The Christians gave us Sunday off , the Jews and the unions gave us Saturday off . The 7 day week goes back to the Babylonians , 4 , 000 years ago , who only knew about 7 planets in the solar system Sun , Moon , Mars , Mercury , Jupiter , Venus , Saturn , so structured their days around them . This approach spread to Egypt , Greece , and eventually to Rome who also named the days after the 7 planets . The biblical Christian , Jewish , Islamic religions specify a day of rest or prayer Sunday , Saturday , or Friday . This was also a social gathering as farmers came together at church . The social aspect meant that , particularly in Britain , there was a lot of drinking on Sunday so some workers would stay home on Monday to recover . This wasn ' t a problem until the industrial revolution . A factory with only half the workers there doesn ' t run very well so the factory owners realized they would have to accept this . Some closed on Monday , but others figured out that if they closed Saturday afternoon they could make that the drinking night and everyone would recover on Sunday and show up for work on Monday . This approach caught on . It ' s around this time , 1879 , that the term weekend was first used . Changing from a half day to a full day off on Saturday took decades . This appears to have first been done in the US to accommodate Jewish workers , who took Saturday off to rest , but were willing to work on Sunday . Jewish workers weren ' t as common as heavy drinkers so only a few work places actually close for all of Saturday . In 1926 Henry Ford was one of the first factory owners to adopt a 2 day weekend , but it wasn ' t clear why . He didn ' t appear to like Jews but he did hire them and blacks and women . Previously he didn ' t even give a half day off on Saturday . It ' s possible that it was just a way to retain more skilled workers , or that it increased productivity , or that it was part of his meddling with the private lives of workers , or it ' s possible that he just thought it was the right thing to do . At the time he wrote Every man needs more than one day a week for rest and recreation . The Ford Company always has sought to promote ideal home life for its employees . We believe that in order to live properly every man should have more time to spend with his family . d a y i n h i s toryfordfactoryworkersget 40 hourweekprintIt wasn ' t until workers started unionizing and pushing for consistency between factories that getting all of Saturday off became widespread . In 1916 US labor law limited the work day to 8 hours . In 1938 it added a 44 hour work week still a half Saturday , then in 1940 it changed to a 40 hour work week and the weekend as we know it was born .