Eight Days a Week ?

The Ancient Babylonians, who invented and perfected astronomy, had a calendar with a five day week. Presumably, one day a week was taken as a break.  If so, the Babylonians had 73 days off and  worked 292 days a year.

The Babylonians invented the base 60 number system and the practice of having 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour.   They also invented the practice of assigning 360 degrees to a circle.

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Later the Egyptians developed a solar calendar that had six day weeks.  The Egyptian year had twelve months of thirty days.   Each month had five six day weeks.   At the end of the year, five (or six) days were added to make the calendar match the movement of the sun.  These days were considered unlucky.

If the Egyptians also took a day off each week to rest, they would have fewer days off during the year than the Babylonians, because their work week had one more day in it.  The Egyptians would be working for 12 more days every year than the Babylonians, even though they both got a break of one day a week.  The Babylonians have 73 days off and the Egyptians have 61.
 

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Later, it was a common belief that held that God created the world in seven days, so we had a seven day calendar week.   Since he rested on the seventh day, we now are commended to do so also.  However, when we now take one day off a week, we have even fewer days off in a year than either the Babylonians OR the Egyptians, because our work week is even longer with seven days.  We have 52 days off, which is 9 fewer days off every year than the Egyptians and 21 fewer days off than the Babylonians. We are compelled to work 313 total days every year; which is more than either of Babylonians OR the Egyptians.  And they call this progress?

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In the 1960's the popular singing group The Beatles wrote a song called "Eight Days a Week" and we thought they were kidding.  If past trends continue, this might be the new calendar feature of the future.  If our calendar HAD eight days a week, we would get even fewer days off each year than we do now.   However, with an eight day week, it would be much easier to schedule shifts, and easier to make work assignments, than with the present seven day week.  Eight day weeks correspond to computer data better, with the number eight being two cubed, or 2 x 2 x 2.  Both of these features must be attractive to accountants, investors, managers, and data base programming teams of the future.

Don't be surprised if you hear of people seriously proposing eight day weeks for the worker of the future.  We already have Four Day Tire store and other "Four Day only" businesses.   If so, we will then only get 46 days a year off and be compelled to work 319 total days every year.

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During the French Revolution, decimal measurements were adopted that unified the measuring standards of Continental Europe and eventually the world (except for the United States).  During that event, this new Metric System was adopted for the measurement of volume, distance, weight, but not time.  The revolutionaries wanted to establish a decimal time also; with 100 second minutes and 100 minute hours and ten hour days and ten day weeks, but they were stopped by The Church.  "There could NOT be ten day weeks, because God created the world in seven days," it was reasoned.  The argument was irrefutable and the traditional method of measuring time persisted, even though all other measurements became decimal measurements in the Metric System.

Maybe French bankers were behind this idea, because if Ten Day Weeks were adopted, the worker would only get 36 days a year off of work; half the time off of his Babylonian counterpart.

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One of the Mayan Calendars has weeks of thirteen days.   This Calendar is their spiritual calendar and has 20 months (or weeks) of thirteen days each.  The total length of this "year" is 260 days.  The Mayans also use a Secular Calendar of 365 days in their traditional calendar dating system.  Presumably, since this is a spiritual calendar, there are no weekends.

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In the Bahai Faith, there is a calendar with 19 day weeks.  Every 19 days there is a ceremony and a dinner.  There are 19 months (or weeks) of 19 days and this makes a year of 361 days plus four (or five) intercalculary days.

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The ancient Romans had no concept of a "week" in their original calendar.   They only had months and certain feast days.   Their months were alternately 29 or 31 days long because they held the "even number" to be unlucky.  Curiously, the fifteenth and seventeenth of the month were held to be unlucky days and little business was conducted then.   

When Julius Caesar was Ruler, he standardized the Roman calendar and adopted the Egyptian system of months.  Since the Romans held that "even numbers" were unlucky, they added days to certain months to make these months more auspicious by having an "odd number" of days.

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So we can see that in the course of Human history, there have been many popular ways to organize the days into weeks and months.  It is difficult to say which system is best, but the variety is amusing to think about.   Unfortunately, it seems that the only end result is that we all inevitably work longer hours for less money while someone else tells us things are continually getting better.  I am not sure what the answer is, but I do know that if we are lucky enough to get a day off, we had better figure out how to enjoy it!

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This is a Universal Calendar overlay that I created for fame and fortune.   To tell your fortune, simply overlay this graphic on the calendar month of your choice.  The associated symbol is representative of your fortune for that day.  It is amazing how enlightening and inspiring this practice can be.

Universal Calendar

copyright(c) 2015

William Schaeffer