Linda Brooks Davis | Days & Gods | Let’s Chat
In countries that adopt the “Sunday-first” convention, it is the second day of the week. The name of Monday is derived from Old English Mōnandæg and Middle English Monenday, originally a translation of Latin dies lunae “day of the Moon“.[2]
By Anonymous (Italy) – Walters Art Museum: Home page Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18795922
| Day: (see Irregularities) |
Sunday Sunna/Sól |
Monday Mona/Máni |
Tuesday Tiw/Tyr |
Wednesday Woden/Odin |
Thursday Thunor/Thor |
Friday Frige or Freya |
Saturday Saturn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old English | Sunnandæg | Mōnandæg | Tīwesdæg | Wōdnesdæg | Þunresdæg | Frīgedæg | Sæternesdæg |
| Old Saxon | Sunnundag | *Mānundag | *Tiuwesdag *Thingesdag[♂1] | Wōdanesdag | *Thunaresdag | Frīadag | *Sunnunāƀand,[♄3]*Satarnesdag |
Germanic tradition[edit]
The Germanic peoples adapted the system introduced by the Romans by substituting the Germanic deities for the Roman ones (with the exception of Saturday) in a process known as interpretatio germanica. The date of the introduction of this system is not known exactly, but it must have happened later than AD 200 but before the introduction of Christianity during the 6th to 7th centuries, i.e., during the final phase or soon after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.[17] This period is later than the Common Germanic stage, but still during the phase of undifferentiated West Germanic. The names of the days of the week in North Germanic languages were not calqued from Latin directly, but taken from the West Germanic names.
- Sunday: Old English Sunnandæg (pronounced [ˈsunnɑndæj]), meaning “sun’s day”. This is a translation of the Latin phrase diēs Sōlis. English, like most of the Germanic languages, preserves the day’s association with the sun. Many other European languages, including all of the Romance languages, have changed its name to the equivalent of “the Lord’s day” (based on Ecclesiastical Latin dies Dominica). In both West Germanic and North Germanic mythology, the Sun is personified as Sunna/Sól.
- Monday: Old English Mōnandæg (pronounced [ˈmoːnɑndæj]), meaning “Moon’s day”. This is equivalent to the Latin name diēs Lūnae. In North Germanic mythology, the Moon is personified as Máni.
- Tuesday: Old English Tīwesdæg (pronounced [ˈtiːwezdæj]), meaning “Tiw’s day”. Tiw (Norse Týr) was a one-handed god associated with single combat and pledges in Norse mythology and also attested prominently in wider Germanic paganism. The name of the day is also related to the Latin name diēs Mārtis, “Day of Mars” (the Roman god of war).
- Wednesday: Old English Wōdnesdæg (pronounced [ˈwoːdnezdæj]) meaning the day of the Germanic god Woden (known as Óðinn among the North Germanic peoples), and a prominent god of the Anglo-Saxons (and other Germanic peoples) in England until about the seventh century. This corresponds to the Latin counterpart diēs Mercuriī, “Day of Mercury“, as both are deities of magic and knowledge. The German Mittwoch, the Low German Middeweek, the miðviku- in Icelandic miðvikudagur and the Finnish keskiviikko all mean “mid-week”.
- Thursday: Old English Þūnresdæg (pronounced [ˈθuːnrezdæj]), meaning ‘Þunor‘s day’. Þunor means thunder or its personification, the Norse god known in Modern English as Thor. Similarly Dutch donderdag, German Donnerstag (‘thunder’s day’), Finnish torstai, and Scandinavian torsdag (‘Thor’s day’). “Thor’s day” corresponds to Latin diēs Iovis, “day of Jupiter” (the Roman god of thunder).
- Friday: Old English Frīgedæg (pronounced [ˈfriːjedæj]), meaning the day of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Fríge. The Norse name for the planet Venus was Friggjarstjarna, ‘Frigg‘s star’.[18] It is based on the Latin diēs Veneris, “Day of Venus“.
- Saturday: named after the Roman god Saturn associated with the Titan Cronus, father of Zeus and many Olympians. Its original Anglo-Saxon rendering was Sæturnesdæg (pronounced [ˈsæturnezdæj]). In Latin, it was diēs Sāturnī, “Day of Saturn”. The Nordic laugardagur, leygardagur, laurdag, etc. deviate significantly as they have no reference to either the Norse or the Roman pantheon; they derive from Old Nordic laugardagr, literally “washing-day”. The German Sonnabend (mainly used in northern and eastern Germany) and the Low German Sünnavend mean “Sunday Eve”; the German word Samstag derives from the name for Shabbat.
