Why Do We Have Weekends?
The idea of having two days off after five days on the job started with workers’ rights movements in the 1800s.
Leaving work on Fridays for a 48-hour break doesn’t apply in some countries, where the weekend can fall on different days or last for just 24 hours.
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Observing a day of rest on Sunday has a long history in Christian tradition. Adding a second day to create a two-day weekend is a much more recent invention.
Weekends: Time off since 1932
Six-day workweeks were the norm in Britain and the USA well into the 19th century, until labor unions and religious leaders argued that giving workers Saturdays off would be good for families and result in more productive employees.
By the 1920s, this idea gained traction, and Henry Ford became one of the first major industrialists to give his employees both Saturday and Sunday off. Other leading companies soon copied Ford’s example, and the US Congress passed a law establishing a national five-day workweek in 1932.
Not Always the Same Two Days
Weekends don’t follow the Saturday-Sunday model everywhere, primarily because religious traditions honor different holy days. For example, in the Jewish faith shabbat, or the sabbath, is observed from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, while Muslims regard Friday prayers as Yaum al-Jum’a, the most important gathering of the week.
So, in some Muslim countries, the weekend is observed on Thursday and Friday. More recently, nations like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates have shifted to a Friday-Saturday weekend.
In a few countries, there is only one work-free day of the week: In Somalia and Djibouti, Friday is the single day off; in Nepal, Saturday is the only sanctioned weekend day.
Most of the world observes Saturday and Sunday weekends, but there are exceptions in countries as large as India and as small as Brunei. @timeanddate.com
From Antiquity to Saint Monday
The roots of how we think about weekends, and weeks and days themselves, go back to the ancient world. The structure of seven days with Latin names, starting with dies solis, the day of the Sun, was spread through Europe by conquering Roman armies. Later, the Anglo-Saxons carried this time structure and day names to Britain, where, for example, their word Sunnandaeg became the modern Sunday.
The six-day workweek pattern has held in the Christian world for much of modern history. The first sign that this was starting to shift was when artisans, who were able to work in their own locations and control their hours, began to change their work habits.
By the early 1800s, many British craftsmen had established a practice of working from Tuesday to Saturday night. With Sunday off, they informally added a kind of imitation religious holiday, Saint Monday, to help them rest and recover from festivities held on Saturday and Sunday nights.
Three-Day Weekends in the Future?
Today, we may be witnessing the next version of the weekend taking shape. Concerns about worker stress levels, productivity, and the carbon footprint of many jobs has led some reformers to advocate for a four-day workweek, creating a three-day weekend.
Some nations, like Iceland, are already exploring the benefits of a longer weekend. From 2015 to 2019, the Reykjavik City Council allowed nearly 3000 employees to reduce their working hours while keeping the same pay level. Analysis of the trial showed that productivity held steady and even improved in a few places, with some workers reporting better health and lower stress levels.