Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2017 May 10

= May 10 =

Death Registrations of the Ottoman Empire
I would be grateful if a user could please inform me where I might find death registrations of the Ottoman Empire - more especially of the Vilayet of Syria and the Sanjak of Jerusalem - of the beginning of the 20th century. Thank you. Simonschaim (talk) 07:47, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
 * These sort of records sound like something you could research using the Ottoman Archives, which is housed in Istanbul, capital of the former state. It may or may not be available online, and may actually require you to go to Istanbul, but there you are.  -- Jayron 32 13:55, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Although not death records, census records may still be useful to whatever you're looking for (and sometimes included registers of births and deaths). This website says that Syrian census records have been largely kept in the Syrian National Archives, although accessing them may be a little difficult given the current situation in Syria. It also gives some advice on where to find Jewish death records. Records for Palestine exist in the Israel State Archives if this source can be trusted. There may also be records of the Ottoman census of 1903-1906 in the Sulaymaniye Library in Istanbul. Alcherin (talk) 16:03, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

Thank you. I am pleased to say that as a result of the answers I received, I was able to at least partially get the information I required.Simonschaim (talk) 08:14, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

What's the first day of the week?
Historically, what was the first day of the week? Around the world nowadays, what do people consider to be the first day of the week? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.26.219.252 (talk) 18:26, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
 * ISO 8601 says Monday, for now. InedibleHulk (talk) 18:32, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
 * That said, the first day of the week is Sunday in much of the Arab world; its name in Arabic - yaum al-ahad - even translates to "the first day". Christians are split: on the one hand, "on the seventh day the Lord rested", but on the other many think the "day of the Lord" should be the first, not the last of the week, 'cause He's number one. --Xuxl (talk) 18:59, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
 * And many Jews count the seventh day as Saturday. The solar deity is number one in various books (written and unwritten), and since day and night (thus the week) are impossible without it and necessary with it, it makes sense that its weekday stay "in the beginning". The business world is a different world, nevertheless. InedibleHulk (talk) 19:19, 10 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Do any Jews not count Saturday as the (seventh) day of rest? —Tamfang (talk) 05:45, 11 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Irreligious ones. Judaism is a faith, culture and ethnicity all rolled together in an intriguing tangle. See cultural Jew or atheist Jew, to pick two of several relevant articles. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 13:13, 11 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Sunday became a big deal not because it was the seventh day but because the Resurrection happened on a Sunday. Christians took up celebrating that event every Sunday, and so Sunday absorbed the role of the Sabbath (=seventh).  Likely there was also some thought of distinguishing themselves from Jews by not marking their special day. —Tamfang (talk) 05:45, 11 May 2017 (UTC)


 * My calendar built into my iPad shows the succession of days in the week horizontally, and as I believe is usually the case in the US with such a layout, Sunday is first (i.e., on the left). On the other hand, in my physical weekly planner, with the days arranged vertically first on the left page and then on the right page, Monday is first, as I believe is typical for this layout. If you just ask someone in the US when the week begins, I would speculate that most people would say Monday; note that "weekend" refers to Saturday and Sunday, putting Sunday last. Loraof (talk) 19:24, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Your iPad can be configured to show any day of the week as the first day. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 22:39, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
 * The iPad's first business day was a Saturday. Just saying. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:57, 10 May 2017 (UTC)


 * First_Day_of_Week_World_Map.svg
 * This map presumably shows those currently used by governments (some inaccuracies though, e.g. many Muslim countries have shifted their weekends from Thursday-Friday to Friday-Saturday). Obviously (as mentioned above) some people will use other days as the first day of the week. Alcherin (talk) 19:48, 10 May 2017 (UTC)


 * In Mandarin Chinese, the names of the days are literally, Day 1 (xing·qi·yi), Day 2 (xing·qi·er), etc. starting from Monday until Day 6 (xing·qi·liu) on Saturday. Sunday is different, being either Skies/Heaven Day (xing·qi·tian) or Sun Day (xing·qi·re). So it seems in Chinese culture, it's Monday. Additionally, for what it's worth, iPhones (and presumably other smartphones) allow you to set whether the first day of the week is Monday or Sunday in the calendar. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.23.25.61 (talk) 01:26, 11 May 2017 (UTC)
 * In Vietnamese the days are named Chu Nhat (Sunday meaning something like Head Day), then Day 2 (Monday), Day 3 etc. Similarly in Portuguese. Actually, the Vietnamese terms may have come from Portuguese via Alexandre de Rhodes. Some info here. . Itsmejudith (talk) 11:11, 11 May 2017 (UTC)
 * See this comment:

