A week is a unit of time longer than a day and shorter than a month. In most modern calendars, including the Gregorian Calendar, the week is a period of seven days, making it the longest conventionally used time unit that contains a fixed number of days. Although having no direct astronomical basis, it is widely used as a unit of time. Weeks can be thought of as forming an independent continuous calendar running in parallel with various other calendars. However, some calendars have been designed so that a given date occurs on the same day of the week each year. This can be done by making the week dependent on the year, with some days each year that do not belong to any week: the proposed World Calendar has 52 weeks and 1 or 2 extra days each year, while the French Revolutionary Calendar had 36 weeks of 10 days and 5 or 6 extra days. The year can also be made dependent on the week: the former Icelandic calendar had years of 52 or 53 weeks.1 Origin of the Seven-Day Week
The ancient Babylonians are known to have observed a seven-day week; each day dedicated to a different deity. The significance of seven comes from Babylonian astronomy. There are the seven heavenly bodies or "luminaries" normally visible to the naked eye (the Sun, Moon, and 5 visible planets), and they associated each with a deity. Babylonian use of the seven-day week may have influenced other cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle EastThe Middle East is a geographical and cultural area comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. The Middle East is a subregion of Afr. The biblicalThe Bible (From Greek βιβλια biblia meaning "books", which in turn is derived from βυβλος byblos meaning "papyrus", from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported papyrus) account of the creation also includes a seven-day week; according to which GodThis article focuses on the concept of singular, monotheistic God . See deity, gods, or goddesses for details on divine entities in specific religions and mythologies. God is a term referring to the supreme being generally believed to be ruler or creator laboured for six days and rested on the seventh, and the Ten CommandmentsThis article is about the list of religious and moral imperatives. For the 1956 film with Charlton Heston, see The Ten Commandments (1956 movie The Ten Commandments or Decalogue are a list of religious and moral imperatives that feature prominently in Jud which contained God's instruction to observe the week.
Others speculate that the fixed 7-day period is a simplification of 1/4 of a lunar month.
2 Later use of the Week
Various groups of citizens of the Roman Empire60 and 400 with major cities. During this time only Dacia and Mesopotamia were added to the Empire but were lost before 300. The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Roman state in the centuries following its reorganization under t adopted the week, especially those who had spent time in the eastern parts of the empire, such as EgyptJumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah ( In Detail) Official language Arabic Capital Cairo Largest City Cairo President Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Area Total % water Ranked 29th 1,001,450 kmē 0. 6% Population Total (2003) Density Ranked 15th 74,718,797, where the 7-day week was in use. Contemporaneously, ChristiansChristian cross and its many variations are widely recognized as an ancient Christian symbol. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. Although Christians generally chara, following the biblical instruction, spread the week's use along with their religion.
As the early Christians evolved from being Jewish to being a distinct group, various groups evolved from celebrating both the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) and the first day or the Lord's Day (Sunday), to only celebrating Sunday.
In the early 4th century, the Roman Emperor Constantine regulated the use of the week due to a problem of the myriad uses of various days for religious observance, and established Sunday as the day for religious observance and rest for all groups, not just those Christians and others who were already observing Sunday. The Jews retained their (at least) 800-year-old tradition of Saturday observance. Later, after the establishment of Islam, Friday became that religion's day of observance -- however the Islamic week still begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday, just like the Jewish-Christian week.
The 7-day week soon became a practice among Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Following European colonization and the subsequent rise of global corporate business, the 7-day week has become universal in keeping time, even in cultures that did not practise it before.
