Holidays, Seasonal Festivals, and Their Social Meaning
Abbas Goya Holidays tell different stories within a country’s official calendar. In Europe and North America, the two-day weekend stands out above all. This achievement was the outcome of workers’ struggles for a 40-hour workweek. The struggle was formally articulated at the First International Congress in Geneva in September 1866 through the demand for an eight-hour working day. Karl Marx referred to this demand in the following year in Capital.[1] A two-day weekend in the United States was first recognized in 1908 at the New England Cotton Mill, and even then only for Jewish workers, so that they would not be required to work on Saturday, the traditional Jewish day of rest. In 1926, the Ford factory became the first to implement a two-day weekend on the initiative of the employer. In 1929, the clothing industry workers’ union secured the five-day workweek as a contractual demand. However, it was not until 1940 that the two-day weekend was implemented nationwide. Thus, the simple entr...