LL-L "Tradition" 2010.09.02 (04) [EN]

Sat Sep 4 04:10:26 UTC 2010

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*L O W L A N D S - L - 03 September 2010 - Volume 04
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From: Kevin & Cheryl Caldwell <kevin.caldwell1963 at verizon.net>

Subject: LL-L "Tradition" 2010.09.03 (03) [EN]

American calendars are usually printed with Sunday as the first day of the
week, and I’ve always considered Sunday to be the first day of the week
(probably because of my strong Christian upbringing in which we always
talked about Sunday as the first day of the week). A week has two “ends” in
a sense (i.e., a front end and a back end, so to speak), so calling Saturday
and Sunday a “weekend” has never bothered me. Monday is the first day of the
*work* week, which lasts five days.

I also don’t consider Sunday a “day of rest” necessarily, but rather a day
of worship (because the resurrection occurred on the first day of the week).
Saturday is more what I’d call a “day of rest,” but I don’t really observe a
formal day of rest.

Kevin Caldwell

Laurel, Maryland

From: M.-L. Lessing <marless at gmx.de>

Subject: LL-L "Tradition" 2010.09.03 (02) [EN]

Hello everyone,

apart from the matter of calendar weeks and religious traditions, is there
anyone living in a western country who has the *feeling *that a new week
begins on sunday? I definitely have not; when I wish you "Schönes
Wochenende" this clearly includes the Sunday; and for all the people I know
Monday is the first day of the new week. When somebody says "We will spend
this weekend on Fehmarn" everybody knows they will go to Fehmarn for
Saturday and Sunday. It would feel curious to *begin *a new week with a day
of rest. I would feel uneasy with it. Usually rest is what you need when you
have *finished *something. Or what say you?

Hartlich

Marlou

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From: "Peter Snepvangers" <snepvangers at optushome.com.au>

Subject: LL-L"Tradition" 2010.09.03 (03) [EN]

Ben,

 You wrote:I'm on a list about the Norwegian language
mailto:norsklassen-subscribe at yahoogroups.com<norsklassen-subscribe at yahoogroups.com>.
Every now and then I hear dates demarcated in week numbers that, how liberal
of them, start on a Monday. They were asking if this practice goes on in the
Brittish Isles or elsewhere, being that they mentioned that the EU does it.

Hello Ben, Luc, Ron, Sandy et al,

Seems like we have 2 separate traditions here. Naming the days of the week
after old Norse, Germanic or Roman gods based on the 28 day lunar cycle and
another tradition of naming the days in a numerical fashion such as the
Hebrew (Sabbath is the seventh day, Saturday) and Mandarin Chinese (xing shi
yi  is Monday, first day of the week).

Some countries have a mish mash of both systems due to religion etc. Why
would Mandarin with its long history not have a celestial tradition I
wonder?

Cheers

Peter Snepvangers

Sydney Australia

snepvangers at optushome.com.au

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>

Subject: Tradition

Peter,

The Chinese system you referred to is fairly new and is foreign-inspired.

The original Chinese week had ten days:

The Chinese 10 day week went as far back as the Shang Dynasty (1200-1045
BC).[15] The law in the Han Dynasty (206 BC – AD 220) required officials of
the empire to rest every 5 days, called "mu", while it was changed into 10
days in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618 – 907), called "huan" or xún (旬). Months
were almost 3 weeks long (alternating 29 and 30 days to keep in line with
the lunation). The weeks were labelled shàng xún (上旬), zhōng xún (中旬), and
xià xún (下旬) which mean roughly "upper", "middle" and "lower" week.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week#China]

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

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