Days of the week

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In English the days of the week are:

Sunday first: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Monday first: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Saturday and Sunday are commonly called the weekend and are days of rest and recreation in most western cultures. The other five days are then known as weekdays. Friday and Saturday are the days of rest in Muslim and Jewish cultures, respectively. The biblical Sabbath lasts from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

In many countries, including, most of Europe, Asia, and South America, Monday is held to be the first day of the week. In others, including the United States, Canada, and in parts of Africa, Sunday is seen as the first day, a traditional view derived from the Jewish language via Ecclesiastical Latin. ISO 8601 defines Monday as the first day of the week, making Sunday the seventh.

1 Origins of the week
2 Order
3 First day of the week
4 Names
5 Etymology
6 Tables
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Origins of the week

Various sources point to the seven day week originating in ancient Babylonia or Sumer, with the planetary week originating in Hellenistic Egypt. It has been suggested that a seven day week might be much older, deriving from early human observation that there are seven celestial objects (the five visible planets plus the Sun and the Moon) which move in the night sky relative to the fixed stars.^[1] In any event, a seven day week based on heavenly luminaries eventually diffused both East and West, to the Romans via the Greeks, and to the Japanese via Manicheans, Indians and Chinese.

The earliest known reference in Chinese writings is attributed to Fan Ning, who lived in the late 4th century, while diffusions via India are documented with the writings of the Chinese Buddhist monk Yi Jing and the Ceylonese or Central Asian Buddhist monk Bu Kong of the 8th century. The Chinese transliteration of the planetary system was soon brought to Japan by the Japanese monk Kobo Daishi; surviving diaries of the Japanese statesman Fujiwara Michinaga show the seven day system in use in Heian Period Japan as early as 1007. In Japan, the seven day system was kept in use (for astrological purposes) until its promotion to a full-fledged (Western-style) calendrical basis during the Meiji era.

The seven day week is known to have been unbroken for almost two millennia via the Alexandrian, Julian, and Gregorian calendars. The date of Easter Sunday can be traced back through numerous computistic tables to an Ethiopic copy of an early Alexandrian table beginning with the Easter of 311 as described by Otto Neugebauer in Ethiopic astronomy and computus. Only one Roman date with an associated day of the week exists from the first century and it agrees with the modern sequence, if properly interpreted (see below). Jewish dates with a day of the week do not survive from this early period.

[edit] Order

The week as we know it was introduced around the 1^st century. It gradually replaced the 8-day nundinal cycle previously in use, and became fully integrated into the calendar by order of Constantine I in AD 321. The order of the days was explained by Vettius Valens and Dio Cassius (and Chaucer gave the same explanation in his Treatise on the Astrolabe). According to these authors, it was a principle of astrology that the heavenly bodies presided, in succession, over the hours of the day. The Ptolemaic system 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. (This order was first established by the Greek Stoics.)

If the first hour of a day is dominated by Saturn (), then the second hour is dominated by Jupiter (), the third by Mars (), and so on, so that the sequence of planets repeats every seven hours. Therefore, the twenty-fifth hour, which is the first hour of the following day, is dominated by the Sun; the forty-ninth hour, which is the first hour of the next day, by the Moon. Thus, if a day is labelled by the planet which dominates its first hour, then Saturn's day is followed by the Sun's day, which is followed by the Moon's day, and so forth, as shown below.

According to Vettius Valens, the first hour of the day began at sunset, which follows Greek and Babylonian convention. He also states that the light and dark halves of the day were presided over by the heavenly bodies of the first hour of each half. This is confirmed by a Pompeian graffito which calls 6 February 60 a Sunday, even though by modern reckoning it is a Wednesday. Thus this graffito used the daylight naming convention of Valens whereas the nighttime naming convention of Valens agrees with the modern astrological reckoning, which names the day after the ruler of the first daylight hour!

These two overlapping weeks continued to be used by Alexandrian Christians during the fourth century, but the days in both were simply numbered 1-7. Although names of gods were not used, the week beginning on Wednesday was named in Greek ton theon ([day] of the gods), as used by the late fourth-century editor of the Easter letters of Bishop Athanasius, and in a table of Easter dates for 311–369 that survives in an Ethiopic copy. These overlapping weeks are still used in the Ethiopic computus. Each of the days of the week beginning on Sunday is called a "Day of John" whereas each of the days of the week beginning on Wednesday is called a "tentyon", a simple transcription of the Greek ton theon.

