David Henkin
Appearances
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
So you could call it the weekend, but it wasn't as common an expression because you could simply refer to it Sunday, the Lord's Day, or the first day of the week.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
So in the 19th century, middle class workers often had a half day on Saturday. Teachers often had a Saturday off. School children had Saturday off. So Saturday as an additional day off or partial day off was known to lots of people in the United States in the 19th century. Sometimes people also had Wednesday as a half day from school, for example.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
So there was some sense of there being other times of the week that were not as... link to work. But it was not until the 20th century that it became the norm for people to have a Saturday as well as a Sunday. So I would say the 1930s would be crucial transition where Saturday became a day off for a majority of people in the United States.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
The pandemic was interesting to me because all the comedy routines, all of the memes, all focused on Blur's Day, this notion that pandemic shutdown had unsettled our sense of our place in the weekly cycle. And my best explanation for it is that's just the cycle to which we're actually most attached. That's the one that requires our regular habits to perpetuate.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
All other cycles could be linked to other things, especially day and night. You can just look outside if you want. But the week is a fragile thing.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
If we don't have our regular seven-day habits, if we don't do the things that we're used to doing in the way that we're used to doing them, we get dislodged from our sense of time more generally, and the week is the best way of expressing that sense of disorientation. Because the weak is the thing that we're most, in some ways, attached to.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
We're most worried about losing it because it depends on the frailty of human record keeping. But we're also most attached to it because it's the one that makes the difference to our lives. If you think today is the 16th and it turns out to be the 17th, it's probably not going to cause you much inconvenience or much consternation.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
But if you think that today is Wednesday and it turns out to be Tuesday, it's firstly going to make you miss all kinds of appointments and do the wrong things, but it also is going to make you wonder whether you've just sort of lost track of time in some more fundamental way.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
I think you do have to have that, and I think the pandemic shutdown showed us how attached we are to it. The threats to the week, I think, don't come from things like pandemic shutdowns. The threats to the week come, and they were in place much earlier, come from things like telecommuting. working from home, non-synchronized entertainment.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
So for example, when I was a kid, a lot of what people thought was the feeling of Wednesday or Thursday had to do with what was on TV those days. So that's gone and it's gone except for sports. But scripted entertainment is now asynchronous and work is often asynchronous or just irregular patterns. So those are the things that might make the week either less necessary or less powerful.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
We also don't need it as much as a scheduling device because our electronic calendars can hold
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
appointments in place for us without our relying on the regularity of a weekly of a weekly meeting so those are the things that threaten the week but i do think that you're right mike that uh we cling to the week because there's nothing else like it uh because it does encapsulate somehow our our sense of being in time and it because it reflects all the social arrangements that uh that shape our lives i do think the week is likely to
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
to survive. The week has been attacked before by the French Revolution, by the Bolshevik Revolution. It was even attacked a little bit by American big business in the late 19th, early 20th century. Each time, The weak survived unscathed.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
So there have been different answers given. Some people have speculated that it has to do maybe to do with the moon. That's, I think, a very unconvincing explanation to me because a quarter of a lunar cycle is not actually seven. Lunations are closer to 30 days than to 29 days. So you might have expected a moon-based fraction to be five or six. So I don't think that works.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Some people suggested that seven is a mnemonically useful number, that once you get to larger numbers, it becomes harder to remember all the constitutive elements. To me, that seems sort of plausible, but I don't think it would account for why so many different societies had seven and so many different societies didn't. So it really wasn't universal timekeeping system until relatively recently.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Traditional Christians, Jews, Muslims might say that seven is built into the fabric of the universe by the creation story. One might argue that something about the psychology or the physiology of the human body requires rest every seven days.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Again, all these things are plausible, not the moon one, but the other ones are all plausible, except they don't really account for why so many societies did just fine without seven. They might account for why seven has stuck. or why a couple of societies agreed on seven in the first place. But as you can tell by my tone of voice, I'm a little agnostic about the magic of seven.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Hello, Mike. How are you?
