Sabbath

==Secular traditions==
{{See also|Secular day of rest|Weekend}}
Secular use of "Sabbath" for "rest day", while it usually refers to the same period of time (Sunday) as the majority Christian use of "Sabbath", is often stated in [[North America]] to refer to different purposes for the rest day than those of [[Christendom]]. In ''[[McGowan v. Maryland]]'' (1961), the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] held that contemporary [[Maryland]] [[blue law]]s (typically, Sunday rest laws) were intended to promote the secular values of "health, safety, recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest, and that this day coinciding with majority Christian Sabbath neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days. [[Massachusetts]], uncharacteristically, does not specify which day of the week its "Day of Rest" statute applies to, providing only that one day off from work is required every week; an unspecified weekly day off is a very widespread business production cycle. The [[Supreme Court of Canada]], in ''[[R. v. Big M Drug Mart Ltd.]]'' (1985) and ''[[R. v. Edwards Books and Art Ltd.]]'' (1986), found some blue laws invalid for having no legitimate secular purpose, but others valid because they had no religious purpose.

The weekend is that period of the week set aside by custom or law for rest from labor. In many countries the non-working days are Saturday and Sunday, and in that case "the weekend" is often considered to begin when Friday's workday ends. This five-day workweek arose in [[United States|America]] when [[labor union]]s attempted to accommodate Jewish Sabbath, beginning at a [[New England]] [[cotton mill]] and also instituted by [[Henry Ford]] in 1926; it became standard in America by about 1940 and spread among English-speaking and European countries to become the international workweek.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/08/where-the-five-day-workweek-came-from/378870/|title = Where the Five-Day Workweek Came from|website = [[The Atlantic]]|date = 21 August 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2016/09/five-day-work-week-became-popular/|title = How the Five Day Work Week Became Popular|date = 5 September 2016}}</ref> [[China]] adopted it in 1995 and [[Hong Kong]] by 2006. Businesses in [[India]] and some other countries might follow either the international workweek or a more traditional plan that is nearly the same but includes half a day of work on Saturday. While [[Indonesia]] and [[Lebanon]] have the international workweek, in most Muslim countries Friday is the weekend, alone or with Thursday (all or half) or Saturday. Some universities permit a three-day weekend from Friday to Sunday. The weekend in [[Israel]], [[Nepal]], and parts of [[Malaysia]], is Friday (all or half) and Saturday. Only the one-day customary or legal weekends are usually called "Sabbath".

=== State-mandated rest days ===
{{See also|Blank day|Chinese week|Décadi|Soviet week}}
{{unreferenced section|date=December 2022}}
State-mandated rest days are widespread. Laws of the [[Han dynasty]] (206 BCE – 220 CE) required imperial officials to rest on every ''mu'' (every fifth day), within a ten-day Chinese week. The rest day was changed to ''huan'' or ''xún'' (every tenth day) in the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907).

The [[calendar reform|reform calendar]] of the [[French Revolution]] was used from 1793 to 1805. It used ten-day weeks, contained in twelve months of three weeks each; the five or six extra days needed to approximate the [[tropical year]] were placed at the end of the year and did not belong to any month. The tenth day of each week, ''décadi'', replaced Sunday as the day of rest and festivity in France.

From 1929 to 1931, the [[Soviet Union]] mandated a [[Soviet calendar|five-day week]] in which each day designated by color as a state rest day for a different 20% of the workforce; members of the same family did not usually have the same rest day. Three weeks each year were longer (six or seven days instead of five), because those weeks were interrupted by holidays. From 1931 to 1940, the Soviets mandated a six-day week, with state rest days for all upon the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th, and 30th of each [[Gregorian month]], as well as upon March 1. This also necessitated varying weeks of five to seven days over the year.

Among many calendar reform proposals that eliminate the constant [[seven-day week]] in exchange for simplified calculation of calendrical data like [[weekday names]] for given dates, some retain Sabbatical influences. The [[Hermetic Lunar Week Calendar]] uses [[moon phases]], resulting in weeks of six to nine days. The [[International Fixed Calendar]] and [[World Calendar]] both use 364-day years containing exactly 52 weeks (each starting on a day designated as Sunday), with an additional one or two [[intercalation (timekeeping)|intercalary]] "blank" days not designated as part of any week (Year Day and Leap Day in the International Fixed Calendar; Worldsday and Leapyear Day in the World Calendar). Supporters of reform sought to accommodate Sabbatical observance by retaining the modified week and designating the intercalary days as additional Sabbaths or [[holidays]]; however, religious leaders held that such days disrupt the traditional seven-day weekly cycle. This unresolved issue contributed to the cessation of calendar reform activities in the 1930s (International Fixed Calendar) and again in 1955 (World Calendar), though supporters of both proposals remain.

===Subbotnik===
The [[subbotnik]] is a weekly day of volunteer work on Saturday in [[Russia]], other (former) [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Soviet republic]]s, the [[Eastern Bloc]], and the [[German Democratic Republic]], sporadically observed since 1919. The ''voskresnik'' is a related volunteer workday on Sunday. They focus on community service work; "[[Lenin]]'s Subbotnik" was also observed annually around his birthday.

===Sabbatical===
{{main|sabbatical}}
From the biblical sabbatical year came the modern concept of a [[sabbatical]], a prolonged, often one-year, hiatus in the career of an individual (not usually tied to a seven-year period). Such a period is often taken in order to fulfill some goal such as writing a book or traveling extensively for research. Some universities and other institutional employers of scientists, physicians, or academics offer paid sabbatical as an employee benefit, called "sabbatical leave"; some companies offer unpaid sabbatical for people wanting to take career breaks.