In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat ( ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day commanded by Yahweh to be kept as a Holiday of rest as God rested in the Genesis creation narrative.
A day of rest is observed in Judaism (Shabbat) (Saturday), Islam (the day of Friday prayer), and Christianity (Sunday).[ World Book Encyclopedia, 2018 ed., s.v. "Jerusalem"] Observances similar to or descended from the Sabbath also exist in other religions. The term may be generally used to describe similar weekly observances in other religions.
Origins
A number of scholars propose a
cognate Akkadian word
šapattu or
šabattu, which refers to the day of the
full moon. A lexicographic list found in the library of Ashurbanipal glosses
šabattu as "the day of the heart's rest" (
ūm nûḫ libbi), although this probably refers to the appeasement of the gods' anger.
Other scholars doubt that there is a connection between the biblical Sabbath and the Akkadian
šapattu/
šabattu, as the two words may not have a common etymology and
šapattu refers almost exclusively to the fifteenth day of the month or the phenomenon of lunar alignment, not to the seventh day of a week.
However, different studies found evidence that the biblical sabbath indeed sometime had a monthly, rather than weekly, meaning.
Connection to Sabbath observance has been suggested in the designation of the seventh, fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first and twenty-eight days of a lunar month in an Assyrian religious calendar as a 'holy day', also called 'evil days' (meaning "unsuitable" for prohibited activities). The prohibitions on these days, spaced seven days apart (except the nineteenth), include abstaining from chariot riding, and the avoidance of eating meat by the King. On these days officials were prohibited from various activities and common men were forbidden to "make a wish", and at least the 28th was known as a "rest-day".["Histoire du peuple hébreu". André Lemaire. Presses Universitaires de France 2009 (8e édition), p. 66]
The earliest extrabiblical attestation of Sabbath might occur in a 7th-century BCE ostracon discovered at the ancient fortress of Mesad Hashavyahu, which could refer to a servant doing certain kinds of work "before Sabbath" ( lpny šbt). There is some dispute on whether šbt does indeed refer to Sabbath or just to the activity of quitting from the work, however.
Biblical Sabbath
The verbal and nominal forms of shabbat are first mentioned in the Genesis creation narrative, where the seventh day is set aside as a day of rest and made holy by God in Genesis 2:2–3.
Observation and remembrance of Shabbat is one of the Ten Commandments: the fourth commandment in Judaism and Samaritanism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and most of Protestantism, and the third in the Catholic Church and Lutheranism.
Most Jews who observe Shabbat regard it as having been instituted as a biblical covenant between God and the Israelites in Exodus 31:13–17 as a sign of two events: the day God rested after having completed Creation (Exodus 20:8–11) and because of the Exodus (Deuteronomy 5:12–15). Most Sabbath-keeping Christians regard the Sabbath as having been instituted by God at the end of Creation and that the entire world was then, and continues to be, obliged to observe the seventh day as Sabbath.
Observance in the Hebrew Bible was universally from sixth-day sundown to seventh-day sundown according to Nehemiah 13:19 and Leviticus 23:32 in a seven-day week. The Sabbath was considered a day of joy in Isaiah 58:13 and an occasion for consultation with prophets in 2 Kings 4:23.
Judaism
Shabbat in Judaism is a weekly day of rest observed from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night. There are 39 Melakhot, activities prohibited on Shabbat, listed in Tractate Shabbat of the Talmud. Customarily, Shabbat is ushered in by lighting
shortly before sunset, at
calculated times that change weekly and geographically.
Shabbat is a widely noted hallmark of Jews. Several Shabbats every year are designated as , such as Shabbat haGadol before Passover and Shabbat Teshuvah before Yom Kippur.
While Jews observe Shabbat between Friday at sundown and Saturday at sundown, the classical Reform movement innovated, exemplied by some Reform rabbis such as Samuel Holdheim, who shifted his congregation's Shabbat services to Sundays in imitation of Christians' observance of their sabbath, which takes place on Sunday.
Shabbaton
In
Israel, the term
Shabbaton may mean an event or program of education and usually celebration held on Shabbat, or over an entire
weekend with the primary focus on Shabbat. Such events are often organized by youth groups, singles groups, synagogues, schools, social groups, charitable organizations, or family reunions. They can be either multi-generational and open to all or limited to a specific group. They can be held at a location where a group usually meets or off-site. The term "Shabbaton" rather than "retreat" signifies recognition of the importance of Shabbat in the event or program.
