Why only Saturday and Sunday?

We have all come to enjoy the weekend.  The moment we finish work on Friday there is a sense of relief and excitement that the next two days are going to be something special.  The weekend is "our time" to do whatever it is we feel like without the guilt of work hanging over our heads or the dread of another early morning and possibly late night.  In some senses, we look forward to a late night (oh, how the meaning changes).  But who was it that decided we should get two consecutive days in a row on Saturday and Sunday?  I know there is a religious meaning but its meaning has to be deeper than that.  Did the Greeks and Romans take the weekend off?  Was there a council of elders that sat around and said, "one day doesn't seem like enough...and three days is just crazy.  Let's settle on two days."  Odds are this isn't how it happened either.  Also, the weekend must be a fairly modern concept.  Nomadic tribes and early farmers probably didn't have the resources to take two full days off.

The weekend is so ingrained in our thinking that we feel violated when a boss wants us to work.  After all, it is "your" weekend!

Let's take a step back and think about if there is a better way to set up a week.  Wouldn't it be nice to have Wednesday off?  It would break up the week and possibly even rejuvenate your mind and energy levels for Thursday and Friday.  While we are at it, why not add a day off every two days of work.  It can be a rotating calendar.  Two days on, one day off.  Productivity would explode.  There's no better motivator than a deadline and this system would create a deadline every two days.  There would be no room to procrastinate until Thursday when you are drained from meetings, sales pitches, reports, daily tasks, nosey coworkers and not to mention your actual LIFE.   But I might be getting ahead of myself here.  Let's get back to the joy of THE WEEKEND as we currently now it.

Without a doubt some of us will decide the best way to spend a weekend is to do nothing.  The sweet, sweet joy of sitting on a couch ignoring responsibilities is something special almost all of us have enjoyed at least once (while others will be blushing, realizing that is exactly how they spent last weekend).  The enjoyment takes on a new meaning when you have a busy life. It's like the yin to the yang of the high paced, always in contact world we live in.  It's that much better when life is busy and has you running on all cylinders.  So, take a load off and wait for next weekend.  Imagine what you might be doing or more importantly, what you might NOT be doing.