A week (also called sennight or sevennight) is a unit of time longer than a day and shorter than a month. For other uses see Time (disambiguation Time is a component of a measuring system used to sequence events to compare the durations of A day (symbol d is a unit of Time equivalent to 24 Hours and the duration of a single Rotation of planet Earth with respect to the The month is a unit of Time, used with Calendars which is approximately as long as some natural period related to the motion of the Moon; In most modern societies the week is a period of seven days. The weekly cycle of seven days runs independently of the cycle of a calendar. The word Calendar consist of two words 1 Cal ( in Pashto means Year in Hindi and Persian is Sal- also means Year The common denominator in both cases is the day. A day (symbol d is a unit of Time equivalent to 24 Hours and the duration of a single Rotation of planet Earth with respect to the
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The week as indicator of market day
Although seven day weeks are common to all modern societies now, anthropologists note that weeks of other durations (varying from three to eight days) are found in many pre-modern societies. The following list is obsolete. Please make no further additions to the list They also observe that the name for "week" is often the same as that for "market day", suggesting the concept of a week is likely to arise in any agrarian or pre-agrarian society where people have marketplaces or market days. In sparsely populated areas where trade is not conducted every day it is essential that farmers and consumers agree in advance on what day they will meet, especially if the walk to market takes several hours or days. The week (meaning a fixed count of days) was much simpler and more precise way of doing this when compared with a lunar calendar-based system or a system based on the seasonal rotation of the celestial sphere. A lunar calendar is a Calendar that is based on cycles of the Moon phase. In Astronomy and Navigation, the celestial sphere is an imaginary rotating Sphere of "gigantic Radius " Being based on a count kept by people rather than on the relative motion of the moon and stars, the week was not "heavenly", but in the traditional seven-day week, this was overcome by assigning the sun, moon, and the five planets known to the ancients (Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Saturn) each to a specific day of the week.
Origins
Europe and Near East
Various sources point to the seven day week as having originated in ancient Babylonia or Sumer. A heptagram or septegram is a seven-pointed star drawn with seven straight strokes Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar It has been suggested that a seven day week might be much older. The seven day planetary week originated in Hellenistic Egypt. This article focuses on the historical aspects of the Hellenistic age for the cultural aspects see Hellenistic civilisation. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics.
The 1943 Universal Jewish Encyclopedia volume 10 page 482, edited by Isaac Landman under the article “Week”, written by Simon Cohen, Director of Research, states:
“WEEK" (in Hebrew shavua). The idea of the week, as a subdivision of the month, seems to have arisen in Babylonia, where each lunar month was divided into four parts, corresponding to the four phases of the moon. The first week of each month began with the new moon, so that, as the lunar month was one or two days more than four periods of seven days, these additional days were not reckoned at all. Every seventh day (sabbatum) was regarded as an unlucky day. This method of reckoning time spread westward through Syria and Palestine, and was adopted by the Israelites, probably after they settled in Palestine. With the development of the importance of the Sabbath as a day of consecration and emphasis laid upon the significant number seven, the week became more and more divorced from its lunar connection, so that by the time of the second Temple it was merely a period of seven days and no longer depended on the new moon. A Sabbath or sabbath is generally a weekly day of rest and/or time of Worship that is observed in any of several faiths From Judaism the week passed over to Christianity, and through the influence of the latter was generally adopted throughout the Roman empire;”
Meanwhile, the Roman Republic and then Empire, like the Etruscans, used a "market week" of eight days (known as the nundinal cycle). The Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a Republican form of government a period which began with the overthrow of the Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy The Roman calendar changed its form several times in the time between the foundation of Rome and the fall of the Roman Empire. From around the 1st century CE, with the spread of Christianity, the Roman eight day week was replaced gradually by the seven day week. The 1st century was the Century that lasted from 1 to 100 according the Julian calendar. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings
The seven day weekly cycle is known to have remained unbroken in Europe for almost two millennia despite changes to the Alexandrian, Julian, and Gregorian calendars. The Coptic calendar, also called the Alexandrian calendar, is used by the Coptic Orthodox Church and still used in Egypt The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 Ab urbe condita The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world today The date of Easter Sunday can be traced back through numerous computistic tables to an Ethiopic copy of an early Alexandrian table beginning with the Easter of 311 CE as described by Otto Neugebauer in Ethiopic astronomy and computus. Easter ( Greek: Πάσχα Pascha or Pasxa) is the most important religious feast in the Christian Liturgical year. Computus ( Latin for Computation) is the Calculation of the date of Easter in the Christian calendar. Otto Eduard Neugebauer ( May 26 1899 &ndash February 19 1990) was an Austrian - American Mathematician and Only one Roman date with an associated day of the week exists from the first century and it agrees with the modern sequence, if properly interpreted. Jewish dates with a day of the week do not survive from this early period. In the case of the Jewish week, it had been in use for at least 1,000 years before its adoption by the Roman Empire.
