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Why the Week Has Seven Days

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Catherine Boeckmann
November 12, 2021
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No more logic supports seven days than, say eight or five, yet the seven-day week has resisted any and all attempt at change.

Unlike the year and the month, which correspond to the movements of the earth around the sun and the moon around the earth, the week has no astronomical analogue. Seven days is roughly the same length of a phase of the moon (seven days, nine hours) but any system of timekeeping quickly falls apart due to the extra hours piling up.

Officially adopted by the Emperor Constantine in A.D. 321, the seven-day week goes back thousands of years. Here’s some history…

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  • The seven-day week started with the first civilizations of the Middle East. Mesopotamian astrologers designated one day for each of the seven most prominent objects in the sky—the Sun, the Moon, and the five major planets visible to the naked eye.
  • The Jews also adopted a seven-day cycle, based on the time it took the Lord to create the universe as reported in Genesis. A new wrinkle in their week was the Sabbath, a day set aside for rest. This was the first time a culture had invented a holiday that occurred on a regular basis, unrelated to natural phenomena.
  • The Romans adopted different weeks for business reasons; they thought of a week as the 8 days between market days.
  • West African societies preferred a four-day market cycle.
  • In Assyria, 6 days was the rule; in Egypt, 10; in China; 15.
  • The ancient Germans used a five-day cycle named for their primary gods which is how our week ended up honoring Norse deities like Tiw (Tuesday), Odin (Wednesday), Thor (Thursday), and Frigga (Friday). Our word “week” may come from the Old Norse word vikja, which means “to turn.” Sunday and Monday, or course, honor the Sun and the Moon.

Atheistic revolutionaries tried, unsuccessfully, to get rid of the seven-day week. In 1793 the leaders of the French Revolution produced a new calendar divided into three ten-day “decades.” It never caught on, and Napoleon abandoned it in 1805.

In 1929 the Soviet Union tried a five-day week, with one day of rest.

  • Instead of the traditional day names, the days were given colors: yellow, orange, red, purple, and green.
  • In order to keep mass production going, each Soviet citizen was assigned a different day of rest, so that a husband might have a yellow day off, while his wife took her leisure on green.
  • Due to mass confusion, the plan was revised in 1932 to a six-day week, with numbers replacing the colors.
  • By 1940, the Russians were back on the familiar seven-day cycle!

Somebody was always trying to come up with something better! In 1936 the League of Nations solicited proposals for world calendar reform and considered almost 200 different schemes, many of which rearranged the week.

  • Edward Skille of Drummund, Wisconsin, suggested a year consisting of 73 five-day weeks called “metos.” The days of the week would be called Ano, Beno, Ceno, Deno, and Eno.

Why the seven-day week? It doesn’t divide evenly into 365- or 366-day years, so that holidays fall on different days of the week from year to year. But human beings are not logical creatures. Who can imagine saying, “What are you doing next purple?” or “Yeah, it’s Eno!”

As one member of the British Parliament remarked in a 1944 debate on calendar reform, “It is bad enough to be born on April 1, but to have one’s birthday always on a Monday would be perfectly intolerable.”

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Comments

Ronald John (not verified)

1 year 8 months ago

The biblical book of Genesis does indeed record God creating the universe. It is interesting to note that, in the holy scriptures, when the Hebrew word yom is used in connection with reference to night time, it means a twenty-four hour day. When yom is used in connection to a reference to day time, it also means a twenty-four hour day. So, in Genesis chapters one and two, when Moses, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, used the word yom in reference to night AND day, it absolutely means a twenty-four hour day. God created the universe in six literal days, and He did no work on the seventh day, because His work of creation from the beginning was "good" and "ended" . This sets a pattern for everyone to work, but to set aside a day of rest. Thank you.

