Monday - Position in The Week

Position in The Week

The international ISO 8601 standard places Monday as the first day of the week, and this is widely used on calendars in Europe and in international business. Monday is xīngqīyī (星期一) in Chinese, meaning "day one of the week". Its name in Georgian and Syriac means "first day". Modern western culture usually looks at Monday as the beginning of the workweek, as it is typically Monday when adults go back to work and children go back to school after the weekend.

Jewish and some Christian traditions place Sunday as the first day of the week, and Monday is thus the second day of the week. This is the standard format in the United States, Canada, Japan and Israel. Quakers traditionally refer to Monday as "Second Day" eschewing the pagan origin of the English name "Monday". For similar reasons the official liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church refers to Monday as the second celebration day - Feria II. The Portuguese and the Greek (Eastern Orthodox Church) name for Monday reflects this, as do all the days' names except Saturday and Sunday: the Portuguese word for Monday is segunda-feira and the Greek word is Δευτέρα "devtéra" (second in order). Likewise the Hebrew name for Monday is yom-sheni (יום שני).