I always thought that a week was 7 days because that was the duration of each of
4 phases of the moon.
From: adam@whizkidtech.net AT internet on 06/27/99 03:35 PM
Received on: 06/27/99
To: Peter Constable/IntlAdmin/WCT, unicode@unicode.org AT internet@Ccmail
cc:
Subject: Re: First day of the week
On Sun, Jun 27, 1999 at 12:20:43PM -0700, John Cowan wrote:
> G. Adam Stanislav scripsit:
>
> > Does ISO say anything about this? If not, is there a most commonly used
system
> > for determining the first day of the week in "most of the world"?
>
> I can't comment on ISO, but I can discuss the history.
>
> The 7-day week is of Jewish origin,
Sorry, I seriously doubt that. That it is part of the Jewish tradition is no
doubt. That it is of Jewish *origin* is highly debatable. Most likely the Jewish
tradition simply adopted a pre-existing system.
The use of the number 7 as a special number of "mystical" significance seems to
exist in various cultures completely unrelated to Jewish tradition.
The most interesting explanation of its significance that I have seen comes from
the fact that the number 6 was considered magic because 1 + 2 + 3 = 1 * 2 * 3 =
6. And 7 is one more than 6, hence "more than perfect."
Adam
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