Hour:	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	Luminary → name
Day 1																									Saturn → Saturday
Day 2																									Sun → Sunday
Day 3																									Moon → Monday
Day 4																									Mars → Tuesday
Day 5																									Mercury → Wednesday
Day 6																									Jupiter → Thursday
Day 7																									Venus → Friday

Weekday heptagram

The same order can be derived "geometrically" from an acute heptagram, the {7/3} star polygon (as 24 mod 7 = 3). The luminaries are arranged in the same Ptolemaic/Stoic order around the points of the heptagram. Tracing the unicursal line from one planet to the next gives the order of the weekdays.

Aleister Crowley (notwithstanding his mistaken use of the term hexagram) in The Book of Thoth (1944) (Pt. 1, Ch. 1) states that:

It is believed that this neat discovery is due to the late G. H. Frater D.D.C.F.

According to some sources, however, the weekday heptagram is considerably older:

It was with the adoption and widespread use of the seven-day week throughout the Hellenistic world of mixed cultures that this heptagram was created. ^[2]

[edit] First day of the week

According to the Bible, God created the Earth in six days, and rested on the seventh day, the Jewish Sabbath, i.e. Saturday This made Sunday the first day of the week, while Saturdays were reserved for celebration and rest. After the week was adopted in Early Christian Europe, 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. In some places Sunday thus came to be viewed as the last day of the week.

The variation is evident from names of the days in some languages — in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Church Latin and Portuguese, some days are simply called by their number starting from Sunday, e.g. Monday is called "second day" etc. In other languages, like Slavic languages, days are also called after their ordinal numbers, but starting from Monday, making Tuesday the "second day".

The increasing use of the two-day weekend (Saturday and Sunday) in the 19th and 20th centuries helped propagate the use of Monday as the beginning of the week. Currently, the traditional Sunday-first system is used by some English speakers and much of Latin America, while most of continental Europe and the United Kingdom uses the Monday-first order.

According to ISO 8601, the international standard on representation of dates and times in data interchange, the week begins on a Monday.

[edit] Names

For personal names taken from the days of the week, see Akan names.

In English all the days of the week are named after the ruling luminary, with most of the names coming from Anglo-Saxon gods and goddesses. Sunday and Monday are named directly from the Sun and Moon, although the Anglo-Saxon goddess Sunne is implicit in the name of the Sun itself. Saturday is the only day named directly after a Roman god, though the Germanic god associated with each day is generally a syncretic calque of the corresponding divinity from the Roman calendar. Other Germanic languages generally follow the same pattern, but Dutch is the only other that preserves all the astronomical names. Icelandic is notably divergent, maintaining only the Sun and Moon (sunnudagur and mánudagur respectively), while dispensing with the names of the explicitly heathen gods in favor of a combination of numbered days and days whose names are linked to pious domestic routine (föstudagur, "Fasting Day" and laugardagur, "Washing Day").

In most Romance languages, such as Italian, Spanish, French and Romanian, the names of the days except Saturday and Sunday come from Roman gods via Latin. Welsh, the closest living language to that of Roman Britain, faithfully preserves all the Latin names, even though the language itself is not directly descended from Latin. The Roman (Latin) names of the days are still used in some English courts such as the House of Lords.^[3].

The early Christian Church was uncomfortable using names based on "false" pagan gods, and introduced a simple numerical nomenclature which persists in some European languages such as Portuguese and Greek, although in Slavic languages the numbering starts on Monday rather than Sunday (anticipating ISO 8601). The Christian names are derived from Hebrew, which numbers all days of the week beginning with "first day" for Sunday but ending with the "Sabbath" for Saturday. Arabic names are also derived from Hebrew, except Friday (the Muslim day of prayer) is named the "gathering day".

In Japanese and Korean, Sunday and Monday are named after the Sun and Moon, while the other five days are translated using the names of the five classical planets, which themselves are named using the Five Elements of traditional Chinese philosophy (in a different order). For example, Mercury is called "planet of water" in Japanese and Korean, and Wednesday (Mercury's day in the Romance languages) is called "day of water". These names of days of the week were borrowed from Chinese, but are no longer used in China. These names were not widely used in daily Japanese or Korean life until being adopted during the Korean period as corresponding to the Western terms.

