What is the first day of the week?

[grumbler]

Well it just has been that way my entire life. Every calendar I have ever owned has Sunday as the first day.

As far as not making any sense...it is completely arbitrary which day is the first day so it doesn't have to.

Calendars are set up that way with the work week bracketed by non-workdays for esthetic reasons.  They aren't reflecting a philosophical argument about what the first day of the week is.

For me, the "week ends with a weekend" argument is most compelling, but I'm not committed to the idea that Monday is the first day.  For me, it's just a fun matter of semantics.

[Valmy]

Calendars are set up that way with the work week bracketed by non-workdays for esthetic reasons.  They aren't reflecting a philosophical argument about what the first day of the week is.

Eh, well that's as good a reason as any.

[Valmy]

So when you heathens say weekend you only mean Saturday?

Yes. On Sunday you are supposed to be in Church doing Gods work. Or something.

[Rex Francorum]

Monday. Even if our calendar doesn't say so.

[Grey Fox]

So when you heathens say weekend you only mean Saturday?

Why would the weekend be a separate entity from the week instead of being part of it?

[crazy canuck]

Saturday is the weekend. Literally the end of the week.

This shows up in lots of ways. For example Saturday is a work day for the purposes of calculating days of notice in our interpretation act.

The end of the week (Saturday) is then of course followed by Sunday.  Historically that was a day of rest and all businesses were closed.  It's a recent development that a weekend was both days and both were days free of work.  That development has confused things a bit so now Sunday is considered the end of the week.  Which is also odd since now the end of the working week is actually Friday.

[Josquius]

So when you heathens say weekend you only mean Saturday?

Why would the weekend be a separate entity from the week instead of being part of it?

It isn't?
It's a sub part.

[Valmy]

Well we just had Labor Day Weekend here in the US, and it includes Monday

[crazy canuck]

Stat holidays are not part of the weekend

[Grey Fox]

So when you heathens say weekend you only mean Saturday?

Why would the weekend be a separate entity from the week instead of being part of it?

It isn't?
It's a sub part.

Tell that to Tamas.

[Tamas]

Well we just had Labor Day Weekend here in the US, and it includes Monday

Gotcha. So Sunday is part of the weekEND. Ergo it cannot be the start of the week.

[Tamas]

So when you heathens say weekend you only mean Saturday?

Why would the weekend be a separate entity from the week instead of being part of it?

It isn't?
It's a sub part.

Tell that to Tamas.

My point exactly. The weekend as its name suggest is the end of the week. So Sunday is the end of the week.

[HVC]

Just add "work" before weekend and you can see the light, Tamas  P

[grumbler]

Just add "work" before weekend and you can see the light, Tamas  P

So the work week isn't part of the week in your reckoning?  I'm sure that I don't understand.

In USA English, Sunday is part of the weekend.  When someone says "first thing next week, we will need to talk" they are not expecting the talk to take place on Sunday.

But I know that different languages don't even use the equivalent of "weekend" so it would seem that the first day of the week is different in different cultures, which is fine.  There's no need for something so subjective to be universal.

[Valmy]

Well we just had Labor Day Weekend here in the US, and it includes Monday

Gotcha. So Sunday is part of the weekEND. Ergo it cannot be the start of the week.

So Tuesday is the first day of the week!