Declared by Romans in AD 321, ‘Sunday’ became holiday in India in 1890

Authored article by Pavan Kaushik

The God-Sun has been worshiped in almost all the ancient civilization and since the people offered prayers to the almighty on a said day, this day was declared as ‘Sun-day’ (Sunday).?Further, respecting the sentiments of people and the time they dedicated worshiping the God-Sun, it was unanimously decided by the then ancient civilizations to declare ‘Sunday’ as a holiday.

In India, the credit for declaring ‘Sunday’ as a holiday, goes to Narayan Meghaji Lokhande, born in 1848 in Thane - Maharashtra, who was also recognized as the father of the trade union movement in India. He struggled for about 7 years, and finally on 10th June 1890, at the time of British Government, he got declared ‘Sunday’ as a holiday. What's surprising is that perhaps Indian government never issued any orders regarding this holiday.

The story of seven-days week is also captivating. Interestingly, some of the earliest civilizations observed the cosmos and recorded the movements of planets - the Sun and the Moon. It is believed that the Babylonians were the first to start the seven-days week, and they brought it to the Latin-speaking Romans, who named each day after a god. The reason they adopted the number seven was that they observed seven celestial bodies — the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Though other ancient cultures had different week lengths - including ten-days in Egypt and an eight-days week for Etruscans.

In A.D. 321, it was Emperor Constantine who decreed that the seven-day week was the official Roman week and made ‘Sunday’ a public holiday. He introduced the first civil legislation concerning Sunday in AD 321 and commanded that all work should cease on that day (Sunday), except that farmers could work, if necessary. When Alexander the Great began to spread Greek culture throughout the Near-East, as far as India, the concept of the seven-days week also began to spread.

Many scholars believe that perhaps India later introduced the seven-day week to China.

Besides ‘Sunday’ as a holiday, the Romans also wanted ‘Saturday’ to be considered as either half-day, if not full-day holiday, as Saturday was the ‘Sabbath’ among the Jews and the only day named after a Roman God - Saturn. In support of this historical belief, most employers in the modern world, consider giving their employees either a half-day or a full-day-holiday on a Saturday.

The obvious question is also about the theory of 12 months in a year. Remarkably, Julius Caesar's astronomers explained the need for 12 months in a year and the addition of a leap year to synchronize with the seasons. At that time, there were only ten months in a calendar, while there were just over 12 lunar cycles in a year.

Most of our time reckoning is due to the movements of the planets - Moon and stars. Our day is equal to one full rotation of the Earth around its axis. Our year is a revolution of the Earth around the Sun, which takes 365 and ? days, which is why we add?an extra day in February?every four years, for a leap year.

Whatever anyone can say – in 365 years we have 52 Sundays and 52 Saturdays, making 104 holidays for many, though some would still need more.

Having said this, next time when you travel during the weekends, say thank you to Babylonians, Romans, our very own Narayan Meghaji Lokhande and ‘Surya-Dev’ of course.