From: hathaway@stsci.edu
Subject: Re: Days of the Week, revisited
Organization: Space Telescope Science Institute
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 22:13:54 GMT

In article <28697@dog.ee.lbl.gov>, veklerov@spindle.ee.lbl.gov (eugene veklerov) writes:
> In article <1993Jan28.145955.1@stsci.edu> hathaway@stsci.edu writes:
>>In article <GERRY.93Jan28102659@onion.cmu.edu>, gerry@cmu.edu (Gerry Roston) writes:
>>> In article <1993Jan27.163007.1@stsci.edu> hathaway@stsci.edu writes:
>>> 
>>>    nth day  Planet  English   Babylon  Teuton       French 
>>> 
>>>    1st day  Sun     Sunday    Shamash  Sunnundag    Dimanche (Lord's Day) 
>>>    2nd day  Moon    Monday    Sin      Monandag     Lundi 
>>>    3rd day  Mars    Tuesday   Nergal   Tiesdag      Mardi 
> 
> [the rest is removed to save the bandwidth]
> 
> The problem is that in many European countries, the 1st day of the week is
> Monday, rather than Sunday.  Perhaps, the Americans prefer to rest before
> starting a new week but others feel better taking a break after the work
> is done.
> 
> That is reflected in languages.  Here is the Russian version:
> 
>       2nd day Vtornik (vtoroy == second)
>       4th day Chetverg (chetverty == fourth)
>       5th day P'atnitsa (p'at' == fifth)
> 
> Eugene Veklerov

Yes - actually this book lists the days for 32 languages, and for 
Russian, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, and Chinese, the numbering 
is one day different from the other languages that use numbers rather than 
days.  Indeed, even in American calendars, the first day is displayed 
as Sunday, but most of us workers consider the first (work) day on 
Monday as the start of the week.  The book discusses these dual usages 
in the context of Sabbath (on 'Saturday') vs. Sunday (also developed 
as a religious day).  As there is no real astronomical zero-point, what is 
considered the 'first' seems to be a matter of custom and preference.  
I know when pay day is though.  :-) 


If you want to see a real weird week, consider the shift work 
schedule I followed for four+ years with a geosynchronous telescope - 

7 days on  - first shift  (Thurs - Wed) 
4 days off                (Thurs - Sun) 
7 days on  - second shift (Mon   - Sun) 
3 days off                (Mon   - Wed) 
2 days on  - office work  (Thurs - Fri) 
2 days off                (Sat   - Sun) 
2 days on  - office work  (Mon   - Tue) 
1 day  off                (Wed) 
------
28 days - 18 on, 10 off   (Work half the Sat/Sun weekends, other half off) 

Then start over again, BUT the first shift then started 2 hours earlier than 
the month before (with the second shift following - there was no third 
shift - the European control center operated it then).  
(2 hours / month * 12 months / year) = 24 hours / year equals the difference 
between the normal year and the sidereal year (one extra turn around the sky).
[Yes, 28 days is not quite a month, but then with these killer shifts, we had 
such turn-over we'd have to start a new schedule often enough to adjust - we 
just wouldn't get days off, but for a long time I could tell when my shift 
was about to start back up by looking at the phase of the moon.]  

Oil rig workers, firefighters, police, military, medical folk, other space 
people all have various 'weeks'.  

Here at STScI schedule observations on an unambiguous day-of-year and UT. 
But each week starts at Zero UT Sunday/Monday.  (i.e. next week starts 
at 1993.032:00:00:00). 

Regards, 

Wm. Hathaway