In modern Chinese, days of the week are numbered from one to six, except Sunday. Literally, the Chinese term of Sunday means "the sun day" or "the heaven day" (星期日 or 星期天 in Chinese). Monday is named literally "the first day of the week" in Chinese, Tuesday is the "second", and so on. Despite this form of naming, many Chinese-speaking regions (e.g. China, Hong Kong SAR, etc.), still regard Sunday as the start of the week, putting Sunday at the beginning of the calendar week, and Saturday (星期六, meaning "the sixth day of the week" in Chinese) at the end.

Another Chinese numbering system, found more in spoken Chinese than in written, refers to Sunday as the "day of worship" (礼拜日 or 礼拜天) and numbers the other days "first [day after] worship" (Monday) through "sixth [day after] worship" (Saturday). The Chinese word used for "worship" is associated with Christian and Muslim worship, and the system's use may be connected with the spread of Christianity.

[edit] Etymology

Remnants of the Anglo-Saxon and Norse gods remain in the English language names for days of the week, as (more or less) calques of the Roman names:

Monday: The name Monday comes from the Old English Mōnandæg, meaning "day of the Moon"; it is a translation of the Latin name dies Lunae (cf. Romance language versions of the name, e.g., French lundi)

Tuesday: Tuesday comes from the Old English Tiwesdæg, meaning "Tyr's day." Tyr (in Old English, Tiw, Tew or Tiu) was the Nordic god of single combat and heroic glory in Norse mythology. The name is based on Latin dies Martis, "Day of Mars" (the Roman war god); compare French mardi and Spanish martes.

Wednesday: This name comes from the Old English Wodnesdæg meaning the day of the Germanic god Woden (Wodan), more commonly known as Odin, who was the highest god in Norse mythology, and a prominent god of the Anglo-Saxons (and other places) in England until about the seventh century. It is based on Latin dies Mercurii, "Day of Mercury"; compare French mercredi and Spanish miércoles. The connection between Mercury and Odin is more strained than the other syncretic connections. The usual explanation is that both Odin and Mercury were considered psychopomps, or leaders of souls, in their respective mythologies. Also, in Old Norse myth, Odin, like Mercury, is associated with poetic and musical inspiration.

Thursday: The name Thursday comes from the Old English Þunresdæg, meaning the day of Þunor, commonly known in Modern English as Thor, the Germanic and Norse god of thunder. It is based on the Latin dies Iovis, "Day of Jupiter"; compare French jeudi and Spanish jueves. In the Roman pantheon, Jupiter was the chief god, who seized and maintained his power on the basis of his thunderbolt (fulmen).

Friday: The name Friday comes from the Old English frigedæg, meaning the day of Frige, the Germanic goddess of beauty, who is a later incarnation of the Norse goddess Frigg, but also connected to the Goddess Freyja. It is based on the Latin dies Veneris, "Day of Venus"; compare French vendredi and Spanish viernes. Venus was the Roman god of beauty, love, and sex.

Saturday: Saturday is the only day of the week to retain its Roman origin in English, named after the Roman god Saturn associated with the Titan Cronos, father of Zeus and many Olympians. In Latin it was dies Saturni, "Day of Saturn"; compare French samedi and Spanish sábado, which comes from sambata dies (day of the Sabbath).

Sunday: The name Sunday comes from the Old English sunnandæg, meaning the day of the Sun; it is a translation of the Latin phrase dies solis. English, like most of the Germanic languages and several of the Celtic languages, preserves the original pagan/sun associations of the day; many other European languages, including all of the Romance languages, have changed the name of the day to the equivalent of "the Lord's day" (based on Ecclesiastical Latin dies Dominica). Compare Spanish domingo.

What is different is that the gods in question (except Saturn) do not appear to rule over the planets involved. However, as shown above, they correspond to some extent to Roman gods that rule over the respective planets.

[edit] Tables

The (suggested) purpose of these tables is to show how far different languages preserve the associations with the ruling luminaries (or not!) and the Church's numbering of the days. (That is, not to list the names in "every" language: Wiktionary entries for the day names offer such lists – click on the links in the header row.)

