11/17/2020

Why a week have 7 days?

"A year is a time it takes the Earth to go around the sun, a month is a time it takes the moon to change phase by one cycle, a day is the cycle of the Earth's rotation - so the question is, what exactly is a week?

Unlike the aforementioned units of time, the concept of the "week" seems to come entirely from the human creation. How is it defined? Why has the world adopted the "7 days equals 1-week" rule?

How did the words "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday" get invented?

--Youtuber: It's Okay To Be Smart is explained very clearly in the first half of the video.

There are seven "stars" that the ancient people could see with the naked eye - the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Sun. The ancient Greeks used the number "7" for each of the "gods," while the ancient Babylonians used the number "7" for the heavens. As religions and civilizations spread and evolved, the concept of the week, and the names of the days, took shape.

This guy's explanation from 7:30 onwards is a bit confusing. In a nutshell, the general idea is - there is no definitive evidence that anyone or anything has established the consensus that the week is a 7-day week. But we can now find a lot of significance for the number "7" in the history and culture of various countries.

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