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I don't doubt that this relationship strongly influenced the choice, but it does not answer the question of whether there are any practical consequences followi
by mannykannot 5y ago
I don't doubt that this relationship strongly influenced the choice, but it does not answer the question of whether there are any practical consequences following from it.
The phases of the moon do have two practical consequences that I can think of: night-time illumination and the height of the tides, but the week/lunar month ratio is far enough from being an integer that these issues vary significantly from week to week. For the same reason, you cannot use the moon to tell where one week ends and another begins; you have to count the days, just as you would for some other choice.
- wbsss4412 5y agoSeasons also play a role. 7 day weeks can be neatly broken up into 4 13-week seasons (roughly, you end up with an extra day and a quarter to contend with). Between lunar phases and seasons, it’s a fairly natural choice for people living outside of the tropics. Edit: to add, for pre modern people, tracking seasons was obviously very important and worth counting systematically. Simply counting lunar phases isn’t reliable given that a lunar year is only ~354 days.
- mannykannot 5y agoSeasons are definitely more important than the lunar cycle, but forcing them into four equal intervals seems rather procrustean - and there are many parts of the world where doing so does not reflect the realities of the climate.
- wbsss4412 5y agoWell yes, but not every part of the world had a 7 day calendar either. That universality came with colonialism.
- mannykannot 5y agoFair enough, but is there any evidence that the seasons influenced the selection of a seven-day week in those areas where it was adopted freely?
- wbsss4412 5y agoTo be totally transparent, I do not have any evidence at hand to speak to that thesis.