Christianity
In Eastern Christianity, the Sabbath is considered still to be on
Saturday, the seventh day, in remembrance of the Hebrew Sabbath.
In the Latin Church and most branches of Protestantism, Sunday, traditionally the first day of the week, is called the Lord's Day (), for according to the Gospel, Jesus was executed on Friday and resurrected on Sunday. This symbolized the start of a New Creation, and a new and perfect Adam, or a renewal of God's relationship with humanity. Communal worship, including the Holy Mysteries, may take place on any day, but a weekly observance of the Resurrection is consistently made on Sunday. Western Christianity sometimes refers to the Lord's Day as a "Christian Sabbath," distinct from the Hebrew Sabbath, but related in varying manner.
Subbotniks or "Sabbatarians" are a Russian sect categorized as Judaizers that gained particular notoriety for their strict observance of Shabbat.
First-day
Since
Puritan times, most English-speaking Protestants identify the Lord's Day as the Christian Sabbath, a term Catholics in those areas may also celebrate with the
Eucharist. It is considered both the first day and the "eighth day" of the seven-day week. In
Tonga, all commerce and entertainment activities cease on Sunday, starting at midnight and ending the next day, at midnight, as Tonga's constitution declares the Sabbath sacred forever.
In Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Orthodox Tewahedo branches observe both Sunday and a
Saturday Sabbath in different ways for several centuries, as have other traditions.
Puritan Sabbatarianism or Reformed Sabbatarianism is strict observance of Sabbath in Christianity that is typically characterized by its avoidance of leisure activities. "Puritan Sabbath", expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith, is often contrasted with "Continental Sabbath": the latter follows the Continental Reformed confessions of faith such as the Heidelberg Catechism, which emphasize rest and worship on Lord's Day, but do not forbid recreational activities.
Seventh-day
Several Christian denominations observe Sabbath in a similar manner to Judaism, though with observance ending at Saturday sunset instead of Saturday nightfall. Early church historians
Sozomen and Socrates cite the seventh day as the Christian day of worship except for the Christians in Rome and Alexandria. Many Sabbatarian Judeo-Christian groups were attested during the Middle Ages. The
Waldensians, a religious group founded during the 12th century, are regarded as one of the first Post-Constantinian Christian groups to observe the seventh-day Sabbath. The Szekler Sabbatarians were founded in 1588 from among the Unitarian Church of Transylvania and maintained a presence until the group converted to Judaism in the 1870s. Seventh Day Baptists have observed Sabbath on Saturday since the mid-17th century (either from sundown or from midnight), and influenced the (now more numerous) Seventh-day Adventists in America to begin the practice in the mid-19th century. They believe that keeping seventh-day Sabbath is a moral responsibility equal to that of any of the other
Ten Commandments, based on the Fourth Commandment's injunction to Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as well as the example of
Jesus. They also use "Lord's Day" to mean the seventh day, based on Scriptures in which God calls the day "my Sabbath" () and "to the " () and in which Jesus calls himself "Lord of Sabbath" (). The question of defining Sabbath worldwide on a round earth was resolved by some seventh-day Sabbatarians by making use of the International Date Line (i.e., permitting local rest-day adjustment, ), while others (such as some
Sabbatarians) keep Sabbath according to
Jerusalem time (i.e., rejecting manmade temporal customs, ). Adherents of Messianic Judaism (a Christian sect or grouping of sects), also generally observe the Sabbath on Saturdays.
Seventh-day versus First-day
In 321 AD, Roman emperor Constantine the Great enacted the first civil law regarding Sunday observance. The law did not mention the Sabbath by name, but referred to a day of rest on "the venerable day of the sun."
New moon
The new moon, which occurs every 29 or 30 days, is a separately sanctioned occasion in Judaism,
Rosh Chodesh. It is not treated as a Shabbat, but some
Hebrew Roots and
Pentecostal churches keep the day of the new moon as a rest day from evening to evening. New moon services can last all day in these churches.
Some modern Sabbatarians have suggested a Sabbath based on the new moon, citing Psalm 104:19 and Genesis 1:14 as key . Observers recognize the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of the month of the Hebrew calendar as Sabbath days.
Day of the Vow
Day of the Vow or
Dingane's Day (Afrikaans
Geloftedag or
Dingaansdag, December 16) was the name of a religious public holiday in
South Africa commemorating a famous
Boer victory over the
Zulu people. Celebrated as annual Sabbath (a holy day of thanksgiving) since 1838, it was renamed Day of Reconciliation in 1994. The anniversary and its commemoration are intimately connected with various streams of
Afrikaner and South African nationalism.
