# Week Length **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 5, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/week-length/798027 "2017-10-05T15:06:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/week-length/798027/1 "2017-10-05T15:06:05Z")
I’ve always wondered why our week is 7 days long - an uneven number. Wouldn’t it be easier to have a week that was either 6 or 8 days? I know that it originates from the Bible, but it just seems that having an even number of days would be more streamlined. We could still rest on the last day! What kind of chaos would it cause if our weeks were shortened or lengthened by one day? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/week-length/798027/2 "2017-10-05T15:14:22Z")
We have three “real” units of time recognizable to sufficiently observant ancients–the day, the month, and the year. A week is an odd number of days, but it is an even division (4) of the lunar month, which is roughly 28 days. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/week-length/798027/3 "2017-10-05T15:18:52Z")
I thought it had something to do with the seven “planets” known to ancient astronomers. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/week-length/798027/4 "2017-10-05T15:23:17Z")
I always assumed it had something to do with the creation story in the Bible where God created certain things on certain days and then rested on the 7th. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/week-length/798027/5 "2017-10-05T15:32:55Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > I always assumed it had something to do with the creation story in the Bible where God created certain things on certain days and then rested on the 7th. I’m sure that order is backwards–the creation story was written to be 7 days because [that was a week](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week#Ancient_Near_East). (The “Gudea” mentioned in that link [was alive in the 2100s BC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gudea)) ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/week-length/798027/6 "2017-10-05T17:13:59Z")
I wonder if it’s also inspired by the fact that the phases of the moon fit fairly naturally into quarters… full moon, half full waning, new moon, half full waxing. The time between each of the above is approximately 1 week. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/week-length/798027/7 "2017-10-05T17:20:58Z")
[The Master Speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/444/why-are-there-seven-days-in-a-week) > [@](#): > > Many reasons are given for the seven-day week — probably it’s the result of several of the following factors taken together: the four phases of the moon are roughly seven days in length; the Babylonians believed in the sacredness of the number seven; in ancient times, seven planets (including the sun and moon) were thought to exist (and indeed the days of the week were named after them). The Mosaic sabbath defined a seven-day period, and the dispersed Jews who observed it may have influenced the establishment of the seven-day week — it first appears in the early Christian era. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/week-length/798027/8 "2017-10-05T18:02:29Z")
You need an odd number of days in the week in order to have a legit Hump Day. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/week-length/798027/9 "2017-10-05T18:11:21Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You need an odd number of days in the week in order to have a legit Hump Day. _And_, the week was invented in a part of the world [with camels](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2s0RPrdB_8), so it checks out!