[edit] Astronomical

Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Luminary & symbol	Sun	Moon	Mars	Mercury	Jupiter	Venus	Saturn
Latin	dies solis	dies lunae	dies Martis	dies Mercurĭi	dies Jovis	dies Venĕris	dies Saturni
Italian	domenica (1)	lunedì	martedì	mercoledì	giovedì	venerdì	sabato (2)
Spanish	domingo (1)	lunes	martes	miércoles	jueves	viernes	sábado (2)
Romanian	duminică (1)	luni	marţi	miercuri	joi	vineri	sâmbătă (2)
French	dimanche (1)	lundi	mardi	mercredi	jeudi	vendredi	samedi (2)
Catalan	diumenge (1)	dilluns	dimarts	dimecres	dijous	divendres	dissabte (2)
Georgian	კვირა kvira	სამშაბათი samšabat'i	ორშაბათი oršabat'i	ოთხშაბათი ot'xšabat'i	ხუთშაბათი xut'šabat'i	პარასკები paraskevi	შაბათი šabat'i (2)
Interlingua	dominica (1)	lunedi	martedi	mercuridi	jovedi	venerdi	sabbato (2)
Esperanto	dimanĉo (1)	lundo	mardo	merkredo	ĵaŭdo	vendredo	sabato (2)
Welsh	dydd Sul	dydd Llun	dydd Mawrth	dydd Mercher	dydd Iau	dydd Gwener	dydd Sadwrn
Cornish	dy Sul	dy Lun	dy Meurth	dy Mergher	dy Yow	dy Gwener	dy Sadorn
Breton	Disul	Dilun	Dimeurzh	Dimerc’her	Diriaou	Digwener	Disadorn
Irish	Dé Domhnaigh (1)	Dé Luain	Dé Máirt	Dé Céadaoin	Déardaoin	Dé hAoine	Dé Sathairn
Scots Gaelic	Didòmhnaich (1)	Diluain	Dimàirt	Diciadain	Diardaoin	Dihaoine	Disàthairne
Manx	Jedoonee	Jelune	Jemayrt	Jecrean	Jerdrein	Jeheiney	Jesarn
Old High German	sunnuntag	mānetag	zeistag Ziu's day	wodanstag Wodan's day	donerestag Donar's day	friatag Freia's day	sambaztag (2)
German	Sonntag	Montag	Dienstag	Mittwoch (3)	Donnerstag	Freitag	Samstag (2) or Sonnabend
Dutch	zondag Sun day	maandag Moon day	dinsdag Thing day	woensdag Woden's day	donderdag Thunder day	vrijdag Freia day	zaterdag
Old Norse	sunnundagr Sunna's day	mánandagr	tysdagr Tyr's day	óðensdagr Odin's day	þorsdagr Thor's day	friádagr Freyja's day	laugardagr (4)
Norwegian, Bokmål	søndag	mandag	tirsdag	onsdag	torsdag	fredag	lørdag (4)
Norwegian, Nynorsk	sundag	mandag	tysdag	onsdag	torsdag	fredag	laurdag (4)
Danish	søndag	mandag	tirsdag	onsdag	torsdag	fredag	lørdag (4)
Swedish	söndag	måndag	tisdag	onsdag	torsdag	fredag	lördag (4)
Finnish	sunnuntai	maanantai	tiistai	keskiviikko (3)	torstai	perjantai	lauantai (4)
Old English	sunnandæg Sunne's day	mōnandæg	tiwesdæg Tiw's day	wodnesdæg Woden's day	þunresdæg Thunor's day	frigesdæg Frige's day	sæternesdæg
Tagalog	Linggo (1)	Lunes	Martes	Miyerkules	Huwebes	Biyernes	Sabado (2)
Sanskrit & Hindi	रविवार day of Ravi (the Sun)	सोमवार day of Soma (the Moon)	मंगलवार day of Mangala (Mars)	बुधवार day of Budha (Mercury)	गुरूवार day of Guru (Jupiter)	शुक्रवार day of Shukra (Venus)	शनिवार day of Shani (Saturn)
Bengali	Ravibaar day of Ravi (the Sun)	Sombaar day of Soma (the Moon)	Mangalbaar day of Mangala (Mars)	Budhbaar day of Budha (Mercury)	Brihashpatibaar day of Brihashpati (Jupiter)	Shukrabaar day of Shukra (Venus)	Shanibaar day of Shani (Saturn)
Gujarati	રવિવાર Ravi day	સોમવાર Soma day	મંગળવાર Mangala day	બુધવાર Budha day	ગુરૂવાર Guru day	શુક્રવાર Shukra day	શનિવાર Shani day
Tamil	ஞாயிற்று கிழமை Nyāyitru day	திங்கட் கிழமை Thingat day	செவ்வாய்க ்கிழமை Sevvāi day	புதன்க் கிழமை Budhan day	வியாழக் கிழமை Vyāzha day	வெள்ளிக் கிழமை Velli day	சனிக் கிழமை Shani day
Thai	วันอาทิตย์ day of the Sun (Colour: Red)	วันจันทร์ day of the Moon (Colour: Yellow)	วันอังคาร day of (planet) Mars (Colour: Pink)	วันพุธ day of (planet) Mercury (Colour: Green)	วันพฤหัสบดี day of (planet) Jupiter (Colour: Orange)	วันศุกร์ day of (planet) Venus (Colour: Blue)	วันเสาร์ day of (planet) Saturn (Colour: Purple)
Japanese (5)	日曜日 Sun's day	月曜日 Moon's day	火曜日 day of the planet of fire (Mars)	水曜日 day of the planet of water (Mercury)	木曜日 day of the planet of wood (Jupiter)	金曜日 day of the planet of metal (Venus)	土曜日 day of the planet of earth (Saturn)
Korean (5)	일요일 Sun's day	월요일 Moon's day	화요일 day of the planet of fire (Mars)	수요일 day of the planet of water (Mercury)	목요일 day of the planet of wood (Jupiter)	금요일 day of the planet of metal (Venus)	토요일 day of the planet of earth (Saturn)
Tibetan (5)	gza' nyi ma Sun's day	gza' zla ba Moon's day	gza' mig mar day of the planet of fire (Mars)	gza' lhag pa day of the planet of water (Mercury)	gza' phur bu day of the planet of wood (Jupiter)	gza' pa sangs day of the planet of metal (Venus)	gza' spen pa day of the planet of earth (Saturn)
Luminary & symbol	Sun	Moon	Mars	Mercury	Jupiter	Venus	Saturn
Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday

[edit] Numerical

Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Ecclesiastical Latin	dominica (1) (Lord's Day)	feria secunda (second weekday)	feria tertia (third weekday)	feria quarta (fourth weekday)	feria quinta (fifth weekday)	feria sexta (sixth weekday)	sabbatum (2) (sabbath)
Hebrew	יום ראשון (first day)	יום שני (second day)	יום שלישי (third day)	יום רביעי (fourth day)	יום חמישי (fifth day)	יום שישי (sixth day)	שבת (2) (Sabbath)
Arabic	يوم الأحد (first day)	يوم الإثنين (second day)	يوم الثُّلَاثاء (third day)	يوم الأَرْبعاء (fourth day)	يوم الخَمِيس (fifth day)	يوم الجُمْعَة (meeting day)	يوم السَّبْت (2) (Sabbath day)
Portuguese	domingo (1)	segunda-feira	terça-feira	quarta-feira	quinta-feira	sexta-feira	sábado (2)
Greek	Κυριακή (1) ("Lord's day")	Δευτέρα ("second")	Τρίτη ("third")	Τετάρτη ("fourth")	Πέμπτη ("fifth")	Παρασκευή ("preparation")	Σάββατο (2) ("sabbath")
Persian	یکشنبه Yekshanbeh ("first day")	دوشنبه Doshanbeh ("second day")	سه شنبه Seshanbeh ("third day")	چهارشنبه Chaharshanbeh ("fourth day")	پنجشنبه Panjshanbeh ("fifth day")	آدینه Adineh ("day of faith")	شنبه Shanbeh (from "shabAneh rooz" meaning "night and day")
Vietnamese	chủ nhật ("Master's day") or chúa nhật (1) ("Lord's day")	(ngày) thứ hai "second (day)"	(ngày) thứ ba "third (day)"	(ngày) thứ tư "fourth (day)"	(ngày) thứ năm "fifth (day)"	(ngày) thứ sáu "sixth (day)"	(ngày) thứ bảy "seventh (day)"
Icelandic	sunnudagur (6) ("sun day")	mánudagur (6) ("moon day")	þriðjudagur ("third day")	miðvikudagur (3) ("mid week day")	fimmtudagur ("fifth day")	föstudagur ("fast day")	laugardagur (4) ("washing day")