The Jewish and Christian seven-day week is modeled on the biblical creation story, in which God created the universe in six days, then rested on the seventh. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth
Other theories speculate that the fixed seven-day period appeared due to evenly dividing a lunar month into quarters. In Lunar calendars a lunar month is the time between two identical syzygies ( New moons or Full moons.
The seven-day week became established in both the West and East according to different paths:
Hindu seven-day week
Hindu civilization used a seven-day week. The term Eastern world refers very broadly to the various Cultures social structures and philosophical systems of " the East " A Hindu ( Devanagari: हिन्दू is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, a set of religious, Philosophical It is mentioned in the Ramayana, a sacred epic written in Sanskrit about 500 BCE, as Bhanu-vaar meaning Sunday, Soma-vaar meaning Moon-day, "Mangal-Vaar" Meaning Tuesday, "Bud-Vaar" Meaning Wednesday, "Guru-Vaar" Meaning Thursday, "Shukr-Vaar" Meaning Friday, and "Shani-Vaar" Meaning Saturday. The Rāmāyaṇa ( Devanāgarī: sa रामायण is an ancient Sanskrit epic attributed to the Hindu sage ( Maharishi) Valmiki Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In the Jewish law it is the first day of the Hebrew calendar week The meaning of the name of the days of the week in Sanskrit, above, is equivalent to English names: e. g. , "Shani-Vaar," where Shani = Saturn and Vaar = Day.
Chinese seven-day week
The earliest known reference in Chinese writings is attributed to Fan Ning, who lived in the late 4th century, while diffusions via India are documented with the writings of the Chinese Buddhist monk Yi Jing and the Ceylonese or Central Asian Buddhist monk Bu Kong of the 8th century. As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 4th century (per the Julian calendar and Anno Domini / Common era) was that Century Journey to Srivijaya and Nalanda Zhang Wen Ming became a monk at age 14 and was an admirer of Fa Xian and Xuanzang, both famous monks of his childhood Amoghavajra (705-774 (in Chinese 不空 Bukong/P'u-k'ung) was a prolific translator who became one of the most politically powerful Buddhist monks in Chinese The Chinese transliteration of the planetary system was soon brought to Japan by the Japanese monk Kobo Daishi; surviving diaries of the Japanese statesman Fujiwara Michinaga show the seven day system in use in Heian Period Japan as early as 1007. Kūkai (ja 空海 or also known posthumously as Kōbō-Daishi (ja 弘法大師 774&ndash835 CE was a Japanese monk, Scholar Fujiwara no Michinaga (藤原 道長 966 - 3 January 1028; Japanese calendar 万寿4年12月4日 represents the highpoint of the Fujiwara regents The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. In Japan, the seven day system was kept in use (for astrological purposes) until its promotion to a full-fledged (Western-style) calendrical basis during the Meiji era. The, or Meiji era, denotes the 45-year reign of the Meiji Emperor, running in the Gregorian calendar, from 23 October 1868 to 30 July
The Chinese use of the seven day week (and thus Korean, Japanese, Tibetan, and Vietnamese use) traces back to the 600s CE. The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, incorporating elements of a Lunar calendar with those of a Solar calendar. The traditional Korean calendar is a Lunisolar calendar which like the traditional calendars of other East Asian countries was based on the Chinese calendar Since January 1, 1873, Japan has used the Gregorian calendar, with local names for the months and mostly fixed holidays The Tibetan calendar is a Lunisolar calendar, that is the Tibetan year is composed of either 12 or 13 Lunar months each beginning and ending with a New moon This article is about the Vietnamese holiday For the 1968 military operation that began on that holiday see Tết Offensive. The 28 stars were arranged in order of sun, moon, fire, water, wood, gold, earth, and every 7 days were called "qi-yao". The days were assigned to each of the luminaries, but the week did not affect social life or the official calendar. The law in the Han Dynasty required officials of the empire to rest every 5 days, called "mu", while it was changed into 10 days in the Tang Dynasty, called "huan" or xún (旬). With months being almost 3 weeks long (alternating 29 and 30 days) the weeks were labelled shàng xún (上旬), zhōng xún (中旬), and xià xún (下旬) which mean roughly "upper", "middle" and "lower" week. The 7 days "week" in ancient China is mostly kept in astrological purposes and cited in several Buddhist texts until the Jesuits reintroduced the concept in the 16th century. The Society of Jesus ( Latin: Societas Iesu, SJ and SI or SJ, SI) is a Catholic religious order Thus the 19th century Japanese, when adopting the seven day western week, took their own astrological week with names for the days of the week that corresponded to the English names (and in fact were better preservations of the original Babylonian concepts, the English day names having been conflated with gods from Germanic mythology). The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Germanic paganism refers to the religious beliefs of the Germanic peoples preceding Christianization.
