wcs@ho95e.UUCP (Bill.Stewart.4K435.x0705) (11/25/85)
In article <174@watmath.UUCP> ddyment@watmath.UUCP (Doug Dyment) writes: > >> For several hundred years sunday has been the first day of the >>week. Look at any calandar[sic]. >> > For several thousand years Sunday has been the last day of the >week. Look at any bible. > Funny, my Bible refers to the Sabbath, but it doesn't use the modern names, which are mostly of pagan European origin. However, the Jews, for whom the Sabbath is a way of life, still think Saturday is the Sabbath, and I doubt they'd have gotten it wrong. There are early records from the Romans which refer to Christians getting together on the *first* day of the week for their meetings, i.e. Sunday, in honor of the resurrection. Gradually this absorbed many of the Sabbath traditions (most early Christians *were* Jewish), and many groups have treated Sunday as the Sabbath; others, such as the Seventh-Day Adventists, point out that the Sabbath is still Saturday. I get the impression that renumbering the days of the week so they start with Monday is a recent European rationalization of "Sunday is our Sabbath so it must be the 7th day of the week"; customary usage in the USA is that the week starts on Sunday, whereas I remember learning the days of the week in French as "<monday>, <tuesday>..." (Sorry, but I never could spell them) Bill Arrgh! An electrical virus is eating my terminal! -- ## Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs
bandy@lll-crg.ARpA (Andrew Scott Beals) (11/28/85)
In article <262@ho95e.UUCP> wcs@ho95e.UUCP (Bill Stewart ( 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs )) writes: >In article <174@watmath.UUCP> ddyment@watmath.UUCP (Doug Dyment) writes: >>> For several hundred years sunday has been the first day of the >>>week. Look at any calandar[sic]. >> For several thousand years Sunday has been the last day of the >>week. Look at any bible. >I get the impression that renumbering the days of the week so they >start with Monday is a recent European rationalization of "Sunday is >our Sabbath so it must be the 7th day of the week"; customary usage in >the USA is that the week starts on Sunday, whereas I remember learning >the days of the week in French as "<monday>, <tuesday>..." (Sorry, but I >never could spell them) If I remember correctly, the National Bureau of Standards published a standard some time ago that calendars should be marked with Monday as the first day of the week. -- There once was a fellow named Moorehead, Who had an affair with a warhead. His wife moved away The very next day-- She /was/ always kind of a sorehead. andy beals - bandy@lll-crg.arpa - {seismo,ihnp4!sun,dual}!lll-crg!bandy