Millennial Sabbath
Since Hippolytus of Rome in the early third century, Christians have often considered that some thousand-year Sabbath, expected to begin six thousand years after Creation, might be identical with the
millennialism described in the Book of Revelation. This view was also popular among 19th- and 20th-century dispensational
. The term "Sabbatism" or "Sabbatizing" (Greek
Sabbatismos), which generically means any literal or spiritual Sabbath-keeping, has also been taken in to have special reference to this definition.
Spiritual Sabbath
Some modern Christians uphold Sabbath principles but do not limit observance to either Saturday or Sunday, instead advocating rest on any one chosen day of the week as following the spirit of Sabbath, or advocating Sabbath as instead a symbolic metaphor for rest in Christ. These look upon Sabbath as a principle to be observed in spirit rather than in letter, regarding the rest offered in
Jesus as the only New Testament admonishment containing the root word of "Sabbath" () and sometimes as a more permanent rest than a day could fulfill ().
Latter Day Saint Movement
In 1831,
Joseph Smith published a revelation commanding his related movement, the Latter Day Saint movement, to go to the house of prayer, offer up their sacraments, rest from their labors, and pay their devotions on the Lord's day (D&C 59:9–12).
Latter-day Saints believe this means performing no labor that would keep them from giving their full attention to spiritual matters (Ex. 20:10). LDS prophets have described this as meaning they should not shop, hunt, fish, attend sports events, or participate in similar activities on that day. Elder Spencer W. Kimball wrote in his The Miracle of Forgiveness that mere idle lounging on the Sabbath does not keep the day holy, and that it calls for constructive thoughts and acts.[ The Miracle of Forgiveness, pp. 96–97]
Members of the Church are encouraged to prepare their meals with "singleness of heart" on the Sabbath[ churchofjesuschrist.org D&C 59:13] (D&C 59:13) and believe the day is only for righteous activities (Is. 58:13.) In most areas of the world, this means worship on Sunday, though there is adaptation for Israel and many Muslim-majority countries.[Mortenson, A., Attending Church on Friday + 17 More Unique Ways Latter-day Saints Worship Around the World, accessed on 13 January 2025][ churchofjesuschrist.org – Study by Topic – Sabbath]
/ref>
Islam
The
Quran shares the six-part Abrahamic creation narrative (32:4, 50:38) and the Sabbath as the seventh day (: 2:65, 4:47, 154, 7:163, 16:124), but
Allah mounting the throne after creation is taken in contradistinction to
Elohim's concluding and resting from his labors. The Quran states that since Sabbath was only for Jews, Muslims replace Sabbath rest with (). Also known as "Friday prayer", is a congregational prayer () held every Friday (the Day of Assembly), just after midday, in place of the otherwise daily prayer;
The Quran states: "When the call is proclaimed to prayer on Friday, hasten earnestly to the Remembrance of Allah, and leave off business: That is best for you if ye but knew" (62:9). The next verse ("When the prayer is ended, then disperse in the land ...") leads many Muslims not to consider Friday a rest day, as in Indonesia, which regards the seventh-day Sabbath as unchanged; but many Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh, do consider Friday a nonwork day, a holiday or a weekend; and other Muslim countries, like Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates count it as half a rest day (after the Friday prayer is over). attendance is strictly incumbent upon all free adult males who are
Samaritanism
The Sabbath is observed weekly by the Samaritan community every Friday to Saturday beginning and ending at sundown, for twenty four hours the families gather together to celebrate the rest day, all electricity with the exception of minimal lighting (kept on the entire day) in the house is disconnected, no work is done, neither is cooking or driving allowed. The time is devoted to worship which consists of seven
Liturgy (divided into two for Sabbath eve, two in the morning, one in afternoon and one at eve of conclusion), reading the weekly Torah portion (According to the Samaritan yearly Torah cycle), spending quality time with family, taking meals, rest and sleep, and within the community visiting each other is encouraged.
are not used in Samaritan custom and would be considered a violation of the biblical commandment of "You shall not kindle fire".
["Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day." Exodus 35:3.][ "The Samaritan Sabbath" by Jacob, Son of Aaron, The High Priest of The Samaritans at Shechem. pp. 441-442.]
Other religious traditions
Seven-day week
By
synecdoche (naming the whole for a part), in Jewish sources by the time of the
Septuagint, the term "Sabbath" (
Greek language Sabbaton, Strong's
4521) also came to mean an entire "se'nnight" or seven-day week, the interval between two weekly Sabbaths.
