

Why display Sunday to the left of the week? - auctiontheory

The standard western weekend [edited] is Saturday-Sunday. Why do many web apps default to displaying Sunday to the left (start) of the week's calendar, rather than to the right of Saturday? Meetup does this. Google Calendar does this on iOS. And so do many others.<p>What possible utility does this layout provide?
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informatimago
God created the universe in six days. On the seventh day, he rested. This was
shabbat, ie. Saturday. Therefore, the first day of the week is Sunday.

But then two millenia ago, the Son of God came to see us, and we killed Him on
Friday (to be done just before the shabbat, since days started at sunset then-
and-there), and He rescucitated on the third day, ie. on Sunday, so Chistians
celebrate on Sunday, which became a rest day, and was therefore moved to the
end of the week, making Monday the first day.

Notice that Muslims have their rest day on Friday, so their weeks begin on
Saturday.

~~~
auctiontheory
> making Monday the first day.

Right. If Monday begins the week, shouldn't it be on the left? Which is the
"beginning" in a left->right language such as English.

Bangladesh is a Muslim country with a Friday-Saturday weekend, so I understand
that they might want to lay out their weekly calendar differently. But I just
want to see my American (Saturday-Sunday) weekend in one contiguous block. Is
that too much to ask?!

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tokenadult
_The standard western week is Saturday-Sunday._

Who says so? The several Western languages that refer to Saturday with words
that mean "Sabbath" or "seventh day" suggest that at least part of the world
thinks that Sunday is the first day of the week, and Saturday the last. (I am
aware that Chinese treats Saturday as the sixth day of the week, and didn't
have a concept of seven-day weeks before trade with the West.) There isn't
universal agreement on this, is the short answer to your question.

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dragonwriter
> The standard western week is Saturday-Sunday

Saturday-Sunday would be two days. I suspect you mean Monday-Sunday is the
standard week, or Saturday-Sunday is the last two days of the standard week,
in the West.

Note that this is also, while more sensible, still incorrect. The conventional
week in many parts of the western world is Monday-Sunday. The conventional
week in the US (which, last I checked, is a somewhat-significant part of the
West) is Sunday-Saturday.

> Why do many web apps default to displaying Sunday to the left (start) of the
> week's calendar, rather than to the right of Saturday?

Because its the US convention, and many web apps are designed by people to
whom US conventions are deeply ingrained.

> What possible utility does this layout provide?

Instant familiarity to anyone who is familiar with calendars (whether
electronic or print) commonly used in the US.

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onemorepassword
It's an American thing. Like many things where the US chooses to do things
differently from most of the rest of the planet (month-day-year format, not
using the metric system), I doubt it provides any kind of utility.

At least not one that is still relevant in the 21st century.

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argonaut
Clearly it isn't the western standard because in the US the standard is
Sunday-Saturday (Sunday = 1st day of week). I'm not saying that the US
standard is the western standard, just that there is no such thing as a
universal western standard.

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LarryMade2
Another thought is most weekends are empty of schedules/notes/plans, so shove
them to either margin and keep the most business-active days (mon-fri) in the
middle of the calendar.