Val (not verified)

4 years 1 month ago

I do not think there was ever meant to be a calendar set any precise way. It was dark before light, this is called night. Then there was day when the sun rose and then set. That is one day. No day is the same length they are ever changing. So from that we should be calling a day cycle from set of sun, to rise of sun. Not a time on a clock such as 12 pm to 00:01 am That is why we have Leap year and Daylight savings time to fix the mess made for a set time for a day. I would say we should go to that for the days and see what happens. That is how was meant to be I believe. Then there were Signs and Seasons for the rest of the things we needed to know.

You have no understanding of the derivation of the numerical system for timekeeping of the days nor do you understand the calendar and cause for leap years. You are completely wrong. You need to educate yourself.

L Maunder (not verified)

8 years 9 months ago

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."( Genesis 1:1) . This opening statement of the Bible stands alone, indicating no distinct period of time related to the creation of "the heavens and the earth."( A reference to the entire universe) From verse 2 onward, Genesis chapter one discusses the six creative 'days' during which God evidently prepared the-already-existing-earth for human habitation. These six creative 'days' could have lasted for thousands of years. The Bible account of creation, thus, does not conflict with scientific conclusions about the age of the universe. [Compare Genesis 2:4 for the figurative use of the word "day."]

Your mention of Earth being Gods place to put creation asserts a gap that God couldn't do Creation in 6 days, and then take a rest. The Bible says, evening and morning and it was the 1st day. So the earth was rotating, and in that 24 hour period, we have evening and morning. Jesus did not need 'gaps' for His creation, He is God, all knowing and able to speak creation into existence, 'Is Genesis History' video series explains it all very well, very well. Also, the rest on the 7th day shows man that he will need a rest, we are not God, but we need rest, and God put in place a 'holiday' to allow reflection and worship toward a perfect God so we could give glory to the God who deserves it.

Yes, the "gap theory" can explain the age, but not the fact that the overwhelming scientific evidence is that species evolved, and did not all begin spontaneously. Nor can it account for details like plants being created before the sun.

The beginning of Genesis was not INTENDED to be literal. Efforts of modern people to figure out some way where it makes literal sense not only don't work, they are counter to the actual literary intentions of the author.

Charles (not verified)

6 months 3 weeks ago

Sorry, I missed this, but evolution may take place, but it never 'makes' entirely new creatures, but animals 'evolve' within their own species by means of selective breeding, but they never ever become something else they are not. The fossil record clearly backs this up. 'Is Genesis History' really does a bang-up job in explaining it all, but DNA does not allow a fish to grow legs and get lungs and start to roam the ground, Jesus made every creature unique and special, and they produce after their own kind. There had to be a being who was not affected by time, space, and matter, who was all-knowing who could put this earth and solar system and universe together, with such detail that it continues on its own in a logical manner, without creating or destroying anything; its self-sustaining. That Creator is Jesus. What a beautiful planet He made for man, and yet, we have evolved to the point where we deny His very existence, but He is the only answer to all that we see around us and why we are the way we are.

Charles (not verified)

6 months 3 weeks ago

Carlo, when scripture is not literal, scripture clearly points out in terms such as 'like this' or 'in a vision' and scripture clearly defines the time frames as evening and morning were the 1st day, a single rotation of the planet. Jesus does not need an evolutionary explanation for His creation, He is highly capable of doing what He said He did, and does, and is coming back to do. This world is falling apart, because of the original sin of man, and it is getting worse, because man continues to not trust God for man's salvation, but we believe we can save ourselves. The Bible is not a fairy tale, nor is it a good idea put together by man, but it is an autobiography of Jesus' story of how man originated and how we ended up where we are at, and where we are headed, if we do not repent and turn from our wicked way and trust Jesus to save us from death, the second death, aka hell.

Well stated L Maunder. The bible does not state how long it took God to "create the heavens and the earth."(Gen 1:1) However after it became "without form, and void"(Gen 1:2) it took God 6 days to put it back together in a state to be inhabited. And then he rested on the seventh day.

Both of you are JWs or taught by JWs, Moses created HIS 7-day week in 1513bc which is long after Adam. Your perspective is backwards as to what comes first. There was no WEEK before Noah's Flood. It is a creation centuries after that Flood.