Jesus's
parable of the Pharisee and the Publican () describes the
Pharisee as fasting "twice a week" (
Greek language dis tou sabbatou, literally, "Twice of the Sabbath"). Philo of Alexandria states in Decalogue XX. (96) The fourth commandment has reference to the sacred seventh day, that it may be passed in a sacred and holy manner. Now some states keep the holy festival only once in the month, counting from the new moon, as a day sacred to God; but the nation of the Jews keep every seventh day regularly, after each interval of six days; (97) and there is an account of events recorded in the history of the creation of the world, constituting a sufficient relation of the cause of this ordinance; for the sacred historian says, that the world was created in six days, and that on the seventh day God desisted from his works, and began to contemplate what he had so beautifully created; (98) therefore, he commanded the beings also who were destined to live in this state, to imitate God in this particular also, as well as in all others, applying themselves to their works for six days, but desisting from them and philosophising on the seventh day, and devoting their leisure to the contemplation of the things of nature, and considering whether in the preceding six days they have done anything which has not been holy, bringing their conduct before the judgment-seat of the soul, and subjecting it to a scrutiny, and making themselves give an account of all the things which they have said or done; the laws sitting by as assessors and joint inquirers, in order to the correcting of such errors as have been committed through carelessness, and to the guarding against any similar offences being hereafter repeated.
High Sabbaths
"High Sabbaths" are observed by Jews and some Christians. Seven annual Biblical festivals, called
miqra ("called assembly") in Hebrew and "High Sabbath" in English and serving as supplemental testimonies to Sabbath, are specified in the books of Exodus and
Deuteronomy; they do not necessarily fall on weekly Sabbath. Three occur in spring: the first and seventh days of
Pesach (Passover), and
Shavuot (
Pentecost). Four occur in fall, in the seventh month, and are also called
Shabbaton:
Rosh Hashanah (Trumpets);
Yom Kippur, "Sabbath of Sabbaths" (Atonement); and the first and eighth days of
Sukkoth (Tabernacles). "High Sabbaths" is also often a synonym of "High Holy Days", viz., Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Shmita
Shmita (, Strong's 8059 as
shemittah, literally "release"), also called sabbatical year, is the seventh (שביעי, Strong's 7637 as
shebiy'iy) year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by
Torah for the Land of Israel, relatively little observed in Biblical tradition, but still observed in contemporary
Judaism. During
Shmita, the land is left to lie
fallow and all agricultural activity, including plowing, planting, pruning and harvesting, is forbidden by Torah and
halakha. By tradition, other cultivation techniques (such as watering, fertilizing, weeding, spraying, trimming and mowing) may be performed as preventive measures only, not to improve the growth of trees or plants; additionally, whatever fruits grow of their own accord during that year are deemed
hefker (ownerless), not for the landowner but for the poor, the stranger, and the beasts of the field; these fruits may be picked by anyone. A variety of laws also apply to the sale, consumption and disposal of
Shmita produce. When the year ended, all debts, except those of foreigners, were to be remitted (); in similar fashion, Torah requires a slave who had worked for six years to go free in the seventh year.
Leviticus 25 promises bountiful harvests to those who observe
Shmita, and describes its observance as a test of religious faith. The term
Shmita is translated "release" five times in the Book of Deuteronomy (from the root שמט,
shamat, "
desist,
remit", 8058).
Babylonian rest days
Counting from the new moon, the
Babylonians celebrated the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th as holy days, also called "evil days", meaning "unsuitable" for prohibited activities. On these days, officials were prohibited from various activities and ordinary people were forbidden to "make a wish", and at least the 28th was known as a rest day. On each of them, offerings were made to a different god and goddess. Tablets from the 6th-century BCE reigns of Cyrus the Great and
Cambyses II indicate these dates were sometimes approximate. The
lunation of 29 or 30 days essentially consisted of three seven-day weeks followed by a final period nine or ten days, breaking the continuous seven-day cycle. The Babylonians additionally celebrated the 19th as a special "evil day", the "day of anger", because it was roughly the 49th day of the (preceding) month, completing a "week of weeks", also with sacrifices and prohibitions.
