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Where in history is the reference point of modern week day countdown? [SOLVED] (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by wAkawAka@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I mean, if today i.e. is Sunday then someone long time ago should have said "Today will be Sunday" for the first time in a period from today that is multiple of seven. I was assuming that it was Pope Gregory XIII in October 1582, but looks like he is not. I failed in googling and duckduckgoing out the answer, so I ask for Lemmy's collective wisdom!

EDIT: so question is not about the origin of 7-day week and sequence of weekday names, but about the exact reference point (day) of today’s weekday countdown. From when have people stopped adding or ommiting any adjustment 'out-of-week' days (like in Babylon or Rome) and kept counting to seven till today? In other words, there should be a point exactly N x 7 days ago from which the 7-day countdown has not been interrupted. Or at least the earliest known day in history that everyone on Earth agreed upon as a reference point

EDIT 2: Solved by https://lemmy.world/comment/1852458 Thanks everyone!

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[–] TeddE@lemmy.world 36 points 11 months ago (7 children)

From weeks in general: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week

The modern seven-day week can be traced back to the Babylonians, who used it within their calendar. Other ancient cultures had different week lengths, including ten in Egypt and an eight-day week for Etruscans.

There's probably a rabbit hole to go down to get into the mindset of who decided that a seven day week was a better system then what the neighbors are using. Babylonian astronomy and mathematics at the time likely played a role.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonia

And overall there's a rich history to how we divide up the years in calendar reform.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_reform

Personally, I've fallen in love with the international fixed calendar. It proposes getting rid of the 30 days hath November nonsense and making all months 28 days. Take all the month-ends and combine them into a new month Sol, and since 28 × 13 is 364, create a new holiday called world day that is part of no week, no month, just doin' it's own thing. Add on a monthless leap day when needed and like magic, months are now a functional unit of measurement. 1 month = 28 days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fixed_Calendar

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 4 points 11 months ago

I also love this calendar. It's important to remember that "what day of the week is it" is an important question for at least two world religions, though, so months won't always start on the same day of the week from year to year — but every month in a given year will.

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