The weekend takes over

With the emergence of the seven-day week started the custom of designating certain days as days of prayer, or of taboos related to food, sex and entertainment, or just days of rest and recreation. In AD 321, the Emperor Constantine decreed that people abstain from work on Sunday.

At some point, Hindus began to observe the first day of the week, Adivara corresponding to the Sun god, as a day unlucky for new endeavours. The choice was a curious coincidence, taken long before the first contact with Europe.

Where once the week consisted of weekdays and Sunday, it now comprises weekdays and the weekend. For most people, the week starts with Monday. But only 50 years back that used to be Sunday. Wall calendars still show Sunday as the first day of the week.

How did Sunday extend itself into the weekend? It all began with a half-Saturday. The idea was introduced in the 1870s by the Early Closing Association of the UK. It wanted a half-holiday for household chores and social activities so that Sunday could be freed exclusively for prayer. Soon Saturday evening became popular for going to the movies, doing late parties, dancing 8212; what came top be called the Saturday evening fever8217;.

The half-day took over 60 years to expand into a full day. Now the five-day week is the accepted pattern. Friday connotes the end of a week8217;s work: 8220;Thank God it8217;s Friday8217;. Indeed, the weekend is now making inroads into Friday. Early Friday afternoon office closing is commonplace in many countries.

A four-day-work week is nowhere in sight but there is the phenomenon of the long weekend. Many families choose to dispense with or reduce their annual vacation, and instead attach a sprinkling of days to weekends throughout the year.

For most of us, life assumes a different rhythm on the weekend. We get up late, dress differently, often eat special foods. Some people even don8217;t wear their watches. And there8217;s the Sunday paper. The first was the London Observer, which started in 1791. Yet the credit for the Sunday paper goes to Joseph Pulitzer, whose gaudy Sunday World pioneered coloured comics and the colour supplement, and included book reviews, travel articles, women8217;s pages, a youth section and a science review. Pulitzer realized that the weekdays were for news; Sunday was for leisure.

However, the distinguishing feature of the modern weekend is the attitudinal change towards recreational activities. Where people once indulged in games in a spirit of playfulness, now it8217;s all seriousness, with a preoccupation with correct dress, authentic technology, and professional-quality equipment. This reflects not only a concern for status and consumption, but also a changed attitude to play. Amateur8217;, a wonderful word meaning lover8217;, is now used for rank beginners.

And people are increasingly taking to risky sports: skiing, windsurfing, rafting, riding, hang-gliding, rock climbing, all requiring considerable skill and dexterity. It seems they are seeking through the challenge of recreation the personal satisfaction that the workplace no longer offers.