Re: Why do we have \"weeks\"?
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The time for the earth to spin once is called a "day"
The time for a moon phase is called a "month" (originally)
The time for earths axis to cycle is called a "year".
So where do weeks come from?
The only thing i can think is the bible (on the 7th day...). That i hate religion has nothing to do with this though. It just strikes me as odd that we chose to make 7 days as some kind of cycle. Works weeks, etc.
Far in the future (more than decades), how possible is it that "weeks" will cease to exist?
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Astronomically, 4 weeks is roughly the duration of the 4 phases of the moon (1st quarter, full, last quarter, new (no) moon).
The names of the days correspond to the sun, the moon, and 5 of the planets, as can be seen if you know the names of the days in Spanish as well as English:
Sunday: Sun day
Monday: (Spanish Lunes) Moon day
Tuesday: (Spanish Martes) Mars
Wednesday: (Spanish Miercoles) Mercury
Thursday: (Spanish Jueves) Jupiter
Friday: (Spanish Viernes) Venus
Saturday: Saturn
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The English names come from Anglo-Saxon gods. In old English,
Sunday - Sunne's day. (Sunne = Sunna being the goddess of the sun.)
Monday - Moon day.
Tuesday - Tiw's day. (Tiw = Tyr being the god of war.)
Wednesday - Woden's day. (Woden = Odin being the god of dead.)
Thursday - Thunor's day. (Thunor = Thor being the god of thunder.)
Friday - Frige's day. (Frige = Freya being the god of love.)
Saturday - Saturn's day.
(The = refer to equivalent Norse gods).
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