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Sunday is considered the first day of the week in the United States and countries that followed the Greco-Roman tradition.

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I guess one may have to define what does 1st day of the week really means first. – Emmad Kareem Oct 19 '12 at 1:20
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Hi Jeremiah, one suggestion. I was thinking maybe you could edit your question and explain how this relates to programming or put a link to the ISO 8601 Standard. I suspect some of the downvotes might be because people don't realize this is something related to programming. Hope this helps! ;) – jmort253 Oct 19 '12 at 2:33
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Sunday is part of the weekend. It wouldn't make much sense for the week*end* to be at the beginning, would it? (only partly serious) – John Bartholomew Oct 19 '12 at 2:39
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I have to downvote this question on the grounds the author did NO research at all. – Ramhound Oct 19 '12 at 11:02
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I don't know how you interpret "Greco-Roman tradition" but most of Europe uses Monday as the first day of the week. – Joachim Sauer Oct 19 '12 at 11:16
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closed as off topic by jmort253, Walter, MainMa, ChrisF♦ Oct 19 '12 at 12:21

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2 Answers

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The week numbering system was established in ISO 2105, 8601 is a later standard that supersedes it.

Monday is (typically) the first day of the working week, and as such is (typically) referred to as the first day of the week in business and the industry. Furthermore several spoken languages consider Monday the start of the week.

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The standard that supersedes it as less to do with the choice of Monday being the first week then the actual calendar being for the standard itself. They selected a specific calendar, the reason they did this, clearly was because it more of an international standard then other choices. – Ramhound Oct 19 '12 at 11:02
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Sunday is considered the first day of the week in the United States [..]

And it is so only in the USA, Canada, and Mexico.

If all choices are arbitrairy, it is not logical to follow a small minority.

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