Difficulties with Friedrich Delitzsch's origin theory connecting Shabbat with the Babylonian calendar include reconciling the differences between an unbroken week and a lunar week and explaining the absence of texts naming the lunar week as Shabbat in any language. Reconstruction of a broken tablet seems to define the rarely attested Babylonian word Sapattum or Sabattum as the full moon. This word is cognate to or the origin of the Hebrew "Shabbat", but it is observed monthly rather than weekly. It is regarded as a form of sa-bat ("mid-rest"), attested as an um nuḫ libbi ("day of mid-repose"). This conclusion is a contextual restoration of the damaged Enūma Eliš creation myth, which is read as: "Sapattu shalt thou then encounter, midmonthly."
The pentecontad calendar, believed to have originated from the , includes a period known to the Babylonians as Shappatum. The year is broken down into seven periods of fifty days: seven weeks of seven days, containing seven weekly Sabbaths, and an extra fiftieth day known as the atzeret "assembly", plus an annual supplement of fifteen or sixteen days, called Shappatum, the period of harvest at the end of each year. Identified and reconstructed by Hildegaard and Julius Lewy in the 1940s, the calendar's use dates back to at least the 3rd millennium BCE in western Mesopotamia and surrounding areas; it was used by the tribes, thought by some to have been used by the Israelites before Solomon and related to the liturgical calendar of the at Qumran. Used well into the modern age, forms of it have been found in Nestorianism and among Palestinians fellaheen. Julius Morgenstern believed that the calendar of the Jubilees had ancient origins as a somewhat modified survival of the pentecontad calendar.
Buddhist rest day
The
Uposatha has been observed since
Gautama Buddha's time (500 BCE), and is still being kept today in Theravada Buddhist countries. It occurs every seven or eight days, in accordance with the four phases of the moon. Buddha taught that
Uposatha is for "the cleansing of the defiled mind", resulting in inner calm and joy. On this day, disciples and
intensify their practice, deepen their knowledge, and express communal commitment through millennia-old acts of lay-monastic reciprocity.
Thai Chinese likewise observe their Sabbaths and traditional Chinese holidays according to lunar phases, but not on exactly the same days as Uposatha. These Sabbaths cycle through the month with respect to the Thai solar calendar, so common Thai calendars incorporate Thai and Chinese calendar lunar dates, as well as Uposatha dates, for religion purposes.
Cherokee rest days
The first day of the
new moon, beginning at sunrise, is a
holiday of
leisure and
prayer among the
Cherokee. Monthly
fasting is encouraged, for up to four days. Work, cooking, sex and childbirth were also prohibited during the empty moon days, called "un-time" or "non-days"; childbirth during these days was considered unlucky. The Cherokee
new year, the "great new moon" or "Hunting Moon", is the first new moon in
autumn, after the setting of the
Pleiades star cluster and around the time of the
Leonids meteoric shower.
Sabbath as Saturday
One
folk tradition in English is the widespread use of "Sabbath" as a synonym of midnight-to-midnight "Saturday" (literally,
Saturn's day in at least a dozen languages): this is a simplification of the use of "Sabbath" in other religious contexts, where the two do not coincide. (Using midnight instead of sundown as delimiter dates back to the
Roman Empire.) In over thirty other languages, the
week-day names for this day in the
seven-day week is a cognate of "Sabbath". "
Sabbatini", originally "Sabbadini", often "Sabatini", etc., is a very frequent Italian name form ("Sabbatos" is the Greek form), indicating a family whose ancestor was born on Saturday, Italian
sabato; "Domenico" indicated birth on Sunday.
In vampire hunter lore, people born on Saturday were specially designated as sabbatianoí in Greek language and sâbotnichavi in Bulgarian (rendered in English as "Sabbatarians"). It was also believed in the Balkans that someone born on a Saturday could see a vampire when it was otherwise invisible.
Wicca
The annual cycle of the Earth's seasons is called the Wheel of the Year in
Wicca and
neopaganism. Eight sabbats (occasionally "sabbaths", or "Sun sabbats") are spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year.
Samhain, which coincides with
Halloween, is considered the first sabbat of the year.
An esbat is a ritual observance of the full moon in Wicca and neopaganism. Some groups extend the esbat to include the dark moon and the first and last quarters. "Esbat" and "sabbat" are distinct and are probably not cognate terms, although an esbat is also called "moon sabbat".
European records from the Middle Ages to the 17th century or later also place Witches' Sabbaths on similar dates to sabbats in modern Wicca, but with some disagreement; medieval reports of sabbat activity are generally not firsthand and may be imaginative, but many persons were accused of, or tried for, taking part in sabbats.
