How hangovers helped bring us the two-day weekend

So they do have a purpose!

Source: Warner Bros.

For all the hype about the hectic pace of modern life, our weekends look downright sluggish compared to those of our forebears: We have a leisurely 48 hours to fill; they had just half that time. We can plan our fun strategically, reserving Saturdays for debauchery and Sundays for recovery; in the old days, they had to squeeze it all into a single day.

And squeeze they did. The structure of the workweek as we know it — five days on, two days off — came together in bits and pieces, shaped over time by religious customs, labor practices, and cultural ideas about leisure. It’s a long, complicated history, but a recent video on the Discovery website Seeker offers an especially delightful nugget: During the Industrial Revolution, the two-day weekend took root in England as a way to deal with hung-over employees.

“In the 19th century, the Britons started using Sabbath days for enjoyment instead of religion,” explained host Trace Dominguez. And enjoyment, of course, included drinking — meaning that come Monday morning, workers would stagger in late, sluggish, and bleary-eyed. Or, in some cases, just stay home. The problem became so widespread that it gave rise to a custom known as “Saint Monday”: skipping work on Mondays to recover from the previous day’s festivities. In the 19th century, Dominguez said, factory owners began striking deals with their employees: We’ll give you a half-day on Saturday (a workday at the time) if you please, please promise to show up on Monday.

The tradeoff held broad appeal for social reasons, too. As a 1991 Atlantic article explained, there were plenty of groups invested in the death of Saint Mondays:

And thus, the norm went from one day off to a day and a half, and then eventually to two. These days, it’s easy to imagine the weekend warriors of yore would think we’ve gotten soft: Time was, they had to ride out those workday hangovers without the convenience of Seamless. They couldn’t drag themselves around the corner to order a bacon, egg, and cheese in the morning. Always remember: You live in magnificent times. Now go forth and enjoy the weekend — work will be waiting for you bright and early Monday morning, same as always.

_{This article originally appeared on Science of Us.} ©_{201_ All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.}

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