Jill Lepore is a member of the Harvard history faculty and also a writer for the New Yorker. She has an article in the current issue about the history of the week.
I find the week a subject of interest. As Prof. Lepore mentions, days and years have rather natural markers of light and seasons but weeks are more arbitrary. Lepore cites various attempts to create better weeks with more or less days in them but they haven't really taken off. Personally, I think the nature of my days of the week matter more often to my life than months or years or maybe even seasons.
Years ago, I was introduced to the book "Waiting for the Weekend" by the architect Witold Rybczynski. He has other books and I don't usually read much about architecture but some of the interesting points about weeks and days of the week and their nature are mentioned in that book as well as in Lepore's article. The names we use are related to Norse gods and goddesses, like Woden and Thor. The Hebrew Bible does say that God rested on the 7th day and that passage has probably had some influence on what happens on what day. There is also the matter of the Sabbath and a holy day of the week, on which work was to be avoided to create a day of rest and holy thought. The actual day of special attention to life and holy matters is different from ours in some cultures.
The use of Rybczynski's term, "weekend", is especially related to the work days and days of non-working. I have seen comments in British writing that imply the word and the concept are especially American. When thinking about the week, the subject of modern industrialization comes up. Farming, especially work on fields of plants, naturally relates to sunrise and sunset, time when one can see better. Industry tends to modify the day into one that begins at a given hour on the clock, when the factory whistle blows or the school day begins. Of course, that idea relates to having a clock, whatever that is, and being able to use it.
My life tends to be strongly related to the day of the week. I know the names of the days and I can recite them in the order used. You might think that I could not be confused as to whether today is Saturday or the day before that or the day after. When I was a kid, I knew I could look at the first page of the newspaper to figure out which day I was in. Now, my paper, my computer, my cellphone, my smartphone, …… all tell me. I tend to spend time on the web page of Time.gov but I can't seem to find the day of the week or the date there.
