I think it is due to the awareness of the meaninglessness of our work days. The weekend is a way of justifying your week. And that justification had better be good enough.
Last year, I did not have a car. I usually stayed close to home, aimlessly travelling in buses, reading books, sleeping, going to the library, walking around, ... My roommate once asked me, "Harman, what do you look forward to in life?" I was actually stunned by the question. I had been in US (and in my first job) for only a month or two, and this "looking forward to" had not yet homed in.
A weekend is pleasurable only in relation to a painful week of work.
The short freedom of two days is what we live for during the entire week, nay, our entire lives.
"Have a nice weekend."
"What are your weekend plans?"
"So where did you go on the weekend?"
"Long weekend..."
This recognition of the dreariness of our lives is necessary. But far too often, far far too often, we are afraid to act on that realization. We would rather continue in the listless inertia than reject this lie and venture out. Spending our days in the hope of a happy tomorrow.
As the clothes of the naked emperor, we are afraid to admit the shattering truth, that our life is spent in the service of falsehood.
Ah, but the rewards of that service! Ah, the pain, the discontent, the fear!
And the two days of frenzied enjoyment which, alas, leave us empty and tired.
The horrendous fact does stare us in the face on Monday morning, doesn't it? But who has the courage to act on it? We dress up and go to work as ever. For the next weekend is just around the corner.
To one who enjoys one's work, who is creative in it, the weekend does not exist. To that one, compensation is literally livelihood, not a means of building a bank account for the future.
The Weekend exists because of insecurity and fear.
Because we sacrifice the present, working without our heart being in the act, for an elusive future which never comes.
I am afraid too. For a mediocre but unhappy future is better to me than the Unknown. I am afraid to be fundamentally different, and therefore I try to be different in trite matters.
The real test of a realization is when one stands to lose everything.
Each one of us is presented with such tests throughout our lives, and rarely do we pass a single one.
It is easy to be honest and upright in trivialities,
To be honest regarding your whole life is what is demanded.
Are you up to it?