# Why do most calenders begin on Sunday? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 23, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329 "2009-12-23T16:20:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/1 "2009-12-23T16:20:01Z")
Even though the Sunday being shown is considered part of the previous week? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/2 "2009-12-23T16:31:54Z")
Who considers it part of the previous week? I sure don’t. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/3 "2009-12-23T16:38:09Z")
And speaking in general terms, the Christian churches don’t consider it part of the previous week either, as I understand it. Sunday is ‘the first day’ of the week, on which Christ rose, in that tradition. Of course, there are always complications to any calendar system. Since Saturday and Sunday are generally referred to as ‘the weekend’, it does make some intuitive sense to put them both at the end, not at the start and the end. (Hijack, why do we call bookends bookends? Is it because a shelf of books is not considered to have a start, only two ends?) ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/4 "2009-12-23T16:40:32Z")
SUN day, gets it name from the first day of creation when the heavens were first lighted. It really is the first day of the week, while Saturday, the original Sabbath–still celebrated as such by the Jews and a few “Seventh Day” Christian groups–was the last day of the week and the day of rest. I think the Catholic Church moved the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, but whatever the case, Sunday was the traditional first day of the week in the Judeo-Christian world. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/5 "2009-12-23T16:41:21Z")
Most legal definitions of a week show it to begin on Sunday as well. Labor laws and all that. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/6 "2009-12-23T16:59:42Z")
> [@VernWinterbottom](#): > > SUN day, gets it name from the first day of creation when the heavens were first lighted… No, Sunday got its name from the Sun, like Monday got it’s name from the Moon, Saturday got its name from Saturn. All the moving celestial objects visible to the naked eye have a day of the week, although it’s easier to see in more Latin-related languages. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/7 "2009-12-23T17:01:35Z")
> [@VernWinterbottom](#): > > SUN day, gets it name from the first day of creation when the heavens were first lighted. It really is the first day of the week, while Saturday, the original Sabbath–still celebrated as such by the Jews and a few “Seventh Day” Christian groups–was the last day of the week and the day of rest. Except that in France – a Catholic country – considers Monday the first day of the week. Ultimately, it’s not really something anyone thought out. Someone started making calendars with Sunday as the first day and it caught on in some areas. In other locations, they made them with Monday as the first day of the week. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/8 "2009-12-23T17:18:15Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Except that in France – a Catholic country – considers Monday the first day of the week. > > Ultimately, it’s not really something anyone thought out. Someone started making calendars with Sunday as the first day and it caught on in some areas. In other locations, they made them with Monday as the first day of the week. As **Chuck** said, it’s tradition. Why do the letters ‘ng’ rarely have their own distinct sounds, as in ‘ingot’ and far more often represent the /ng/ sound as in ‘searching’? Because it’s tradition and no one feels it important enough to change. In the days weekly calendars were first written, Church and Bible were an important part of most people’s lives, and the Bible said the first day was Sunday, the seventh the Sabbath, or Saturday. Even though secular usage is far more common than religious these days, the tradition carries on. But some places, e.g, France as **Chuck** points out and Thailand as **Siam Sam** noted in a recent MPSIMS thread, use Monday-to-Sunday calendars, putting the ‘weekend’ together at the end of the week. But such calendars are rare alongside the Sunday-to-Saturday variety. ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/9 "2009-12-23T17:24:12Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Except that in France – a Catholic country – considers Monday the first day of the week. Reality Chuck, I would guess that SUN day got it’s name from the SUN because the sun is what the Judeo-Christian creator is said to have made on the first day. You know, “Let there be light,” and all that. According to most of the Western world’s creation story, God made the SUN on SUN day. Whether or not France now considers Monday the first day of the week doesn’t really matter much here. My hometown was the childhood home of Joseph Bates Jr., one of the cofounders of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. As a local historian, I have research and written at least three articles on Bates, including a couple that have been reprinted for distribution by the Adventist Heritage Ministry at the Joseph Bates Jr. boyhood home. The reason for the founding of that particular sect, a principle outlined in Bates’ 1846 treatise, was that Catholics and Protestants were then celebrating the Sabbath on the wrong day, which screwed up William Miller’s calculations and predictions as to when Christ was to return. The Church had at some point shifted the Sabbath from the seventh day (Saturday as kept by the Jews) to Sunday, the first day. So basically, Chuck, the Old Testament established that God created light on the the first day, which we now call Sunday, and he rested on the seventh or last day, the Lord’s Day as celebrated by the Jews. Sorry I did not fill in all of the blanks originally. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/10 "2009-12-23T17:33:00Z")
IIRC, the church changed from Sabbath to Sunday at the urging of Constantine. It was partially politics, and partially a sop to Constantine (a pagan) who made the Christian church legal in the empire, and his feelings that Sunday should be the holy day. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/11 "2009-12-23T18:33:48Z")
