please empty your brain below
If anyone needs a 60s soundtrack to read this post...

stevekeiretsu | Homepage | 19.02.18 - 7:13 a.m. | #

Glad to see you are defining your centuries correctly!

Richard | 19.02.18 - 7:21 a.m. | #

If anyone needs an 80s soundtrack to read this post ...

Lorenzo | 19.02.18 - 7:25 a.m. | #

...and a 70s soundtrack.

Now, enough soundtracks already.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 19.02.18 - 7:30 a.m. | #

Re. Monday being the first day of the week, in the pre-Christian era, it was the second day of the week, with Saturday being defined as the seventh day of the week, and the Sabbath. When the Christians came along, they chose Sunday, the day of the resurrection, as the rest day, making Monday the first day of the working week.

The Banbury Man | Homepage | 19.02.18 - 7:30 a.m. | #

Well! Thanks for today's post,DG. I looked up the life table to see how long I'll be around and it worked out to just under four figures.
Mondays,no,they've never bothered me much. Right back to school days, Wednesday has been the day I hate. I always regarded that as the brow of the hill of the week. Get over that and slide quickly down to the weekend!
Bad news always seems to come on Wednesdays too,so now I have found out how many I may have left, I think I'll open a bottle early today. Ta for cheering me up. 😉🍾

Jo W | 19.02.18 - 7:37 a.m. | #

Sic transit gloria Monday...

Tom | 19.02.18 - 9:01 a.m. | #

I am really surprised you didn't mention Saint Crispin and all the cobblers who worshiped him on mondays (i.e. Stayed away from work).

B | 19.02.18 - 9:10 a.m. | #

What an amazing post.

But who settled on 7 as the length of a week? The bible describes a 7 day creation of the world, but my guess is that this creation narrative is fitted onto an already established practice, among some people somewhere, of having that sort of rhythm.

Malcolm | 19.02.18 - 9:48 a.m. | #

And some Mondays last a long time.
http://wondermark.com/1k13/

David | Homepage | 19.02.18 - 9:58 a.m. | #

Good provocative post, as always.
I have mixed feelings because for many years I worked for an organisation whose week begins on a Saturday, so internal calendars always had the week ending on Friday. After retirement, Fridays which used to be so special, are less important and Mondays, i.e. having to go back to the grindstone, are never so gloomy. I'm not sure now which emotion I miss most.

Dave | 19.02.18 - 10:12 a.m. | #

In early Victorian times, people worked on Saturdays, but Monday mornings had a very leisurely return to work, with football games in the morning. (See How to be a Victorian, by Ruth Goodman).

Half a physicist | 19.02.18 - 11:51 a.m. | #

It appears that whether named after planets or gods, Monday being 'Moon Day' is near universal around the world. The largest exception appears to be Chinese, where it is boringly named 'Weekday One'.

Jamie | 19.02.18 - 1:06 p.m. | #

On the subject of being irrationally gloomy about Mondays... anyone else think we should switch bank holidays from Mondays to Fridays on the basis that Thursday becomes the new Friday - which has got to be better than Tuesdays being the new Monday?

Marc | 19.02.18 - 1:54 p.m. | #

Jamie, it's not that surprising. The celestial objects are overwhelmingly the most popular things to name days after (either directly, or via the names of their representative deities). The two most important of which are the Sun and Moon. One can argue over whether Sunday or Monday is the "first" day of the week, but it's a dead cert that either the Sun or the Moon is getting a look in.

The seven-day week tends to follow from the seven celestial objects that the ancients could see. Funny how they never included the Earth, but then they didn't believe it was the same sort of object as the others.

Chz | 19.02.18 - 3:42 p.m. | #

Seven days is also a handy way of dividing the month into four quarters, roughly coinciding with the phases of the moon.

If you take the 17th century Bishop Ussher's chronology as accurate, dating the Creation to Sunday 23rd October 4004 BC, (Julian calendar), today is the 314,140th Monday in history. And the 105,247th in the Christian era (as calculated by Dionysius Exiguus from the Annunciation, on March 25th AD1)

Barbara | 19.02.18 - 4:54 p.m. | #

Tell me why?

Al__S | 19.02.18 - 8:05 p.m. | #

I made it a point of not treating Monday as a horrible day years ago. Now its just another day to get things accomplished and to plan for good things ahead. I know that sounds overly optimistic but its better than being the guy at the next desk that complains about it being "Monday again".

Steven | Homepage | 19.02.18 - 8:31 p.m. | #

You are a total legend DG. Yet another perspective on life that is intriguing and makes me smile.
I don’t know how you manage to do it, but thanks.

Sally Hirst | 19.02.18 - 10:22 p.m. | #

On Saturdays and Sundays, they do no work at all,
So 'twas on a Monday morning that the gas man came to call!

(Flanders & Swann)

Barbara | 19.02.18 - 11:05 p.m. | #











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