Unification Church
The Unification Church has a regular day of worship on Sunday, but every eight days Unificationists celebrate the day of Ahn Shi Il, considered as Sabbath but cycling among the weekdays of the Gregorian calendar. The
Family Pledge, formerly recited at 5:00 a.m. on Sundays, was moved to Ahn Shi Il in 1994 and includes eight verses containing the phrase "by centering on true love".
Baháʼí Faith
The day of rest in the Baháʼí Faith is Friday.
Secular traditions
Secular use of "Sabbath" for "rest day", while it usually refers to the same period of time (Sunday) as the majority Christian use of "Sabbath", is often stated in
North America to refer to different purposes for the rest day than those of
Christendom. In
McGowan v. Maryland (1961), the Supreme Court of the United States held that contemporary
Maryland (typically, Sunday rest laws) were intended to promote the secular values of "health, safety, recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest, and that this day coinciding with majority Christian Sabbath neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days.
Massachusetts, uncharacteristically, does not specify which day of the week its "Day of Rest" statute applies to, providing only that one day off from work is required every week; an unspecified weekly day off is a very widespread business production cycle. The Supreme Court of Canada, in
R. v. Big M Drug Mart Ltd. (1985) and
R. v. Edwards Books and Art Ltd. (1986), found some blue laws invalid for having no legitimate secular purpose, but others valid because they had no religious purpose.
The weekend is that period of the week set aside by custom or law for rest from labor. In many countries the non-working days are Saturday and Sunday, and in that case "the weekend" is often considered to begin when Friday's workday ends. This five-day workweek arose in United States when attempted to accommodate Jewish Sabbath, beginning at a New England cotton mill and also instituted by Henry Ford in 1926; it became standard in America by about 1940 and spread among English-speaking and European countries to become the international workweek.
State-mandated rest days
State-mandated rest days are widespread. Laws of the
Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) required imperial officials to rest on every
mu (every fifth day), within a ten-day Chinese week. The rest day was changed to
huan or
xún (every tenth day) in the
Tang dynasty (618–907).
The calendar reform of the French Revolution was used from 1793 to 1805. It used ten-day weeks, contained in twelve months of three weeks each; the five or six extra days needed to approximate the tropical year were placed at the end of the year and did not belong to any month. The tenth day of each week, décadi, replaced Sunday as the day of rest and festivity in France.
From 1929 to 1931, the Soviet Union mandated a Soviet calendar in which each day designated by color as a state rest day for a different 20% of the workforce; members of the same family did not usually have the same rest day. Three weeks each year were longer (six or seven days instead of five), because those weeks were interrupted by holidays. From 1931 to 1940, the Soviets mandated a six-day week, with state rest days for all upon the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th, and 30th of each Gregorian month, as well as upon March 1. This also necessitated varying weeks of five to seven days over the year.
Among many calendar reform proposals that eliminate the constant seven-day week in exchange for simplified calculation of calendrical data like weekday names for given dates, some retain Sabbatical influences. The Hermetic Lunar Week Calendar uses moon phases, resulting in weeks of six to nine days. The International Fixed Calendar and World Calendar both use 364-day years containing exactly 52 weeks (each starting on a day designated as Sunday), with an additional one or two intercalary "blank" days not designated as part of any week (Year Day and Leap Day in the International Fixed Calendar; Worldsday and Leapyear Day in the World Calendar). Supporters of reform sought to accommodate Sabbatical observance by retaining the modified week and designating the intercalary days as additional Sabbaths or holidays; however, religious leaders held that such days disrupt the traditional seven-day weekly cycle. This unresolved issue contributed to the cessation of calendar reform activities in the 1930s (International Fixed Calendar) and again in 1955 (World Calendar), though supporters of both proposals remain.
Subbotnik
The
subbotnik is a weekly day of volunteer work on Saturday in
Russia, other (former) Soviet republics, the
Eastern Bloc, and the German Democratic Republic, sporadically observed since 1919. The
voskresnik is a related volunteer workday on Sunday. They focus on community service work; "
Lenin's Subbotnik" was also observed annually around his birthday.
Sabbatical
From the biblical sabbatical year came the modern concept of a
sabbatical, a prolonged, often one-year, hiatus in the career of an individual (not usually tied to a seven-year period). Such a period is often taken in order to fulfill some goal such as writing a book or traveling extensively for research. Some universities and other institutional employers of scientists, physicians, or academics offer paid sabbatical as an employee benefit, called "sabbatical leave"; some companies offer unpaid sabbatical for people wanting to take career breaks.
See also
External links