Weeks and the calendar year
The weekly cycle runs concurrently with regular calendar cycles. The weekly cycle is not based on any astronomical phenomena. Astronomy (from the Greek words astron (ἄστρον "star" and nomos (νόμος "law" is the scientific study Besides being of religious significance, it also is convenient in commercial and social contexts.
Some novel calendars have been designed which synchronise the weeks and years by adding a leap week or weekless days to the calendar. The advantage of these calendar systems is that each year a given date always falls on the same day of the week. For example, the proposed World Calendar has 52 weeks and one or two extra weekless days each year, which do not count in the weekly cycles. The World Calendar is a proposed reform of the Gregorian calendar created by Elisabeth Achelis of Brooklyn New York in 1930 The short-lived 18th century French Revolutionary Calendar had 36 weeks of 10 days and five or six extra weekless days. The French Republican Calendar or French Revolutionary Calendar was a Calendar proposed during the French Revolution, and used by the French government On the other hand, the former Icelandic calendar had years of 52 or 53 weeks. Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland ( ( Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland ( Instead of adding extra weekless days, the number of weeks in the calendar year varied. An early Norse calendar, from the beginning of the Viking Age, had five day weeks, called fimmts, arranged in 12 months of six fimmts each, with five ceremonial days not part of any month. The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe called the Nordic region, consisting of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Viking Age is the term denoting the years from about 700 to 1066 in European history. The Hermetic Lunar Week Calendar uses the lunar week which is a quarter of a lunation and has 6, 7, 8 or 9 days (average 7. A lunisolar calendar is a Calendar in many Cultures whose date indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar Year. Lunation is the mean time for one Lunar phase cycle (ie the Synodic period of the Moon) 382647 days).
First day of the week
In Jewish and Christian tradition, the first day of the week is Sunday. Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In the Jewish law it is the first day of the Hebrew calendar week Both the Hebrew and Ecclesiastic Latin languages number most of the days of the week. The names of the days of the week in various world languages can be classified as either numerical or planetary; however in either case the names of one or more days In Hebrew, Sunday through Friday are numbered one through six, while in Ecclesiastic Latin, Monday through Friday are numbered the second through the sixth days of the week (feria). For Christians and Jews, Sunday remains the first day of the week. Most, though not all, business and social calendars in North America mark Sunday as the first day of the week.
In the UK, Australasia and other English-speaking countries, Monday is always shown as the first day of the week.
In most of Europe, Latin America, and some other countries, Monday is considered to be the first day of the week and is literally named as such in languages such as Mandarin (Xīngqí Yī, literally means Weekday One) and Lithuanian (pirmadienis). Lithuanian ( lietuvių kalba) is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognised as one of the official languages of the European Union.
The ISO prescribes Monday as the first day of the week with ISO 8601 for software date formats. ISO 8601 is an International standard for date and Time representations issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO
Work week and weekends
The seven-day workweek is generally composed of five working days ("weekdays") and two non-working days (the "weekend"), though which days of the week are which varies from country to country. Which day of the week is the "first" day also varies, even among countries that share the same weekend days.
