Re: Slate: Secular Israelis try to save the "Sabbath"

In article <dciunu$gev$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, phoenix@xxxxxxx (Damien Sullivan) writes:
> moshes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>>I sometimes try to imagine what it would be like qwithout a "week",
>>if the days didn't come in groups of 7. It's frightening. But unlike
>>a "month" which has a basis in Nature, there is nothing in Nature to
>>support a seven-day grouping. Yet it's well-nigh universal!
>
> It's well-nigh universal *now*, after the Gregorian calendar has been adopted
> by (or colonially imposed upon) much of the world, and the Islamic one is used
> in much of the rest.


In medicine and physiology, there actually is a 7 day rhythm. Access
MEDLINE www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed and search for the term
"circaseptan".

Josh

>
> http://webexhibits.org/calendars/week.html
>
> says the ancient Egyptians used a 10-day week, Mayans used 13 and 20 day
> weeks, and pre-Christian Lithuanians used 9 days. China is not mentioned,
> alas. It also suggests there being 7 visible "planets" (counting Sun and
> Moon) as one reason for 7 to be given significance, with another possible
> reason being the packing of round objects, while noting that the lunar month
> might be better divided into 5 or 6 day weeks.
>
> Wikipedia said 7-day weeks had been invented in Hindu India and in ancient
> Babylon; secularists might suggest the Jews could have gotten a 7-day week
> from the Babylonians.
>
> http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/calendar/chinese.html
> says ancient China had a 10-day "week".
>
> http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/groups/ccsa/roy.htm
>
> But the week is entirely arbitrarily. Ancient Colombia and New Guinea had
> three day weeks; while Mesoamerica and Indochina had five day weeks. There
> was a ten day market cycle that worked like a week in ancient Peru, while
> southern China once had a twelve day week. The Bahai'i religion has a 19
> day week, which is set within a 19 week year, which is set within a 19
> year vahid, and 361-year (19 times 19) kull-i-shay (Zerubavel 1985).
>
> -xx- Damien X-)
.

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