My favourite days of the week are Fridays and Sundays. Don’t ask me why. I just love the vibe of those days.
What are your favourite days?
For most of us, we have grown up in the 20th and 21st century with the luxury of taking a weekend for granted. But, did you know that originally the weekend evolved from the religious concept of the sabbath? A day devoted to God and not work.
Correct.
It wasn’t always reserved for BBQs, sporting events, and parties and since the 1800’s the working week was 6 or 7 days long.
The weekend is indeed a modern invention.
In the early Australian days, convicts were encouraged to spend Sundays at church, and it was supposed to be seen as good for their character.
The two-day weekend came about via campaigns for shorter working weeks. Workers in the 18th and 19th century started to ask for longer breaks from the harsh working conditions of industrialisation.
Further to that, employers were also willing to give workers more time to recover from drinking, which is how many employees spent their time off. (Not unlike today I might add.)
A shorter or half-day Saturday was seen as a natural lead-in to Sunday’s day of rest.
The Oxford English Dictionary traces the first use of the word “weekend” to 1879,
Apparently, in 1856 Stonemasons successfully campaigned for an eight-hour workday and argued that the Australian heat was bad for their health in those intense labour long days.
And so, there you have it. The weekend had arrived!
Now not all get to relish in the luxury of the two spare days a week. We generally fill them up pretty quickly with demands from all sorts.
But really how do you spend your ‘weekends’?
What about weekends being for cracking eggs and whipping batter, for kneading in love yeast and letting time rise, for communing around the table and passing the feast down to your right.
Oh whoops, that sounds like a romance novel.
That isn’t how weekends go at all, however, imagine that your two days are special to you and you can create and reset yourself in that time.
It is important to have recreation time. In re-creation, it gives you time to re-create.
When you’re a high-powered business owner, working tirelessly from dawn to dusk, in the heat of the day, in the abyss of the customer’s breathe – it is important to stop. Switch off. Feed yourself with something nourishing like good company, good food, good wine.
You work so you can, so do it.
The weekend is here for you, our ancestors gave us the right to savour it. Are you?
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