I was having a discussion about how the concept of weekend as holiday started. I am suspecting that the sabbath is the origin of the sunday as holiday. But if it has a specific religious origin, how did people outside the Judeo-Christian belife observed regular holiday?
It seems pretty natural to me that people need some time off from work regularly, but in ancient agrarian culture, it might not be as natural as it sounds today.
You might be interested in this long post about the history of the week. The week originates in a cycle of market days mixed with astrology. However, other than the Jewish sabbath, I am not aware of a weekly pre-Christian "day off". Farmers would presumably often go to market on market days, but they might not always go to the same market and they might not go to market every weekly cycle.