Estonian	pühapäev ("holy day")	esmaspäev	teisipäev	kolmapäev ("third") or kesknädal (3)	neljapäev ("fourth")	reede (ON friádagr)	laupäev (4)
Polish	niedziela ("no work")	poniedziałek ("after no-work")	wtorek ("second")	środa (3) ("middle")	czwartek ("fourth")	piątek ("fifth")	sobota (2)
Czech	neděle ("no work")	pondělí (also pondělek) ("after no-work")	úterý (also úterek) ("second")	středa (3) ("middle")	čtvrtek ("fourth")	pátek ("fifth")	sobota (3)
Slovenian	nedelja ("no work")	ponedeljek ("after no-work")	torek (archaic "second")	sreda (3) ("middle")	četrtek ("fourth")	petek ("fifth")	sobota (2)
Macedonian	недела ("no work")	понеделник ("after no-work")	вторник ("second")	среда (3) ("middle")	четврток ("fourth")	петок ("fifth")	сабота (2)
Hungarian	vasárnap ("market day")	hétfő ("head of the week")	kedd ("second")	szerda (3) (< Slavic "middle")	csütörtök (< Slavic "fourth")	péntek (< Slavic "fifth")	szombat (2)
Lithuanian (7)	sekmadienis ("seventh day")	pirmadienis ("first day")	antradienis ("second day")	trečiadienis ("third day")	ketvirtadienis ("fourth day")	penktadienis ("fifth day")	šeštadienis ("sixth day")
Russian	воскресенье voskresen'ye ("resurrection")	понедельник ponedel'nik ("after no-work")	вторник vtornik ("second")	среда (3) sreda ("center")	четверг chetverk ("fourth")	пятница pyatnitsa ("fifth")	суббота subbota (2)
Chinese (Standard Mandarin transcription in Hanyu Pinyin)	星期日 xīngqī rì ("week: sun") or 星期天 xīngqí tiān ("week: heaven")	星期一 xīngqī yī ("week: one")	星期二 xīngqī èr ("week: two")	星期三 xīngqī sān ("week: three")	星期四 xīngqī sì ("week: four")	星期五 xīngqī wǔ ("week: five")	星期六 xīngqī liù ("week: six")
ISO 8601 #	7	1	2	3	4	5	6
Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday

[edit] Notes

The Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, French, etc.) break from the pattern of using the Roman associations in preference for a Christian association: Sunday being the Christian day of rest, these days are named after the "day of our Lord". This is the norm in languages, such as Portuguese, where names faithfully follow Church usage.
The Romance languages, Old High German and German, and the Slavic languages have words for Saturday that are derived from the Hebrew Sabbath, via late Greek Sambaton. German also has a second, Christianised name meaning "Eve of Sunday" (parallel to "Christmas Eve", for example). An alternative to the standard Samstag in northern dialects of German is Sonnabend ("Sun-evening").
German and Finnish call Wednesday, prosaically, "mid-week"; Estonian kesknädal is equivalent, with "third day" (kolmapäev) also used; Icelandic uses "mid-week day"; Polish, Russian, etc. have "middle".
Old Norse, Swedish (and other North Germanic languages), and Finnish and Estonian (Finnic languages) call Saturday "washday" or "bathday", as it was the traditional day for washing and bathing.
The Japanese names are the same as the traditional way days of week were named in Chinese. The Korean names are also the same but written in Hangul.
Icelandic sunnudagur and mánudagur are astronomical, persisting presumably because there's no explicit reference to pagan gods.
See Lithuanian calendar

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Falk, Michael (1999). "Astronomical Names for the Days of the Week", Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 93:122-133.
Neugebauer, Otto (1979). Ethiopic astronomy and computus, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische klasse, sitzungsberichte, 347 (Vienna)
Days of the Week in Chinese, Japanese & Vietnamese

[edit] External links

Days of the week
Sunday \| Monday \| Tuesday \| Wednesday \| Thursday \| Friday \| Saturday

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Categories: Units of time | Days of the week | Astrology | Astronomy