📅 Not all weekends are on Saturdays and Sundays
Also, why are there seven days a week, and how did leap years and weekends come about? Oh, have you heard Billie Eilish's new song?
Today’s Wednesday, a day when all topic-drained conversations can die peacefully with a convenient and chirpy ‘Happy Hump Day’. But what exactly does a ‘hump day’ mean?
I recall the first time hearing this phrase a couple of years back and shrugging it off as some sort of new internet slang. But boy was I wrong. The term has actually been in use since the 1950s.
With Wednesday as the middle of the workweek for most countries, it is the hump that people have to get over to cruise into the weekends. Why ‘most countries’, you ask? Well, that’s because not all weekends are on Saturday and Sunday around the world.
What? Saturdays and Sundays are not global weekends?
That’s right.
Many Islamic countries have weekends on Thursday and Friday, or Friday and Saturday.
If you’re working in a firm with counterparts in these countries, you may need to adjust your work week accordingly too.
Why are there seven days in a week anyway?
It’s all because of the Babylonians 4, 000 years back. They enjoyed studying the movements of moons, stars and planets, which is why a day is equivalent to a full spin of the Earth, and a year is akin to one revolution of the Earth around the blazing hot sun.
It’s all very elegant.
Image credits: Ancient pages
In fact, we’re so strict about tabulating time that we routinely add an extra day in February once every four years for accuracy.
After all, it takes 365 days and another quarter day for the Earth to complete her dance around the sun, and we are not prepared to let these quarter days go unaccounted for. So, we have the leap year.
Sheesh.
Seeing how the Babylonians believed that there were seven celestial bodies, it comes as no surprise that we have seven days in a week. We’ll need to thank the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn for our Monday to Sunday schedule.
Considering how Pluto gets dropped off and invited back at the whims and fancies of scientists, who knows? The Babylonians may be right about the number of planets someday.
Okay, I know there’re intelligent discussions underlying Pluto’s fate, but still. It’s a sad little planet who’s just trying to fit in and belong. :(
Photo credits: Explicit Designs
Also, given the 28-day moon cycle, the Babylonians proceeded to cleverly divide it up into four equal parts of seven, which gave us seven days a week, again!
It’s all very mathematical.
Of course, not all civilizations had seven days in a week. The Egyptians has 10-day weeks, and the Romans had an eight-day one.
Subsequently, as a result of faith, industrial revolution, workers’ fight for their rights and cultural norms, weekends were birthed. And the sweet sweet weekends are what we look forward to. :)
Any plans for the weekends? Leave a comment and let me know!
You’ve made it to hump day, so push on! Here’s Billie Eilish’s new song, my future, for you to gently groove to as you work from home/office/anywhere in the world.
Pssst
Singapore celebrated her 55th birthday on 9th August, Sunday, a few days ago. Here’s a rookie shot taken at a bus interchange on National Day itself.
I love how the series of Do-Nots and fines are plastered on the wall, coincidentally colour coordinated too. I’ve also managed to capture a faceless shot unintentionally.
One more thing, a random quote spoke to me on a sticker stuck to the aluminium foil that was holding my quesadilla together. To all the over-thinkers and pessimists reading this:
“I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” ―Mark Twain