DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0239
226 THE ORIGIN. OF THE WEEK.
less than half-a-day, four weeks fall short of a month
by more than a day and a-half.1
We can very well understand, then, that the
division of the lunar month into six parts, each of
five days, or into three parts, each of ten days,
should have been early suggested by astronomers,
as an improvement on the comparatively rough
division of the month into four equal parts. We
can equally understand that where the latter method
had been long in use, where it had become con-
nected with the system of hiring (one day's rest
being allowed in each quarter-month), and espe-
cially where it had become associated with religious
observances, the new method would be stoutly
resisted. It would seem that a contest between
advocates of a five days' period and those of a
seven days' period arose in early times, and was
carried on with considerable bitterness. There are
those who find in the Great Pyramid of Egypt the
record of such a struggle, and evidence that finally
the seven days' period came to be distinguished, as
a sacred time-measure, from the five days' period,
1 The five days' period has as great an advantage over the week
in more exactly dividing the 5'ear, as it has in dividing the month,
since, while fifty-two weeks fall short of a year by nearly a day and
a-quarter, seventy-three periods of five days only fall short of a year
by a quarter of a day. Eut the number 52 has the great advantage
over 73 of being subdivisible into four thirteens.
less than half-a-day, four weeks fall short of a month
by more than a day and a-half.1
We can very well understand, then, that the
division of the lunar month into six parts, each of
five days, or into three parts, each of ten days,
should have been early suggested by astronomers,
as an improvement on the comparatively rough
division of the month into four equal parts. We
can equally understand that where the latter method
had been long in use, where it had become con-
nected with the system of hiring (one day's rest
being allowed in each quarter-month), and espe-
cially where it had become associated with religious
observances, the new method would be stoutly
resisted. It would seem that a contest between
advocates of a five days' period and those of a
seven days' period arose in early times, and was
carried on with considerable bitterness. There are
those who find in the Great Pyramid of Egypt the
record of such a struggle, and evidence that finally
the seven days' period came to be distinguished, as
a sacred time-measure, from the five days' period,
1 The five days' period has as great an advantage over the week
in more exactly dividing the 5'ear, as it has in dividing the month,
since, while fifty-two weeks fall short of a year by nearly a day and
a-quarter, seventy-three periods of five days only fall short of a year
by a quarter of a day. Eut the number 52 has the great advantage
over 73 of being subdivisible into four thirteens.