Why is Sunday the Beginning of the Week?

[Paragon Fury]

So here is something I've never been able to grasp; both on the calender and officially, Sunday is considered the be the beginning of a new week - even though Monday makes more sense.

Most of the world's schedule revolves around a Monday-Sunday mindset - you work Monday-Friday, have Sat/Sunday off. Kids go to school Monday-Friday, Sat and Sunday off. Business hours reflect a Monday-Sunday schedule, not a Sunday-Sat schedule.

But calenders and official timelines insist on putting Sunday at the beginning of the week. Why? Its not like putting Sunday at the end would cause any major disaster.

 

[Fappy]

You'd anger the sun god. He doesn't like coming in last.

 

[Tayh]

What? Where have you seen that?
I don't think I've ever seen a week-calender that puts the Sunday first.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

What? Where have you seen that?
I don't think I've ever seen a week-calender that puts the Sunday first.

It's an American thing. Americans like doing things backwards and different for no good reason except that doing things logically would mean change, and change is always bad.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I assumed they just did it to make the boxes on Monday to Friday more center aligned since Sunday is on the left side and Saturday is on the right side to it?

I don't think it's that bad, I mean have you met people who think Sunday is the start of the week?

 

[Euryalus]

Does this really bother you that much? It doesn't even really matter all that much. I mean the whole 7 day week is based on Genesis, so I don't think "logically" any order of which is first makes a difference when it comes to business/school concerns.

 

[CityofTreez]

What? Where have you seen that?
I don't think I've ever seen a week-calender that puts the Sunday first.

It's an American thing. Americans like doing things backwards and different for no good reason except that doing things logically would mean change, and change is always bad.

American thing?

I have never met, or heard of an american who thinks the week starts on a Sunday.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Eh? I've never seen a calendar start on Sunday. So my answer is: It isn't.

 

[Vegosiux]

Hey as long as I played WoW, a week always started on wednesday for me.

These days? Uh, no day is different from any other day, except that weekends are nasty, while everyone out there is having fun I'm toiling in the nastiest shifts of the week.

 

[aba1]

This has always bugged me too not because it is a big deal or anything just because it makes no logical sense and is so completely arbitrary.

 

[Dangit2019]

What? Where have you seen that?
I don't think I've ever seen a week-calender that puts the Sunday first.

It's an American thing. Americans like doing things backwards and different for no good reason except that doing things logically would mean change, and change is always bad.

American thing?

I have never met, or heard of an american who thinks the week starts on a Sunday.

Well, I'm American, and I always thought it started on Sunday...

 

[Dangit2019]

Our calendars in America look like this for those who don't know.

 

[burningdragoon]

From a calendar aesthetic point of view, I much prefer the bookends-style of Sunday - Saturday. Other than that there is no "correct" logic to either set up. Sure the standard business week starts on Monday, but so? If I was describe the incoming work week, on Saturday I would say "next week" and on Sunday I would say "this week". Because saying "next week" when it starts tomorrow is dumb to me.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It's because in Judaism, Sunday is the start of the week, as the Sabbath (the last day of the week) ends at sunup on Sunday. For some reason, Christianity still treats Sunday as the first day of the week, despite treating Sunday as if it were the Sabbath -- going so far that if you ask a lot of Christians what day the Sabbath is, they will happily tell you it's Sunday. Although that's become less common in recent years as people have become more aware of other religions, including Judaism. If you asked the question in, say, the 1930's, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who knew that Sunday /wasn't/ the biblical Sabbath.

 

[trollnystan]

That always confuses me too. Here in Sweden the week begins on Monday, like it's supposed to. We also write dates dd/mm/yy or yy/mm/dd, which is also logical to my way of thinking.

 

[Melon Hunter]

You want confusing week ends? The University of Cambridge has weeks that run from Thursday to Wednesday. It makes my timetable look bizarre when they try to line it up with normal weeks.

As for Sunday being the first day of the week, I've only ever had one instance where it mattered: a teacher who for some reason was really, really anal about Sunday being the first day of the week. As in, you'd get in to trouble for even inferring that Monday was the 'start' of the week. And as far as I'm aware, she wasn't particularly religious. I dunno. I've always labelled Monday as the practical start of the week, regardless of how the calendar's laid out.

 

[RADIALTHRONE1]

Thats why to screw with people i always tell them that thursday is that start of the week.

Actually i use monday as the first day. Useing sunday just seem kinda stupid.

 

[God's Clown]

Far as I can tell everyone considers Monday the beginning of the week, Sunday is just first on Calender cause why the hell not. My place of business says the week ends on Sunday, I say week ends on sunday, Batman probably says week ends on Sunday. Batman is never wrong.

 

[jollybarracuda]

I always find it to be a problem when its like "ok, get it done by the beginning of the week" and you're left with that awkward feeling of which beginning of the week they're talking about. Its like we have two beginnings with sunday being the "technical" beginning and monday just making a heap more sense. Its not a big deal, but hey, its the internet - why the hell not?

Personally, i consider Monday the beginning of a new week, its just when everything starts back up again, so why make it the day before.

 

[linkmastr001]

Who knows? Why do us Americans still have to deal with the overly complicated Empirical system when the Metric system is so much nicer?

But to be frank, I'm just used to thinking of Sunday as the start since I'm used to seeing it on the calendar, if anything for a reason I couldn't word until I saw this:

Sure the standard business week starts on Monday, but so? If I was describe the incoming work week, on Saturday I would say "next week" and on Sunday I would say "this week". Because saying "next week" when it starts tomorrow is dumb to me.

This is why I like Sunday at the beginning, but at the same time, it's usually not a big deal to me if someone thinks of Monday as the start of the week, since it normally isn't relevent to planning anyway.

EDIT: Frankly, I'm more concerned with date formatting. In America it's mm/dd/yy since we write dates as Month, Day Year, but I believe other countries have several variations of it. I think we need to standardize THAT, if anything. Someone tell me how confusing 12/11/12 could be to anyone? It could easily be Dec. 11th of this year, or Nov. 12th, depending on what you're used to.