While on the subject of time, could you Americans pretty please stop believing that the week starts on Sunday? It's just as wrong as your date format.
The Hebrews did -- a long, long, long time ago.
Sunday is the first day of the week in almost all of the Americas, Japan, South Korea, and China.
Monday is the first day in Europe and some (relatively) recent European colonies (e.g., India).
The numbering of the days of the week is purely arbitrary. It makes no sense to claim that a particular ordering is "wrong".
If one goes by the sheer number of people who use a particular numbering, Americas + China comfortably exceeds Europe + recent European colonies.
So presumably, you come from a Europe-centric view: http://chartsbin.com/view/41671
https://unicode-org.github.io/cldr-staging/charts/38/supplem...
Note that common usage and the official definition may well differ. Most Americans probably consider Monday the "first day of the week" as it is the first day in a standard work week. But officially, Sunday is the first day of the week.
Why does the US think that the week starts on Sunday?
I've read some historians state that Christians started using Sunday as their Sabbath day in order to distinguish themselves more sharply from the Jews.
There are some Christian denominations which use Saturday as their Sabbath day, such as Seventh-day Adventist Church, so using Saturday as the holy day is a minority practice among Christians but it's a significant minority.
I'm an iOS developer, and whenever I print dates, I just ask the system to print it, according to the system its locale.
this change to starting the week on monday is therefore a recent development.
same in china btw. days in china are numbered. monday is number 1, and sunday is 7. so while people may have the idea that the week starts on sunday (i don't know) the day numbering suggests that it actually starts on monday.
same goes for europe. monday by law and sunday by tradition
My understanding is that all days except Sunday "week-day" (星期日) are numbered. Monday is (星期一) "week-one". So there is still some room for ambiguity left if you allow for counting from 0.
That’s not the point.
The point is that in the US people typically work Mon-Fri and loaf around Sat-Sun (weekend) and yet the week starts in Sundays.
It’s infuriating.
So now when we rest, both the Jews and the Christians get their favorite day off and yay, we have a two-day weekend.
A year corresponds to an actual revolution of the Earth about the Sun, i.e., seasons.
A week corresponds to...nothing. Four of them are a (very) rough estimate of the phases of the moon, but that's not something that really matters to anyone other than sailors nowadays.
The practical difference is that inconsistent calendar representations make them a pain to use.
In reality there is no week end. The only periods that exist are days and years (and lunar cycles). Weeks are artificially constructed and it can begin and end whenever we want. I can see the sense in saying the week ends at the end of Sunday so the weekend is the bit before that. I can also see the sense in saying the week ends at the end of Saturday and the weekend is around that.