Saint Monday
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Saint Monday is the tradition of absenteeism on a Monday. Saint Tuesday is the less common extension of this to a Tuesday.[1]
The tradition of taking Monday off has been common among craft workers since at least the seventeenth century.[2]
Later writers often ascribed Saint Monday to the regimentation of working class life which occurred with industrialisation. Pay day was typically Saturday, and therefore workers often had spare money on Monday. Business owners in some industries had become accustomed to workers not arriving on Monday, and were willing to tolerate it. Food would commonly be left over from the weekend, thus workers did not need to visit the works canteen, and since many workers were taking the day off, there was often company to be had.[3]
The tradition declined during the nineteenth century, but the provision of entertainments, such as railway excursions, was initially common on Saturday and Monday, and it was not until the middle of the century that workers were able to enjoy a weekend. In part, the decline can be attributed to the adoption of half-day working on Saturdays, which legitimated leisure time for workers.[4]
Saint Monday remained in place longest among the better-off workers, including the self-employed who retained some say in their hours and were not economically compelled to work long hours.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Fred Ackerman, The Changing Nature of Work
- ^ Tom Hodgkinson, "In defence of skiving", New Statesman, 30 August 2004
- ^ Thomas Wright, Customs of the Working Classes
- ^ Peter Clark, David Michael Palliser, Martin J. Daunton, The Cambridge Urban History of Britain
- ^ Douglas A. Reid, "The Decline of Saint Monday", in: Essays in Social History: Volume 2
