TGIF & The Weekend

While TGIF is a most familiar acronym, has this day always represented the 'end' of the work week?

[Read all the way through to see where the catchphrase originated.]

In today’s society, “weekends” are taken for granted. However, that luxury has not always been recognized. The work week was once Monday through Saturday with work, especially on farms, starting before the sun came up and not ending until sundown. Jobs 'back in the day' consisted of positions, such as  

tinker, tailor, grocer, baker, veterinarian, cobbler, weaver, iron worker, brickmaker, potter, doctor, wagon maker, carriage maker, milliner, dressmaker, cook, scullery maid, housemaid, butler, clerk, carpenter, general laborer, barrister, wagon/carriage driver, footman, builder, tin maker, priest, alms house worker, prison guard, constable, tobacconist...anything pre-industrial revolution

Up until the nineteenth century, the Sabbath was the only day regarded as a “day off” from work. Even on this day, leisure time was not solely of one's choice. This day was a day of fellowship with most of its time spent in church.

 Before TV, Nineteenth Century

  

In the early years of the century

The “weekend” positively was born

Saturday afternoons plus Sundays off

Provided relief for the forlorn

Souvenir programme for
Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué,
a Victorian burlesque

Excitement from the theatre

Bustled with music and vibe

Travesty known as burlesque

Primed all senses to come alive

Candy pull St Nicholas 1882

An occasional “candy-pull”

Nut-cracking, corn-popping fun

Imbued family time with mirth

’Til apple-roasting was done

Buffalo Bill's wild west and congress of rough riders of the world -
Circus poster showing Buffalo Bill's congress of rough riders
and Cuban insurgents in battle. c.1898

Reenactment in Wild West Shows

Captured more than an audience’s ear

Reviving an enduring spirit

Throughout the western frontier

March 21, 1859 (chartered); July 1, 1874 (opened)

At the peak of the century

Evolved the Philadelphia Zoo

Ten to twenty-five cents admission

Brought exotic animals into view

Marionette from Tiller family marionette company,
1870s-1890s

Paper dolls, marionettes, puppets

Tendered fun at any time

Christmas, the heart of the holidays

Pioneered Santa’s first climb

The Jazz Singer, released October 6, 1927

At the close of the century

American theatre greatly changed

Fads, fashion, and affluence

Launched plays totally rearranged

©2012 Awakenings
Sharla Lee Shults

Ever wonder where this T.G.I.F. ("Thank God It's Friday") catchphrase originated?

Back in the early 1970s, the Akron, Ohio-based disk jockey Jerry Healy from WAKR radio station was the one who first coined that catchphrase. It later became synonymous to working people in the United States as a common expression of relief at the end of the work week and anticipation of relaxing or partying over the weekend!