> [@ChrisBooth12](#): > > Even though the Sunday being shown is considered part of the previous week? Calenders start with Sunday because Sunday is the first day of the week. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/12 "2009-12-23T20:25:23Z")
> [@VernWinterbottom](#): > > SUN day, gets it name from the first day of creation when the heavens were first lighted. It really is the first day of the week, while Saturday, the original Sabbath–still celebrated as such by the Jews and a few “Seventh Day” Christian groups–was the last day of the week and the day of rest. > > I think the Catholic Church moved the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, but whatever the case, Sunday was the traditional first day of the week in the Judeo-Christian world. See Cecil’s column [Why do Christians worship on Sunday when the Bible says the Sabbath is on Saturday?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1015/why-do-christians-worship-on-sunday-when-the-bible-says-the-sabbath-is-on-saturday) ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/13 "2009-12-23T21:09:20Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Since Saturday and Sunday are generally referred to as ‘the weekend’, it does make some intuitive sense to put them both at the end, not at the start and the end. Of course calendars are much older than the concept of “weekend.” The widespread standard of having every Saturday and Sunday off seems to have started with the American labor movement in the late 19th century, and has everything to do with the Christian and Jewish Sabbaths. [Cite](http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/programs/2007/11/24/a_weekend_history_le.html). > [@](#): > > (Hijack, why do we call bookends bookends? Is it because a shelf of books is not considered to have a start, only two ends?) Huh? Lots of things have two ends, and it’s obviously easier to refer to “a pair of bookends” then “a bookbeginning and a bookend,” especially when the two pieces are often interchangeable. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/14 "2009-12-24T03:34:33Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > Calenders start with Sunday because Sunday is the first day of the week. At the large company where I was previously employed, the “accounting” week was Monday through Sunday (so its not that silly of a question). But, also, the Fiscal Year started in April with Q4 2009 actually being Jan-Mar 2010. Accounting is weird. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/15 "2009-12-24T03:56:24Z")
> [@JKilez](#): > > At the large company where I was previously employed, the “accounting” week was Monday through Sunday (so its not that silly of a question). But, also, the Fiscal Year started in April with Q4 2009 actually being Jan-Mar 2010. Accounting is weird. Most places I’ve worked used a Monday-Sundary calender for work scheduales (it was also the pay week. It made alot of sense (people didn’t have to wait a week to find out if they had both weekend days off). Of course the last place used a Friday-Thursday calender and work week which was completely bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/16 "2009-12-24T04:06:57Z")
> [@VernWinterbottom](#): > > Reality Chuck, I would guess that SUN day got it’s name from the SUN because the sun is what the Judeo-Christian creator is said to have made on the first day. You know, “Let there be light,” and all that. According to most of the Western world’s creation story, God made the SUN on SUN day. > > Whether or not France now considers Monday the first day of the week doesn’t really matter much here. My hometown was the childhood home of Joseph Bates Jr., one of the cofounders of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. As a local historian, I have research and written at least three articles on Bates, including a couple that have been reprinted for distribution by the Adventist Heritage Ministry at the Joseph Bates Jr. boyhood home. > > The reason for the founding of that particular sect, a principle outlined in Bates’ 1846 treatise, was that Catholics and Protestants were then celebrating the Sabbath on the wrong day, which screwed up William Miller’s calculations and predictions as to when Christ was to return. The Church had at some point shifted the Sabbath from the seventh day (Saturday as kept by the Jews) to Sunday, the first day. > > So basically, Chuck, the Old Testament established that God created light on the the first day, which we now call Sunday, and he rested on the seventh or last day, the Lord’s Day as celebrated by the Jews. > > Sorry I did not fill in all of the blanks originally. Actually, in the Genesis account of creation, the “two great lights” (the sun and the moon, they are not named in order to deprecate those celestial bodies as they were worshiped as deities by the pagan neighbors of the ancient Hebrews) were created on the _fourth_ day, which according to your reckoning would be Wednesday (or maybe “WED nesday” or “WEDNES day”?) and is named for Freya or Wotan or ABBA or something. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/17 "2009-12-24T07:14:13Z")
English names for days of the week are not very Christian. Most of them are named for Norse gods. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/18 "2009-12-24T07:18:34Z")
I think it varies from country to country. Someone sent me a calendar from Hungary, that did, in fact, start on a Monday. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/19 "2009-12-24T07:56:55Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > But such calendars are rare alongside the Sunday-to-Saturday variety. This is purely speculative, but I’m thinking Europe and most of westernised Asia go Monday - Sunday, so maybe only rare within North America? ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329/20 "2009-12-24T09:23:24Z")
Indeed, and I find Sunday to Saturday calendars awkward to use. Why break the weekend into two parts? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-calenders-begin-on-sunday/522329.md?page=2)