In international standard ISO-8601 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has decreed that Monday shall be the first day of the week.
This is also the practice in many non-English-speaking countries. For instance, the Russians use the word “second” for tuesday.
And in Genesis, which has been very important to popular culture for millenia, God rests on the last day of the week - Sunday.
So why do the English, the Americans, the Portugese and many other nationalities regard Sunday as the first day of the week?
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, God rested on Saturday, which is why Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath. Seventh-Day Adventists, unlike most Christians, still keep the Saturday Sabbath.
Oh, and as for the ISO–with the rise of the “weekend” (having two “days off” on Saturday and Sunday is a comparatively modern invention–the work and lives of Medieval peasants went on a completely different rhythm, and early factory workers had to struggle to establish the 5-day, 40-hour work week), the work week begins on Monday, so it’s more practical in a business sense to say Monday is Day 1, which makes Sunday Day 7.
Wasn’t “Solomon Grundy” the name of some ogre villain in DC Comix many years ago? Or was it Marvel Comix? I think it was DC. Anyway, he seems to have retired from villainy before I began reading comic books.
[sub](Just had to get that in before this thread is closed)[/sub]
He was a zombie-like character from the Louisiana swamps on the Superfriends cartoon. I’d always thought his name was from “salmagundy”, a salad plate or a heterogenous mixture and the name sometimes given to a stew made by pirates. (Louisiana was a hiding place for pirates at one time.)
As for the song, the lyrics were used in The Pogues’ Billy’s Bones.
As Johnny L.A said, he was a pale-skinned zombie from Slaughter Swamp outside Gotham City. This page contains more than you will probably want to know about that character:
There’s also a movie called Solomon Grundy planned for 2003 - a comedy about a man who finds himself growing to maturity over the course of a single week. It’s based on the nursery rhyme, not the DC character.
BTW, Solomon Grundy was in some ways a lucky guy. People born on Mondays are traditionally said to be handsome (“Monday’s child is fair of face, Tuesday’s child is full of grace” etc.). Also, Wednesday is traditionally the luckiest day for weddings. Friday, of course, is a day of bad luck, so it’s no wonder he got worse.