Cultural: Calendars/Days of the week
When I grew up, I learned that the days of the week went like this - Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Sunday was the first day of the week and Saturday was the seventh day, and the original Sabbath in the Bible. This is the day that, according to the creation story, God rested..
You can see that Sunday is in red - as are holidays.
We also learned that the work week was Monday through Friday and Wednesday was "hump day" - the day that once you finish, you are over half way through your work week.
Typically calendars in the US have Sunday on the left as the first day of the week.
Calendars in Poland typically put Sunday at the end of the week, and if you talked to someone about what day of the week is Sunday, they'd say it is the seventh day. They would then say that is what "week END" means - and that Monday starts the first day of the week.
No amount of trying to persuade people from the Bible helps either. They just say that it's how it is all over Europe.
While this is a relatively unimportant issue, it is difficult to resolve in my brain.
I mean I really don't care what anyone calls it on a daily matter - but when it comes to biblical issues, it actually does come into play.
Here's why.
In the New Testament, the Bible says the women went to the tomb early on the first day of the week (Mark 16:1, Luke 24:1) and that was the day of the Resurrection. This points to Sunday - and the early church began to meet together on Sunday as a result of commemorating the resurrection.
This was the beginning of worship on Sunday and not Saturday.
The original sabbath - the seventh day - which as I grew up learning, was Saturday - There are groups like Seventh Day Adventists who worship on Saturday. because of that fact. Jewish people also have their Sabbath from Friday sundown til Saturday sundown because that is the 7th day as they understand their Old Testament..
So, those are the reasons I was taught that Sunday was the first day of the week. However, people here believe that Sunday is the seventh day of the week. How it all jives with the Biblical accounts, I haven't figured out. It bothers my mind as there is conflict there - when I think about it. (It's sort of like quilt blocks that just won't line up right! It niggles the brain.)
They definitely celebrate Resurrection Sunday, for example, on Sunday - but then again, they also have what they call Easter Monday. As I understand, though, that is primarily just a day off and a different kind of celebration - mostly they celebrate Smingus Dingus on that day - and not really the Resurrection of Christ. However, if a person who believes that Sunday is the seventh day is going to celebrate the Resurrection on the first day of week, then they should celebrate Resurrection on MONDAY to be consistent. I've never heard this addressed by anyone in the Roman Catholic church. It's just one of those things I've noticed.
(I'd be curious if I have any Roman Catholic readers based in the US if you could chime in here and say what your local parish teaches about this.)
So, does this whole thing even matter?
Like I said, not really - not until you begin to teach kids the names of the days of the week and try to start with Sunday and they just stare at you! LOL
This is a calendar I was given - well, part of it, anyway. The names under the date are the names of the people who have name days -a kind of celebration that many older people celebrate instead of birthdays.
Here you can see the names up close for the name days.
end of the week. If you look carefully you will see the title of the days of the week in four languages - Polish at the top and then English, German and Russian
And how you know! This is just one of those very SMALL cultural differences. I may be the only person in all of Poland who has even noticed such a thing! (Probably not, but It really is small.)
Have a great day!