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 Post subject: Why is the Week Seven Days Long?
PostPosted: Mon May 05, 2014 5:07 am 
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Many religious groups point to the seven-day week as confirmation of the creation story in Genesis, and some claim that the S-M-T-W-T-F-S rotation of days has been unchanged throughout history. Of course, it could have been the other way around. The days of the week, and the week itself, may have been established, and then the Book of Genesis written to conform to that. Is there any historical evidence on why we have a seven-day week? Is there some astronomical significance to it? I know that day is 24 hours long, because that is approximately how long it takes the earth to make a complete turn on its axis. And the year is approximately 365 days, because that is how long it takes for the earth to do a complete rotation around the sun? But why is the week 7 days long? Has any society ever used a week that was not 7 days long?


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 Post subject: Why is the Week Seven Days Long?
PostPosted: Wed Jul 04, 2018 9:38 pm 
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Unlike the year, month, and day, the week ha no astronomical equivalent. The first three relate to the orbit of the Earth, the orbit of the Moon, and the rotation of the Earth. The only astronomical justification for the week i that it about a quarter of a lunar month, so provides a way of marking the day between quarter in the lunar cycle. Thu it take a week (plu a little bit) to get from New Moon to First Quarter, from First Quarter to Full Moon, etc. Four weeks equal 28 days, while a lunar month is 29,5 day. Then again, the lunar months dont fit into the year exactly either: 12 lunar months i 354 day, 11 day short of a year.


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 Post subject: Why is the Week Seven Days Long?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 12:30 am 
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There is no natural basis for a 7-day week. Its an arbitrary number chosen long ago for one reason or another (religious, practical, whatever) and has since been adopted worldwide, for the sake of convenience and/or tradition.


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 Post subject: Why is the Week Seven Days Long?
PostPosted: Sun Mar 24, 2019 10:01 pm 
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Because the inventor of the calendar only know 7 names traditionaly


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 Post subject: Why is the Week Seven Days Long?
PostPosted: Wed Jan 27, 2021 10:21 pm 
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A Cycle of Lunar phases (those days they didnt know what is sidereal) is called month. Later Year evolved as the cycle of Sun. Someone sitting at home must have observed the progress of shadows changing with seasons and their angles and timings to reckon a Year. All of them were reckoned in terms of days as units. Exact reckoning of events like the moment of Full Moon or that of Vernal (Spring) Equinox came much much later and thought to be high Science. Even now the predominant view is that these things are the domain of Scientists; so much so lifting the eyes and looking up at the Moon has been labeled Scientific pursuit.
Of all these Week has no astronomical basis. Lunar cycle was observed to be clearly split in two equal parts - waxing& waning. So Fortnight was another astronomical consequence for time keeping lasting 14 days. But it didnt gain any popularity nor extensive use. Smaller unit of lesser number of days was needed.So the fortnight was again split into two of seven days each. Like I said already, day was the unit and its fraction was ignored. Whether the four weeks make up a whole month or not is left for those who can juggle with numbers and not ordinary folks, who are bothered about Weekly wage payments. As there were seven wanderers (planets): Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus & Saturn that most of them have been observing every day, the week days were named for them. Most cultures followed with their versions. Anglo-Saxons adopted even the names of their forebears with a Norse flavour, that is with us now.
Dont get me wrong , I know Sun and Moon arent (now) because of Science. A host of associated paraphernalia like Astrology that shaped things in the Sky gave interpretations that would affect strongly on human affairs, and all that. Superstition is part of human being like the modern man worrying about Ophiuchus that he never heard of before. The imbecility I see on Y!A strengthens my belief that humans cant be without superstitions - both old world or new world versions.
Folklore gets the better of humans even in unlikeliest of times. I recall an event in India, in 1962 when 8 of the possible 9 planets gathered in Capricorn on February 5. Indians for convenience add the pair of Lunar nodes also as wanderers(=planets) largely for the sake of computations to predict eclipses making it 9 in place of 7. As the node pair are diametrically opposite on the zodiac, there can be a maximum of 8 assembling in a house or sign like on that date. It went into the folk imagination.The last two (Raahu & Kaetu) were a mythological serpents head and tail. So fear of something happening (like 22-12-2022 or 12-22-2022 now) was a consequence of that 8-planet momentary event in Capricorn (Ashta graha kootami= Octa planet conjunction). It was rumoured that a headless body - Kaetu - would walk the streets on that moonless night (being New Moon & Solar Eclipse, as the node was also there). In some places all, closed the doors after dusk for a fortnight, even not responding to any guest outside tapping the door.February 5, 1962 passed off peacefully except that there was a Solar Eclipse before sunrise(may be in East Asia ) that Indians didnt get to see. I look forward to such stuff of Semiotics (I collect for my mental archive such events) not with apprehension but interest.


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 Post subject: Why is the Week Seven Days Long?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2021 5:55 am 
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From ancient historical records, the explicit origin of the seven-day week is the religious significance that was placed on the seventh day by ancient cultures, including the Jewish and Babylonian cultures. The Jews celebrated every seventh day, within a continuous cycle of seven-day weeks, as a holy day of rest from their work. Similarly, the Babylonians also celebrated the seventh day of each seven-day week as a holy day, but adjusted the number of days of the final week in their month so that their monthly calendar would always commence on the new moon. Historically, a number of other major religio-cultural groups, such as Christians and Muslims, have continued to regularly hold religious events on a specific day within each seven-day week.

Its been proposed that 7-day week is tied to the lunar cycle, but its wrong. The 7-day week is actually only 23.7% of a lunation, which means that a continuous cycle of 7-day weeks rapidly loses synchronisation with the lunation. This problem is compounded by the fact that a lunation is only the mean time for the lunar phase cycle, with each individual lunar phase varying in length. Finally, there are no historical Jewish or Babylonian records that confirm that these cultures explicitly defined the seven-day week as a quarter of a lunation.

...

Other cultures and nations used (or still use traditionally) different number of days in a week, anything from 3 day-week to 10 day-week.


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 Post subject: Why is the Week Seven Days Long?
PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2021 7:08 am 
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It is because the moon takes about 28 days to go through its phases, and the phases are usually 7 days apart

(New moon, First Quarter, Full Moon, Last quarter)

Simples.


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 Post subject: Why is the Week Seven Days Long?
PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2021 8:36 am 
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I have wondered about this. It is a very old tradition that goes back to a time when people could see seven objects in the sky:
Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury.
It is clear that these became days in the week: Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
In French, Tuesday is Mardi (Mars), Wednesday is Mercredi (Mercury), Thursday is jeudi (Jupiter), Friday is Vendredi (Venus), Saturday is Samedi (Saturn), and Sunday is Dimanche (Sabath=Sunday).

:-D The choice of seven days is itself related to the phases of the Moon. Humans have usually used the Sun, Moon and stars for determining the calendar they used. Ancient people were very good at math. Over time, the phases of the moon have been used in religious or spiritual activities and have influenced the female menstrual cycle. The terms "menstruation" and "menses" are derived from the Latin mensis (month), which in turn relates to the Greek mene (moon) and to the roots of the English words month and moon.

It was also a stable geometric number: 7 logs when tied together will remain stable. 3 logs will also remain stable. Both 3 and 7 were, and continue to be, mystical numbers.

:-D Do you feel lucky? What is your lucky number?


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 Post subject: Why is the Week Seven Days Long?
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 1:29 am 
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http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/444/why-are-there-seven-day-in-a-week



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