Monday is the first day of the week
Background: The following excerpt comes from a persuasive writing assignment from my senior year of high school. Keywords being ‘high school’. You can’t judge the piece harshly. Some parts of it are pretty cringy, but I’m going to present the unedited version here, since it’s both dumb and makes me laugh. For my persuasive piece I decided to write about Monday, which is obviously the first day of the week.
ENGL 101 Sec 005
Outcomes Assessment Essay #3
Monday for Show
A few months ago my sister and I were driving to school. On the radio they announced that it was hump-day, alluding to the fact that it was the middle of the week (camels have a hump in the middle of their body and the radio announcer thought it was the middle of the week). That day was Wednesday. I then told my sister that KikiLuv (the local radio DJ) was wrong, because Thursday was actually the middle of the week; this makes logical sense, because there are 3 days in the week before and three days after Thursday. We both agreed to the logic and continued with our day.
Once I arrived at school I was anxious to give the new knowledge to my classmates; the knowledge that Wednesday is not hump-day. However after I told them the truth, they denied it, because they believed Sunday was the first day of the week! What?! I was shocked; apparently the people who I thought were my friends were living a lie. After this I started to take a school wide poll to see who I could still trust. My results showed that I could only trust about 35% of the people at my school; only 42 of them knew that the week actually started on Monday. At around lunch, I told my sister the horrible news and she was also shocked. She and I were hard-core Monday believers and the knowledge that we were outsiders was imprisoning. I started to think back to my childhood and why I believed Monday was the first day of the week.
I’ve been a Christian for many years. In Sunday school I was taught that God made the world in 6 days and on the 7th day he rested (it may not have actually been 7 days, but the ratios are the same). He commanded us to do likewise, to rest on the 7th day. The Christian religion, the religion with the most followers worldwide, has chosen Sunday as that day of rest. Using deductive logic we would say that 7th is final in a list of 7 and since the final day of the week is that day of rest, we would say the day of rest is the last day of the week. Thus Sunday is that day of rest; it is the last day in the week.
Those that argue will counter by saying that church and state are separate so we cannot use religion to base our calendars. There are two points against this claim: 1) we have always based our calendars on religion; for example 2015 BC (before Christ). And 2) we base our day-to-day lives on the Monday system era anyways, even separate from religion.
The American economy is based on a Monday start system. The stock market opens on Monday and it would not make sense to not open at the start of the week. Along with the economy, the school system also starts on Monday. Most small businesses close on Sunday, because by doing this they can finish on a break and start the week strong. We all begin our social institution on a Monday and thus Monday is the first day of the week. Furthermore not just based on large society, but on just common knowledge and common sense, we can conclude Monday is the first day of the week.
It is commonly accepted that Sunday and Saturday are the weekend, keyword end. If, theoretically, we say Sunday is the first day of the week then Saturday would be the last in that week. So, in this fake reality, the week starts on the weekend. You can’t start at the end. This is circle logic, because you can only have the start and end me the same if you have a circle. Time is linear, not a circle.
Not only is Monday the first day of the week: logically, but also actually. According to International Standard ISO 8601, Monday is the first day of the week; however, the United States refuses to recognize this standardization, because we are ethnocentric (anti-Celsius, anit-metric, anti-gram, anti-calendar…). The ISO is the International Organization of Standardization and is recognized by the United Nations and the Social Congress. The Gregorian calendar, the calendar that most countries use (including the US), officially starts the week on Monday, not Sunday. All of Europe and most of Asia start the week on Monday. Why do we have to be different?
I cannot imagine a reality where Sunday is the first day of the week. As a very time oriented society, it is essential that we know the time and date. Even though I know the truth, I will continue to be the minority. My peers have continued to live lies and it is hurting their lives. They start their week resting and can’t get enough momentum to be productive the rest of the week. Because I know the correct calendar system, I’ve been much more successful and productive in my life. I’ve broken a world record, have a perfect GPA, and have climbed the highest mountain in Idaho. My classmates will probably never accomplish any of these things, because they believe Sunday is the first day of the week.
No! Monday is the first day of the week!
