Who created the days of the week?

Question

Was sunday really the first day?

Answer 1

Various sources point to the seven day week originating in ancient Babylonia or Sumeria, with possible origins dating back to the Egyptians. It has been suggested that a seven day week might be much older, deriving from early human observation that there are seven celestial objects (the five visible planets plus the Sun and the Moon) which move in the night sky relative to the fixed stars. In any event, a seven day week based on heavenly luminaries eventually diffused both East and West, to the Romans via the Greeks, and to the Japanese via Manicheans, Indians and Chinese.

The earliest known reference in Chinese writings is attributed to Fan Ning, who lived in the late 4th century, while diffusions via India are documented with the writings of the Chinese Buddhist monk Yi Jing and the Ceylonese or Central Asian Buddhist monk Bu Kong of the 8th century. The Chinese transliteration of the planetary system was soon brought to Japan by the Japanese monk Kobo Daishi; surviving diaries of the Japanese statesman Fujiwara Michinaga show the seven day system in use in Heian Period Japan as early as 1007. In Japan, the seven day system was kept in use (for astrological purposes) until its promotion to a full-fledged (Western-style) calendrical basis during the Meiji era.

The seven day week is known to have been unbroken for almost two millennia via the Alexandrian, Julian, and Gregorian calendars. The date of Easter Sunday can be traced back through numerous computistic tables to an Ethiopic copy of an early Alexandrian table beginning with the Easter of 311 as described by Otto Neugebauer in Ethiopic astronomy and computus. Only one Roman date with an associated day of the week exists from the first century and it agrees with the modern sequence, if properly interpreted. Jewish dates with a day of the week do not occur this early.

Answer 2

My opinion would be that the week is seven days long based on the fact that God created in six days and rested on one, which I believe. The ark resting on Mount Ararat and the first big civilizations being in the Middle East would explain why the first seven-day week records were from the area. The Sabbath, or the day God rested, would be Saturday. Christians worship on Sunday because it was the day Christ came back from the dead. It is the first day of the week, though not the day that God rested from His work.

Answer 3

What's all this guff about calendars? The question was not about calendars! It's merely about the days of the week!

The answer to your question is the Anglo- Saxons. We're going back to around the 10th- 12th century or so when the British Ilses were largely dominated by the norse/vikings. I'm pretty sure Monday was the first day (Moon day). Wednesday comes from Wodin's Day (which comes from Odin's Day.) Followed by Thor's Day and Freya's Day. Of course there's Sun Day too but I can't remember what Saturday and Tuesday were from.

Answer 4

If we follow the religious calendar, then it's be the day God rested, or the seventh day.

Which'd make Monday the 1st day.

Generally, the 7 day week is purely based on the religious or Jewish or Christian (Whichever/whatever) calendar, but I don't know who named the names.

So, overall, my answer is that I don't know, and I can't help you.

Answer 5

Greeks, we follow the Gregerioan calinder, which didn't have a Sunday, or Sarterday.

Answer 6

sunday was the last day

Answer 7

I think Julius Caesar was the one who did it.

Answer 8

I believe it was the Norsemen who named the days of the week. "Odin's Day" (Wednesday), "Thor's Day" (Thursday), etc.

Answer 9

God