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
The week has always fascinated me and partly why the week is because the week is a completely artificial unit of time. It's not really, uh, uh, based on any natural observable natural phenomenon. And it's not as a fraction, neat fraction of any other larger unit of time. It's totally conventional. Lots of parts of the world never had it.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
So I've always been fascinated with this weird thing that is the week. We sort of made it up. You can't see it. You can't figure out by looking at the skies if you've lost track of it. And lots of societies did just fine with that one. But we're so attached to it. So I've always been curious as to what it does for us or what it does to us to have this very peculiar time unit in our lives.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Yeah, I'd say at this point, it's a global timekeeping system. There are no major societies that I know about that don't count regular continuous cycles of seven days. But that wouldn't have been true if you had asked me this question 200 years ago or even 100 years ago.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Lots of societies have not counted seven-day cycles or not counted continuous seven-day cycles or only had cycles that were fractions of of lunar months or things like that, or didn't care about the number seven at all.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
It seems to have two origins. I'd say the primary origin is Jewish, the Jewish Sabbath practice. So to have a Sabbath count required that you maintain that weekly cycle, that's one origin. The Romans also observed a planetary week where they identified each day of a seven-day cycle with one of the planets, including the sun and the moon as planets.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
That's where we get names like Sunday, Monday, Moonday, Tuesday, which is different, Mars, etc. So those are the two origins. And those two calendar systems kind of met in the Roman Empire. And then... initially through Christianity, spread to other parts of the world, but not instantly and not evenly over the course of the next 2,000 years.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Right. I mean, you know, you could interpret that as it's been imposed on all of us, or you could interpret it as I think your question implies, that there's some special utilities and special value to having a seven-day cycle. Having a seven-day cycle doesn't necessarily mean that you rest one or two days out of seven, though that's typically how it's used.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Yeah, at this point, it's a global timekeeping system. There are no major societies that I know about that don't count regular, continuous cycles of seven days. But that wouldn't have been true if you had asked me this question 200 years ago or even 100 years ago.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
But yeah, counting cycles of seven days lasts. So whether it lasts because it's been imposed or because of habit or because of utility, I think is an interesting question.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Well, there was and there wasn't within the Bible, right? The Bible says that God rests on day seven, but doesn't say that then God observes a cycle of seven days. It doesn't say then every seven days God rests, and doesn't say that therefore people rested every seven days. And it's not clear from Genesis.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
I mean, if you just read the Bible from the beginning, you'd have no sense by the end of Genesis that the story at the beginning is going to lead to a calendar of seven days. You might think that if people wanted to commemorate God's rest on the seventh day, they'd rest on the seventh day of every lunar month or the seventh day of every year.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
It's only later in the Bible that there begins to be some sense that that story of creation could be linked to a calendar. So the creation story is part of the meaning of the Sabbath for Jews and for Christians too, but it's not clear that that is like the beginning of it. It's not clear that just because there was a creation story in which God rested on the seventh day that therefore people
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
I think it fills different needs and different purposes depending how it's used. I mean, not all societies that have observed the week have made it into a cycle of work and rest, but that is a primary thing that the seven-day week does for people is it prescribes a regular rhythm of taking off from work.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
as we all know and complain about, most of us don't actually really get to take off one or let alone two days work every seven days. But that's one thing that it could do for us. But it does all kinds of other things as well. What interests me is that in the modern American experience of the week from the early 19th century on, it enables us to schedule things. It enables us to schedule activities
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
with friends, with family, and with strangers in certain patterns so that we wind up doing things every seven days or a certain number of times every seven days or at a certain rhythm every 14 days or every 21 or 20.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
I mean, there's nothing that we do in patterns of five days or 13 days, but there are all kinds of things that we do in patterns of seven, and that enables us to schedule things with other people.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
And the cool thing is that some of those things are very, very general, right? They're communal, they're shared, like all of us do a certain kind of thing on one day of the week. And some of them are very idiosyncratic. You know, your Tuesday and my Tuesday could be super different depending on
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
what our therapy schedule was, or when our gym was open, or what kinds of sports we like to watch, or whether we had a custody arrangement with a co-parent. There are all these very individualistic things that create our sense of our Tuesday.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
I totally share your experience. In some ways, what got me interested in the week was my inability to explain exactly what that feeling was. And the Seinfeld episode to which you refer, if I remember correctly, the only thing that I think is odd about it is it makes Kramer sort of seem unusual or bizarre for thinking that days of the week have a feel.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Whereas in fact, it's not just Kramer, it's all of us. I think we almost all have some sense of what a Tuesday feels like or what a Wednesday feels like. And it's mysterious, but my sense is that if you dig deep into it, it has to do with schedules and expectations of things. And the week as a scheduling device is what gives it that feeling.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Yeah, so when I began thinking about this, that was the only explanation that people could give. They would cite that example, which is, oh, on a four-day work week, you know, suddenly Tuesday feels like a Monday. Right. Or you take a vacation and suddenly your Friday feels like a Saturday, et cetera. So it all had to do with the work and rest cycle.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
But sometimes when there wasn't the holiday, you still felt like today doesn't feel like a Wednesday. And you didn't quite know why. And so I think that what was really helpful for me in thinking about the week was to stop assuming that everything that the week does is generated by this cycle of work and rest.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Cycle work and rest is hugely important, but then there are these other things, typically like things about Tuesdays and Wednesdays that give it a feel that are not simply about how long we've worked since the last day we had off.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Partly why it would be really different is because if you didn't have the week, you probably would come up with units of time that are fractions of a month or fractions of a year. And because the week isn't, it kind of just stands alone. And so does this completely different kind of work for us?
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
One thing, Mike, that you mentioned that I think is interesting is that we don't only use the week to divide one day from another. We also use it to lump all the days together. Like I'm going to do this for a week or I'm going to look back on the week that I had. So we use it as a lumper as well as a splitter. So really, it does so many things in our mental map of the passing of time.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Right.
Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
In the United States until the 20th century, Sunday was the only day of rest. So the idea of a weekend as being two days didn't really spread to most working people until the 20th century. And it was largely the result of union agitation and of the depression and crisis of underemployment. So before then, in the United States, the weekend was just Sunday.