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AIBU?

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Original poster

To not understand why some people think Sunday is the first day of the week?

64 replies

moutonfou · 30/10/2017 12:22

Speaking in the context of UK society (i.e. dominant religion is Christianity, or debatably now atheism... )

It makes no sense culturally, because why would the week start halfway through the weekend?

It makes no sense religiously, because surely we're taught that God made the world in 6 days, and rested on the final day. Hence, we too rest on the final day. Why would the week start on the day God finished?

Is there something I'm missing?

OP posts:
CountDuckulaTheSqueaky · 30/10/2017 13:29

Jews do and Seventh Day Adventists (who are Christians) do.

malmi · 30/10/2017 13:36

You just have to look at gridded Calenders. Sunday is always on the left.

You'd better tell WHSmith they don't know what they're doing then!

To not understand why some people think Sunday is the first day of the week?
PestoSwimissimos · 30/10/2017 13:38

YABU

Sunday is the first day of the week

hackmum · 30/10/2017 13:39

It was only a couple of years ago that I realised some people regard Monday as the first day of the week. It was in discussion with a young work colleague in which I referred to the Sunday just gone as "this week" and she said, "No, it's last week."

Obviously my belief that Sunday is the first day of the week doesn't arise from some kind of personal perverseness or insanity - it's what I was taught in school 50 years ago.

Dunkling · 30/10/2017 13:40

*Speaking in the context of UK society (i.e. dominant religion is Christianity, or debatably now atheism... )

It makes no sense culturally, because why would the week start halfway through the weekend?*

The week doesn't start halfway through the weekend. It starts at the start of the week..... Sunday.

It makes no sense religiously, because surely we're taught that God made the world in 6 days, and rested on the final day. Hence, we too rest on the final day. Why would the week start on the day God finished?

It doesn't. It starts on Sunday. God did indeed make the world in 6 days and rest on the last. This last day was Saturday.

Is there something I'm missing?

Possibly. Look up Seventh Day Adventist Church.

ScipioAfricanus · 30/10/2017 13:41

Ashamed to say that while I have known full wel that Jewish sabbath is Saturday and that in several languages ‘Saturday’ is very close to ‘sabbath’, I’ve somehow thought that the actual day of rest in Genesis/Christian tradition has always been a Sunday. It makes so much more sense that it was a gradual shifting from Sat to Sun and why the Americans start their week on Sunday which I have never understood.

Eolian · 30/10/2017 13:44

You just have to look at gridded Calenders. Sunday is always on the left.

No it isn't. In the UK Monday is usually (or at least often) on the left. My current grid calendar (a gift) does have Sunday on the left and it does my head in! All my previous ones have had Monday on the left. Retail shift rotas are pretty irrelevant to the many people who don't work in retail!

NapQueen · 30/10/2017 13:45

At my last workplace the week started on a Friday. It was a hotel and they liked to start on the busiest time - the weekend. Thursdays were always the dead day. Took a looooong time to get used to that.

MyBrilliantDisguise · 30/10/2017 13:45

The weekend means the two ends of the week - Saturday and Sunday.

bingbongnoise · 30/10/2017 13:46

Yeah it is subjective, and many years ago (when I was a lass,) back in the dark ages 1970's and 80's,) some calendars did have Sunday as the first day of the week. A few still do, and some people think of Sunday as the first day of the week too.

I still think it's weird to class Sunday as the first day of the week, but each to their own. I think most people would say it was Monday.

NapQueen · 30/10/2017 13:46

Im not religious but surely "and on the first day God said let there be light". The sun. Sunday. Day one.

bingbongnoise · 30/10/2017 13:46

The weekend means the two ends of the week - Saturday and Sunday.

Confused Eh?

thecatfromjapan · 30/10/2017 13:50

Think of bookends, bingbong.

GhostlyKiwi · 30/10/2017 13:57

The sun wasn't created until day four.

MyBrilliantDisguise · 30/10/2017 14:17

Yes, like bookends or a piece of string! Each has an end - the week has two ends.

ScipioAfricanus · 30/10/2017 14:17

I believe that Sunday and Monday are related to our pagan origins (Sun and Moon god) so it’s irrelevant which day of the Christian week ‘let there be light’ applies to. Then we have Tuesday named after Tyr, Wednesday = Woden’s day, Thor’s day, then Friday after Frigg. All from Norse (Viking invaders?). Then Saturn’s day. So I guess the actual name of days of the week are not Christian-Judeo in tradition in English at least so unconnected to which one should start the week - that did become connected to Christian heritage and presumably then by working habits and having the whole weekend off, so that Monday became the first day for many.

GhostlyKiwi · 30/10/2017 14:38

The Wikipedia article about days of the week is actually very interesting.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week

Ollivander84 · 30/10/2017 14:42

My work week runs from a sunday so I see it as that

NoCryLilSoftSoft · 30/10/2017 14:48

Surely it's called the weekEND for a reason?!

Yes, the front end and the back end Grin in my head Sunday and Saturday are like bookends. Sunday is the front end, day of rest to restore your energy for the week ahead, we (well I do) iron uniforms, pack school bags, write budgets etc on Sunday for the week ahead. Saturday is the arse end of the week. You feel like shite, you look like shite, you drink like shite to forget the shite of the week gone by Grin again, maybe that’s just me! Blush

Rhodiolia · 30/10/2017 14:49

I was taught at school (in the 80s) that Sunday was the start of the week, but I never knew why.

ScipioAfricanus · 30/10/2017 14:49

NoCry that’s a great way to look at it!

NoCryLilSoftSoft · 30/10/2017 14:49

Xpost with everyone else WRT bookends!

IsadoraQuagmire · 30/10/2017 14:58

I consider Sunday the first day of the week.

Witchend · 30/10/2017 15:01

Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.
When they entered, they did not see the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men appeared in clothes that looked like lightning.
The women were afraid, and bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men spoke to them.
"Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen!"

The first Easter Sunday.

PortiaCastis · 30/10/2017 15:30

Just text my dd at uni and asked her what she thought and she replied Sunday obviously.