Facts and figures
- 1 week = 7 days = 168 hours = 10,080 minutes = 604,800 seconds (except at daylight saving time transitions or leap seconds)
- 1 Gregorian calendar year = 52 weeks + 1 day (2 days in a leap year)
- 1 week = 23. Daylight saving time ( DST A leap second is a one- Second adjustment that keeps broadcast standards for time of day close to mean solar time. 01% of an average month
In a Gregorian mean year there are exactly 365. The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world today 2425 days, and thus exactly 52. 1775 weeks (unlike the Julian year of 365. The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 Ab urbe condita 25 days, which does not contain a number of weeks represented by a finite decimal expansion). There are exactly 20871 weeks in 400 Gregorian years, so 10 April 1605 was a Sunday just like 10 April 2005. Events 879 - Louis III becomes King of the Western Franks. 1407 - the lama Events 879 - Louis III becomes King of the Western Franks. 1407 - the lama Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
A system of Dominical letters has been used to determine the day of week in the Gregorian or the Julian calendar. Dominical letters are letters A B C D E F and G assigned to days in a cycle of seven with the letter A always set against 1 January as an aid for finding the day of the Week The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world today The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 Ab urbe condita
Week number
Weeks in a Gregorian calendar year can be numbered for each year. This style of numbering is commonly used (for example, by businesses) in some European and Asian countries, but rare elsewhere.
ISO 8601 includes the ISO week date system, a numbering system for weeks – each week begins on a Monday and is associated with the year that contains that week's Thursday (so that if a year starts in a long weekend Friday–Sunday, week number one of the year will start after that). ISO 8601 is an International standard for date and Time representations issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO The ISO week date system is a Leap week calendar system that is part of the ISO 8601 date and time standard For example, week 1 of 2004 (2004W01) ran from Monday 29 December 2003 to Sunday, 4 January 2004, because its Thursday was 1 January 2004, whereas week 1 of 2005 (2005W01) ran from Monday 3 January 2005 to Sunday 9 January 2005, because its Thursday was 6 January 2005 and so the first Thursday of 2005. Events 1170 - Thomas Becket: Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 46 BC - Titus Labienus defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Events 1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 475 - Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople. Events 1066 - Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England. 1205 - Philip of Swabia becomes King The highest week number in a year may be 52 or 53 (it was 53 for year 2004).
The numbering system in different countries may deviate from the international ISO standard. There are at least six possibilities[1] [2]:
| First day of week | First week of year contains | Weeks assigned twice | Used by/in | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 1 January, | 1st Sunday, | 1–7 days of year | yes | UK |
| Monday | 4 January, | 1st Thursday, | 4–7 days of year | no | Most of Europe ISO 8601(1988), European Norm EN 28601 (1992) |
| Monday | 7 January, | 1st Monday, | 7 days of year | no | |
| Wednesday | 1 January, | 1st Tuesday, | 1–7 days of year | yes | |
| Saturday | 1 January, | 1st Friday, | 1–7 days of year | yes | |
| Sunday | 1 January, | 1st Saturday, | 1–7 days of year | yes | USA |
Liturgical week
In Christian liturgy, the week is mainly dominated by the special status of the Sunday. Monday (pron ˈmʌndeɪ ˈmʌndi is a Day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. Monday (pron ˈmʌndeɪ ˈmʌndi is a Day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. Monday (pron ˈmʌndeɪ ˈmʌndi is a Day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. Wednesday is the fourth Day of the week in most western countries Saturday is the day of the week between Friday and Sunday. It is either the sixth or seventh Day of the week as discussed below. Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In the Jewish law it is the first day of the Hebrew calendar week A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group according to their particular traditions Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In the Jewish law it is the first day of the Hebrew calendar week The week was regarded as a sacred institution among the Jews owing to the law of the Sabbath rest and its association with the first chapter of Genesis. Shabbat or Shabbos ( Hebrew: שַׁבָּת, shabbāt, shabbes, "rest/inactivity" is the Weekly Sabbath The earliest Christian converts seem tenacious of the usages (so far as they were compatible with the law of the Gospel) in which they had been brought up. The Sunday, "the first day of the week" (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2; cf. Revelation 1:10), soon replaced the Sabbath as the great day of religious observance, but the week itself remained as before. Indeed, there is much to recommend the idea that in the