Come January 2022, we start not just a new year but also a new weekend. The entire country, nay the entire region is abuzz with this news. Indeed, it even briefly edged out news of the Omicron virus.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock or on another planet, you’ll know that Instead of Friday and Saturday, weekends have now moved to Saturday and Sunday to align with the global weekend. In fact, it’s a two-and-a -half day weekend, as Friday is half-day. And those in Sharjah actually have a three-day weekend, which includes an entire Friday along with Saturday and Sunday! (Do I see some of you turn a little green — with envy?)
A google search shows that what we take for granted, the two-day weekend, did not exist a couple of hundred years ago. Most workers got just a day off, and that was usually for religious reasons. Imagine, just a one-day weekend to squeeze in all your activities and also rest! Gradually, due to workers’ rights, the two-day weekend came into existence. In fact, Henry Ford was one of the earliest to give two days off to the employees in his factory.
This news of the new weekend has been greeted with cheers, not least of which is because it’s an extra half-day too. It’s like an extra helping of dessert, another scoop of ice-cream piled onto your already-teetering cone. For most people in other parts of the world, the three-day weekend remains a pipe dream, but here we’ve done it (Sharjah) or almost done it. We can gleefully say that we’re one-up on them as well as join them in singing about Monday’s blues.
Not only does shifting the workweek to more international standards make sound economic sense, but it’s given a sense of relief to many, especially those who work seven days a week because their job requires them to be on call on Fridays too.
Talking a whole new vocabulary
But, for old-timers like me, who are so used to Friday being the first day of the weekend, it’ll take a bit of getting used to. Now, I’ll suddenly find myself talking a whole new vocabulary. There’ll be no more need to explain to a non-resident why you’re working on a Sunday. No more saying. ‘Our Sundays are like your Mondays.’ Radio jockeys and DJs in the UAE will now have to sing a new tune.
No longer can they say, on a Wednesday, hey folks, just one day left before the weekend, or save their peppy numbers to coincide with the thrill that it’s now Thursday and the weekend is almost upon us. And, no more planning a lazy Friday brunch (our Friday brunches are legendary), as probably this would move to a Saturday, and that just doesn’t feel the same. Plus, we have to recalibrate our Thursdays and Fridays; and move it a day further.
But heck, no one’s complaining! It’s sixty hours of R and R, or, if you happen to live and work in Sharjah, seventy-two hours where you can do just about what you please. (I know, I know … many of us are still WFH, but it’s the psychological impact I’m talking about).
Shakespeare famously said, ‘A rose by any other name/Would smell as sweet.’ So, whatever days are declared a weekend would be joyously received, unless of course you’re a workaholic, in which case it wouldn’t really matter.
So three cheers for the New Year and the new weekend. Hip-hop, hurrah!
Padmini Sankar is a Dubai-based author and freelance writer. Instagram: @paddersatdubai