Days named after planets[edit]
Greco-Roman tradition[edit]
Between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, the Roman Empire gradually replaced the eight-day Roman nundinal cycle with the seven-day week. The earliest evidence for this new system is a Pompeiian graffito referring to 6 February (ante diem viii idus Februarias) of the year AD 60 as dies solis (“Sunday”).[2] Another early witness is a reference to a lost treatise by Plutarch, written in about AD 100, which addressed the question of: “Why are the days named after the planets reckoned in a different order from the ‘actual’ order?”.[3] (The treatise is lost, but the answer to the question is known; see planetary hours).
The Ptolemaic system of planetary spheres asserts that the order of the heavenly bodies, from the farthest to the closest to the Earth is: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, or, objectively, the planets are ordered from slowest to fastest moving as they appear in the night sky.[4]
The days were named after the planets of Hellenistic astrology, in the order: Sun, Moon, Mars (Ares), Mercury (Hermes), Jupiter (Zeus), Venus (Aphrodite) and Saturn (Cronos).[5]
The seven-day week spread throughout the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity. By the 4th century, it was in wide use throughout the Empire, and it had also reached India and China.
The Greek and Latin names are as follows:
| Day (see Irregularities) |
Sunday Sōl or Helios (Sun) |
Monday Luna or Selene (Moon) |
Tuesday Mars or Ares (Mars) |
Wednesday Mercurius or Hermes (Mercury) |
Thursday Jove or Zeus (Jupiter) |
Friday Venus or Aphrodite (Venus) |
Saturday Saturnus or Kronos (Saturn) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greek | ἡμέρᾱ Ἡλίου (Ἀπόλλωνος) hēmérā Hēlíou (Apóllōnos) Ἡλιαίᾱ Hēliaíā Ἀπολλωνίᾱ Apollōníā |
ἡμέρᾱ Σελήνης (Ἀρτέμιδος) hēmérā Selḗnēs (Artémidos) Σεληνίᾱ Selēníā (Ἀρτεμιτίᾱ) (Artemitíā) |
ἡμέρᾱ Ἄρεως hēmérā Áreōs Ἀρείᾱ Areíā |
ἡμέρᾱ Ἑρμοῦ hēmérā Hermoû Ἑρμ(ε)ίᾱ Herm(e)íā |
ἡμέρᾱ Διός hēmérā Diós Διώνη Diṓnē |
ἡμέρᾱ Ἀφροδῑ́της hēmérā Aphrodī́tēs Ἀφροδιτίᾱ Aphroditíā |
ἡμέρᾱ Κρόνου hēmérā Krónou Κρονίᾱ Kroníā |
| Latin | diēs Sōlis | diēs Lūnae | diēs Mārtis | diēs Mercuriī | diēs Iovis | diēs Veneris | diēs Sāturnī |
Sunday comes first in order in calendars shown in the table below. In the Judeo-Christian or Abrahamic tradition, the first day of the week is Sunday. Biblical Sabbath (corresponding to Saturday), when God rested from six-day Creation, made the day following Sabbath the first day of the week (corresponding to Sunday). Seventh-day Sabbaths were sanctified for celebration and rest. After the week was adopted in early Christianity, Sunday remained the first day of the week, but also gradually displaced Saturday as the day of celebration and rest, being considered the Lord’s Day.
Saint Martin of Dumio (c. 520–580 [10520–10580 ] [10520–10580 ]), archbishop of Braga, decided not to call days by pagan gods and to use ecclesiastic terminology to designate them. While the custom of numbering the days of the week was mostly prevalent in the Eastern Church, Portuguese, Mirandese and Galician, due to Martin’s influence, are the only Romance languages in which the names of the days come from numbers rather than planetary names.
Members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) historically objected to the pagan etymologies of days and months and substituted numbering, beginning with First Day for Sunday.
Icelandic is a special case within the Germanic languages, maintaining only the Sun and Moon (sunnudagur and mánudagur respectively), while dispensing with the names of the explicitly heathen gods in favour of a combination of numbered days and days whose names are linked to pious or domestic routine (föstudagur, “Fasting Day” and laugardagur, “Washing Day”). The “washing day” is also used in other North Germanic languages, but otherwise the names correspond to those of English.