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Where in history is the reference point of modern week day countdown? [SOLVED] (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

32 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I mean, if today i.e. is Sunday then someone long time ago should have said "Today will be Sunday" for the first time in a period from today that is multiple of seven. I was assuming that it was Pope Gregory XIII in October 1582, but looks like he is not. I failed in googling and duckduckgoing out the answer, so I ask for Lemmy's collective wisdom!

EDIT: so question is not about the origin of 7-day week and sequence of weekday names, but about the exact reference point (day) of today’s weekday countdown. From when have people stopped adding or ommiting any adjustment 'out-of-week' days (like in Babylon or Rome) and kept counting to seven till today? In other words, there should be a point exactly N x 7 days ago from which the 7-day countdown has not been interrupted. Or at least the earliest known day in history that everyone on Earth agreed upon as a reference point

EDIT 2: Solved by https://lemmy.world/comment/1852458 Thanks everyone!

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

On the link for the wikipaedia "week"page, lower down, under "Christian Europe", it mentions: "The seven-day weekly cycle has remained unbroken in Christendom, and hence in Western history, for almost two millennia, despite changes to the Coptic, Julian, and Gregorian calendars, demonstrated by the date of Easter Sunday having been traced back through numerous computistic tables to an Ethiopic copy of an early Alexandrian table beginning with the Easter of 311 CE."

So I guess, Easter Sunday in 311CE, someone called a big meeting and said something equivalent to "Right lads? All agreed? Today is Sunday, everywhere. Got that? Go and tell everyone you know. We're synchronising everyone's calendars."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Oh, this paragraph somehow escaped my attention 😯 Big thanks for pointing out!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

/u/[email protected] here is your answer.

(pls let me know if the tag worked)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A proper tag would be @[email protected]