Weekend

For the first weekend post of this blog, I have chosen that word itself - weekend. Unlike some of my other choices so far, it's not the sound of the word that intrigues me. Nor is it the usage. Rather, weekend stands out due to the immediate joy it typically brings to people. As words go, it is fairly mundane. It's your average compound word, comprised of "week" and "end." But say it to someone stuck in an office all day, any school-age kid, or - well - almost anyone, and their eyes light up.

A weekend is something that never gets old, never loses its majesty, never gets forgotten. We get 52 of them every year, and I don't think we ever tire of them. I know I certainly don't. Rare is the person who looks ahead to the weekend and groans, "I can't believe I have to take a break instead of working more. Grrr."

As you probably know and might have guessed anyway, the weekend's origin is based in religion. We rested in honor of our deities, starting with the Sabbath as ordained in the Ten Commandments and moving forward from there. Jews celebrate Saturday as their day of rest and most Christians celebrate on Sunday. At some point in the past (and truly, I'm too lazy to research the when or where...after all, it is the weekend), societies joined those two forces together and we arrived at the present-day system of Saturdays and Sundays off (for most people).

The only thing that takes weekend to a higher level, of course, is that rare creature, stuck to the front just a few times a year: "three-day".

That's all from David Wartik today and for the rest of this weekend. See you Monday. Word up!