that changing “hut” to “hat” wouldn’t work. But I am not so sure a random enterprising Egyptian businessman trying to start a small-scale restaurant would know that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-tribe-and-every-nation-honor-sunday-at-the-first-day-of-the-week/918823.md?page=3)