In Portugal they use the Catholic names: segunda-feira ("second day") = Monday; sexta-feira ("sixth day") = Friday. In Latvia it's different again: trešdiena ("third day") = Wednesday; sestdiena ("sixth day") = Saturday. In Lithuanian trečiadienis is Wednesday while penktadienis ("fifth day") is Friday. Lithuania was pagan a lot longer than its neighbours. 195.147.104.148 (talk) 20:44, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

In Chinese and Mongolian Monday is "day one after worship" and so through the week. In Slavic languages and Turkish the name for Monday is "the day after Sunday". In Armenian, Georgian and Tajik the translation is "two days after Saturday". Although a week can be measured from any weekday (as a calendar month or year can be measured from any date) the calendar week has always begun on Sunday.

I have a diary for 1941 which shows Sunday to Wednesday on the left hand page and Thursday to Saturday on the right. "Mems" is opposite Wednesday. A company diary for 1990 shows one week to a page, commencing Monday. My Westminster Cathedral 1995 centenary diary has Monday to Wednesday on the left and Thursday to Sunday on the right (Saturday and Sunday together occupy the same amount of space as Wednesday opposite). A company diary for 2000 has Monday to Wednesday on the left and Thursday to Sunday on the right. Saturday and Sunday, plus a two - month calendar with weeks starting Monday, occupies the same amount of space as Wednesday opposite. It has an introduction ("reproduced with permission of the Information Services Department of the Royal Greenwich Observatory") claiming that Dionysius Exiguus was an "astronomer" who "In 6AD" compiled a table of dates and "thought that Christ was born at the end of the year 1BC."

A 2001 company diary has Monday to Wednesday plus a one - month calendar with weeks beginning Monday on the left and Thursday to Sunday on the right. Sunday occupies the same amount of space as the one - month calendar opposite. There is method in this - it's a racing diary from the era when horses had Sunday off. The diary shows that in Ireland (where the Catholic Church has a more laid back attitude to gambling) the nags had to work on Sunday as well.

A company diary for 2009 (printed by the same company as the 2000 one) has Monday to Thursday on the left and Friday to Sunday on the right. Opposite Thursday there is a two - month calendar with weeks beginning on Monday. It also features a "250 Year Day-Date Reference Guide". My 2016 Royal Astronomical Society diary, printed by the same company as the 1995 one, has a similar format to the 1995 diary. Times are "UT(GMT)" expressed to the nearest minute. 86.151.48.31 (talk) 23:16, 11 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Maybe in some Slavic languages the name for Monday is "the day after Sunday", but that's not true for Russian. Monday is 'ponedelnik', which is related to 'nedelya', the word for "week".  Then Tuesday is 'vtornik', a distant cousin of 'dva', two.  Wednesday is 'sreda', middle.  Thursday is 'chetverg', from 'chetyre', four.  Friday is 'pyatnitsa', from 'pyat', five.  Saturday is 'subbota', derived from 'sabbath', and Sunday is 'voskresenye', resurrection. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  05:17, 12 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Nedela is the word for "Sunday" in all Slavic languages except Russian and its literal meaning is "no work". Russians apparently used to count weeks by counting Sundays and eventually expanded the meaning of nedela to the entire week, so they had to give Sunday a new name (a more appropriate one from the religious point of view). They did keep ponedelnik, "the day after the non-working day", as the word for Monday, though. The names of other days of the week may suggest that pre-Christian Slavs observed a five-day week (which would explain Wednesday being the sreda, or "middle day"). When adopting Christianity, they simply added two more days to their week: the Sabbath (day six) and the non-working day (day seven). — Kpalion(talk) 10:18, 12 May 2017 (UTC)


 * That's interesting, thanks. The Russian prefix po- has such a wide array of meanings, that I never cottoned on to ponedelnik meaning the day after anything.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  00:09, 13 May 2017 (UTC)


 * In both Baltic languages the week starts on Monday and the first six days of the week correspond to the ordinal numbers. In Latvian, Monday = Pirmdiena ("first day") through to Saturday = Sestdiena (sixth day.) The exception is Sunday = Svētdiena ("Holy day.") Valenciano (talk) 18:51, 14 May 2017 (UTC)