Before industrialisation, there was little concept of consecutive days of leisure, because animals and crops could not be so long neglected. Work was dictated by the weather and the seasons, the clock mattering less than the sun. Factories, with their whistles and watches, changed the way time worked. A mechanised drumbeat of shifts and paydays drowned out the old rhythms of seasons and saints days.
As work became more rigidly organised, the possibility emerged that leisure could be, too. Time off wasn’t merely a concession to workers, but also an engine of consumer capitalism. People with weekends would go to sports stadiums, buy picnic baskets and new clothes, need cinema tickets. By the late 20th century, with the arrival of cheap flights, this had evolved into the minibreak: a miniature holiday, designed to fit into a weekend. Leisure time, once the opposite of the economy, became part of it.
— Read on www.theguardian.com/money/2026/aug/16/the-weekend-is-100-years-old-skiveday-fridays-and-hybrid-working-ruined-it
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