How Did Weekends Come About?


Why is there no school on Saturday and Sunday? Why is it that our parents (sometimes) don't need to work on weekends? Weeks are arbitrary, made by people not set by nature, so why do we take it to our liking to relax on these days if it would make businesses work slower?

The Birth Of The Weekend
The rise of the weekends came from the Industrial Revolution. Farmers that had previously been working in the fields, began moving to cities to work in factories. The workers were unhappy about the 7-day workweek that organized labour strikes began rising up. Tensions were high and sometimes violence was involved. People wanted days off the schedule because it was a Christian tradition to worship on Sundays. During the late 1800s, there was a large amount of Jewish immigrants that wanted their traditional Jewish day of the week Saturday, off as well. 

Mondays Used To Be Part Of The Weekend
This was apparent in the late 1800s mid-1900s in England. Workers and employees didn't show up at work. The excuse was that it was a religious holiday for St. Monday, turns out, there is no such person named St. Monday. Workers got paid on Saturday and they were stuck at a church on Sundays, so the day off on Monday allowed them to spend the money they earned. They were often recovering from bar games, dogfights and boxing matches at the alehouse. Poor workers were eager to exchange a day's worth of pay for a day to themselves and freedom. Large amounts financial loss were caused by St Monday and faded out shortly in trade for half of Saturday off (Half-Saturday).

 Popularising Of The Weekend
Henry Ford, engineer, entrepreneur and founder of Ford, had a cut in the scheme. Ford imposed the five-day workweek schedule, popularising it. Ford found that some of his workers were also some of his best customers, so Ford allowed the two days off to encourage his workers to buy the cars that they were making and letting them have time to drive them around. The weekend actually boosted the economy!

The two-day weekend became standard in 1955 in Britain, The United States and Canada. Half-Saturdays were implemented in other nations in Europe at the time. Today, even though religious days aren't as densely practised as the past and long-hour, 7-day workweeks aren't the standard work-time anymore, we still use the weekend under an altered principle, to take a break, get ahead, get some work done and socialize.

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