From: Andrew Usher on
Brian M. Scott wrote:

> >>> And the first day of the week is Sunday, not Monday - that
> >>> is an incontrovertible fact.
>
> >> Don't be ridiculous: it's merely a convention. For many of
> >> us Monday is unquestionably the first day of the week.
>
> > It's historically true. No one questioned it before modern times.
>
> Apparently you're not familiar with the Slavic and Baltic
> day-names. For that matter, Sunday is the first day in
> Jewish tradition for the same reason that Monday is the
> first day for many of us today.

The Slavic and Baltic day names come from Greek tradition (itself
aberrant), not from Western tradition where it was always Sunday. In
addition, it's probably true that the astrological week came before
the Jews adopted it.

Andrew Usher
From: Cheryl on
Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> On Feb 21, 10:59 am, Mike Barnes <mikebar...(a)bluebottle.com> wrote:
>> Yusuf B Gursey <y...(a)theworld.com>:
>>> On Feb 19, 11:25 am, Mike Barnes <mikebar...(a)bluebottle.com> wrote:
>
>>>> But I thought that for most people the whole point of Easter is that
>>>> they get time off work.
>>> not in the US, at least not in my state.
>> So I now understand. Here in England, Friday and Monday are holidays,
>> and school terms fit around them. That's the problem with Easter. I
>> think it's fair to say that many people here would be happy if they
>> fixed the dates of the public holidays (e.g. second weekend in April)
>> and allowed the holy day to shift as it will. I don't if or why
>> disconnecting them would matter to anyone.
>
> That's because you're stuck with a state religion.
>
> In NYC, parking regulations are suspended for just about anyone's
> religious holidays.

Hey, we get to take some religious holidays (Christmas Day and Good
Friday) off work even without a state religion! I'm ecumenical; I'd take
ANY religious holidays. I suspect that there's some rule that you have
to be a member of the religion in question in order to not work that
aren't also legal or secular holidays, but that could be fixed by making
them ALL legal holidays. My home province ended up cancelling some of
the religious (ie Christian) holidays from the list of legal days off in
the interests of increased productivity, but some workers still have the
old list embodied in their contracts. Now, of course, some of them get
"Mid-March" and "Mid-July" off rather than religious holidays.

--
Cheryl
From: Andrew Usher on
Brian M. Scott wrote:

> >>>> And trying to come up with a new calendar fixating on
> >>>> Christmas is about as logical as fixating on Waitangi
> >>>> Day.
>
> >>> This is just West-bashing.
>
> >> Don't be silly: New Zealand is part of the cultural west.
>
> > But what the day commemorates is not.
>
> You should have checked to see what it actually does
> commemorate before posting such nonsense.

As far as I know, it's used today as just another excuse for white
guilt. It hasn't been continuously observed since the event itself,
like out July 4 has been.

And even if I'm wrong, it's no more important than July 4, and I don't
base my calendar around that, either. I chose the Christian holidays
because they are international, and fitting other US days is a bonus.

Andrew Usher
From: Andrew Usher on
Mike Barnes wrote:

> So I now understand. Here in England, Friday and Monday are holidays,
> and school terms fit around them. That's the problem with Easter. I
> think it's fair to say that many people here would be happy if they
> fixed the dates of the public holidays (e.g. second weekend in April)
> and allowed the holy day to shift as it will. I don't if or why
> disconnecting them would matter to anyone.

Indeed, and my calendar would accomplish the same thing for Easter
weekend as was done for Whit Monday.

Andrew Usher
From: António Marques on
On Feb 21, 12:40 am, "Androcles" <Headmas...(a)Hogwarts.physics_u>
wrote:
> "Adam Funk" <a24...(a)ducksburg.com> wrote in message
>
> news:47t557xq46.ln2(a)news.ducksburg.com...
>
>
>
> > On 2010-02-20, Brian M. Scott wrote:
>
> >> On Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:49:14 -0000, Androcles
> >><Headmas...(a)Hogwarts.physics_u> wrote in
> >><news:mmNfn.9989$X_6.9098(a)newsfe22.ams2> in
> >> sci.math,sci.physics,sci.astro,sci.lang:
>
> >>> "Brian M. Scott" <b.sc...(a)csuohio.edu> wrote in message
> >>>news:1s2uq5glt3lgu$.1m746rj1287gz$.dlg(a)40tude.net...
>
> >>>> Don't be ridiculous: it's merely a convention.  For many of
> >>>> us Monday is unquestionably the first day of the week.
>
> >>> Which day is Mittwoch
>
> >> The middle of the five-day work week.
>
> > It should be renamed Wotanstag.
>
> Odin's, Wotan's, Woden's, Weden's, Wednesday, it's
> all the same in the Germanic languages. Now try it in the
> Latin languages... such as Portugooses.
> Domingo segunda-feira terça-feira quarta-feira quinta-feira sexta-feira
> sábado
> and Italian
> Domenica lunedì martedì mercoledì giovedì venerdì sabato
>
> Translation byhttp://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt

Iinm, all the romance languages have week names derived from the roman
gods. Pt is the exception, having '2nd-6th fair' for Mon-Fry. There,
monday is 2nd-fair, not 1st, though our calendars usually begin on
monday. The roman-gods-names do exist in galician, where they are
geographically dominant. Luns, martes, mércores, xoves, venres.
Presumbaly pt would have luns, martes, mércores/mércoles?, joves,
vernes/vendres/venres? had it developed from a different region.