first and second centuries the only commemorations of the great Christian mysteries formed a weekly, not an annual, cycle. Sunday, according to the Epistle of Barnabas (xv), was "the beginning of another world", and the writer further says: "Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which also Jesus rose from the dead and having been manifested ascended into the heavens". The Epistle of Barnabas is a Greek treatise with some features of an Epistle containing twenty-one chapters preserved complete in the 4th century Codex Again the Didache (viii) ordains: "Let not your fasts be with the hypocrites; for they fast on the second [Monday] and fifth [Thursday] days of the week, but do ye fast on the fourth [Wednesday] and on the day of preparation [Friday]", while in c. The Didache ( Koine Greek:, Didachē, meaning "Teaching" ˈdɪdəkiː in English ðiðaˈxi in Modern Greek) is the common name of a brief xiv we are told "And on the Day of the Lord come together and break bread and give thanks". Altogether it becomes clear from the language of Tertullian, the Apostolic Constitution and other early writers that the Sunday in each week was regarded as commemorating the Resurrection, and the Wednesday and Friday the betrayal and Passion of Christ. Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, Anglicised as Tertullian, (ca
Although this simple primitive conception gave place in time, as feasts were introduced and multiplied, to an annual calendar, the week always retained its importance; this is particularly seen in the Divine Office in the hebdomadal division of the Psalter for recitation. A Psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms and which often contains other devotional material Amalarius preserves for us the particulars of the arrangement accepted in the chapel royal at Aachen in 802 CE by which the whole Psalter was recited in the course of each week. Amalarius of Metz (Amalarius Symphosius was a Liturgist. He wrote extensively on the Mass and was involved in the great Medieval debates regarding In its broader features the division was identical with that theoretically imposed by the Roman Breviary until the recent publication of the Apostolic Constitution "Divine afflatu" on 1 Nov. , 1911 CE. Moreover, it appears from Amalarius that the Carlovingian arrangement was in substance the same as that already accepted by the Roman Church. Already in the sixth century, St. Benedict had clearly laid down the principle that the entire Psalter was to be recited at least once in the week; indeed a similar arrangement was attributed to Pope St. Damasus. "Saint Benedict" redirects here This article is about the founder of Western monasticism for other saints named Benedict see Benedict. Pope
The consecration of particular days of the week to particular subjects of devotion is also officially recognized by the special Office of the Blessed Virgin on the Saturday, by the Friday Masses of the Passion during Lent and by the arrangement of Votive Offices for special week days approved by Pope Leo XIII. Lent, in some Christian denominations, is the forty-day-long liturgical season of fasting and prayer before Easter. A Votive Office was a Roman Catholic practice to celebrate particular feasts that were not in the Catholic liturgical calendar Pope Leo XIII ( March 2, 1810 – July 20, 1903) born Count Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci, was the 256th Pope For a long time in the early Middle Ages, Thursday was regarded in the West as a sort of lesser feast or Sunday, probably because it was the day of the week on which the Ascension fell (cf. The general and most common understanding of the Christian Doctrine of Ascension holds that Jesus bodily ascended to Heaven in the presence Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, IV, 25). Bede (ˈbiːd (also Saint Bede, the Venerable Bede, or (from Latin Beda (beda (c The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (in English: Ecclesiastical History of the English People) is a work in Latin by the Again the Breviary approved after the Council of Trent left certain devotion accretions to the Office, e. The Council of Trent was the 19th Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. g. the Office for the Dead, Gradual Psalms, etc, to be said once a week, particularly on the Mondays of Advent and Lent. Advent (from the Latin word la ''adventus'' meaning "coming" is a season of the Christian church, the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the
See also
References
- Falk, Michael (1999). "Astronomical Names for the Days of the Week", Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC is a national non-profit charitable organization devoted to the advancement of astronomy and allied sciences 93, p. 122. 1999JRASC. . 93. . 122F.
- F. H. Colson, The week (1926).
- Eviatar Zerubavel, The seven day circle (1989) ISBN 0226981657.
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language Encyclopedia published by The Encyclopedia
External links
- The Mysterious 7-Day Cycle (history with Christian editorial)
- The Week (part of Claus Tøndering's Calendar FAQ)
- Take Our Word For IT had its spotlight on the week
- Compilation of holidays and weekends information for various countries
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