Who Invented Weekends?

 Not sure. But does it matter? People shop till they drop on Saturdays. Maybe go to church on Sundays. Stores open all 7 days of the week now.

But have you ever stopped to wonder who invented weekends? Who came up with the idea of working five days and then taking two days off? Why didn't they make the workweek two days and the weekend five days?

https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/who-invented-weekends

For much of history, taking one day of rest each week has been very common. This stems from various religious traditions. For example, Muslims traditionally took a day of rest on Friday, while Jewish people observed a day of rest on Saturday and Christians did so on Sunday.

It wasn't until the Industrial Revolution of the late 1800s that the concept of a two-day “weekend" began to take shape. At this time, large factories that produced consumer goods were beginning to transform the traditional farming economy into an industrial one.



Over time, factory owners realized that it would be most efficient to let workers off on both Saturday and Sunday. 

A prominent factory owner — Henry Ford — also played a big role. Even though the federal government didn't begin to limit companies to a 40-hour workweek until 1938, Ford began to give his factory workers a two-day weekend in the early 1900s.

So the next time the weekend rolls around and you want to thank someone, thank the labor movement, including labor unions, that existed in the late 1800s. And thank Henry Ford, who recognized that the economy gets a boost if workers have a couple of days off each week to purchase goods and enjoy using them!



Now, please go out and enjoy the weekend.






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