Days of the week

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This article is about actual days of the week. For the song by Stone Temple Pilots, see Days of the Week (song).

The names of the days of the week in various world languages can be classified as either numerical or planetary, both of which may have the names of one or more days changed for religious or secular reasons. As exceptions, Sunday is often named "Lord" (for Lord's Day) while Saturday is often named "Sabbath" or "washing day". Numerically named days may associate day one with Sunday as in Arabic, Hebrew and Portuguese, or may associate day one with Monday as in Russian and other Slavic languages. Planetary names for the days are derived from the Sun, Moon, and five visible planets (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn), which in turn were named for Roman gods with the same names. The Germanic languages, including English, substitute Nordic gods with similar characteristics for many of the Roman gods, although the Nordic gods themselves never were associated with the planets.

The English names for the days of the week derive from the Anglo-Saxon deities stemming from the indigenous pantheon of the Anglo-Saxons. Thursday and Friday come from Scandinavian deities Thor and Freyja. An exception to this is Saturday, which takes its name from the Roman deity Saturn. To varying extents, most regions with dominant Germanic languages practice a similar naming convention, basing most of their week days in recognition of their native Germanic deities.

The seven-day workweek is generally comprised of five working days ("weekdays") and two non-working days (the "weekend"), though which days of the week are which varies from country to country. Which day of the week is the "first" day also varies, even among countries that share the same weekend days.

Contents

[edit] Names of the days

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Remnants of Germanic deities are reflected in the English language names for days of the week, as (more or less) calques of the Roman names:

  • Sunday: The name Sunday comes from the Old English Sunnandæg (pronounced [sun.nan.dæg] or [sun.nan.dæj), meaning "Day of the Sun". This is a translation of the Latin phrase Dies Solis. English, like most of the Germanic languages, preserves the original pagan/sun associations of the day. 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). Compare Spanish/Portuguese Domingo, French dimanche, Romanian duminca and Italian Domenica.
  • Monday: The name Monday comes from the Old English Mōnandæg (pronounced [mon.nan.dæg] or [mon.nan.dæj'), meaning "Day of the Moon". This is likely based on a translation of the Latin name Dies Lunae (cf. Romance language versions of the name, e.g., French Lundi, Spanish, Lunes, Romanian Luni, Italian Lunedì).
  • Tuesday: The name Tuesday comes from the Old English Tiwesdæg (pronounced [ti.wes.dæg] or [ti.wes.dæj], meaning "Tyr's day." Tyr (in Old English, Tiw, Tew or Tiu) was a god of combat and heroic glory in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. The name of the day is based on Latin Dies Martis, "Day of Mars" (the Roman war god); compare French Mardi, Spanish Martes, Romanian Marti and Italian Martedì.
  • Wednesday: The name Wednesday comes from the Old English Wōdnesdæg (pronounced [woːd.nes.dæg] or [woːd.nes.dæj) meaning the day of the Germanic god 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, Spanish Miércoles, Romanian Miercuri and Italian Mercoledì. 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. In German, the day is referred to as Mittwoch (mid week). Similar to German, in Finnish it is referred to as keskiviikko (keski = mid, viikko = week).
  • Thursday: The name Thursday comes from the Old English Þūnresdæg (pronounced [θuːn.res.dæg] or [θuːn.res.dæj]), meaning the day of Þunor, commonly known in Modern English as Thor, the god of thunder in Norse Mythology and Germanic Paganism. It is based on the Latin Dies Iovis, "Day of Jupiter"; compare French Jeudi, Spanish Jueves, Romanian Joi and Italian Giovedì. 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 (pronounced [fri.je.dæg] or [fri.je.dæj]), meaning the day of Frige, the Germanic goddess of beauty, who is a later incarnation of the Norse goddess Frigg, but also potentially connected to the Goddess Freyja. It is based on the Latin Dies Veneris, "Day of Venus"; compare French Vendredi, Spanish Viernes, Romanian Vineri and Italian Venerdì. Venus was the Roman goddess 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 Cronus, father of Zeus and many Olympians. Its original Anglo-Saxon rendering was Sæturnesdæg (pronounced [sæ.tur.nes.dæg] or [sæ.tur.nes.dæj]). In Latin it was Dies Saturni, "Day of Saturn"; compare French Samedi, Spanish Sábado, Romanian sambata and Italian Sabato, which come from Sambata Dies (Day of the Sabbath).

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

[edit] First day of the week

In English, the days of the week are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Most business and social calendars in the United States and Canada mark Sunday as the first day of the week, though in the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and South America, Monday is considered the first day of the working week.

Sunday was the first day of the astrological week, in the Hebrew week, and in the Ecclesiastical Latin week of the first millennium. Sunday still begins the week in the United States and to some extent in other English-speaking countries.

In Jewish and Christian tradition, the first day of the seven day week is Sunday. According to the Bible, God created the Earth in six days, and rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath, i.e. Saturday. This made Sunday the first day of the week, while Saturdays were sanctified 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. For this reason, in many places Sunday eventually 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, 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". According to another possible explanation, days from Monday to Friday in Slavic languages aren't numbered by their position within the week, but by their distance from Sunday, especially given that Wednesday is named "The Middle day", which makes it a true statement only if Sunday is the first day of the week.

In most of Europe today, South America, and parts of Asia, Monday is considered to be the first day of the week and is literally named as such in languages such as Mandarin (xingqiyi) and Lithuanian (pirmadienis). The ISO prescribes Monday as the first day of the week with ISO-8601 for software date formats.

[edit] Origins

Various sources point to the seven day week originated in ancient Babylonia or Sumer.[citation needed] It has been suggested that a seven day week might be much older.[citation needed] The seven day planetary week originated in Hellenistic Egypt.[citation needed]

It is suggested that the seven day week was 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] Seven days is also the approximate time between the principal phases of the Moon (new, first half, full, last half). 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.

Hindu civilization, which used a seven-day week, mentioned in the Ramayana, a sacred epic written in Sanskrit about 500 BC, used names such as Bhanu-vaar meaning Sunday, Soma-vaar meaning Moon-day and so forth.

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] In other languages

[edit] Romance languages

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. Latin itself calqued the names from Greek. The Roman (Latin) names of the days are still used in some English courts such as the House of Lords..[2]

The major exception is Portuguese which uses a numbered system derived from the Catholic Latin week.

[edit] Christianization

The early Christian Church, uncomfortable using names based on pagan gods, introduced a simple numerical nomenclature which persists in some European languages such as Portuguese and Greek. 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 for Sunday through Thursday are first through fifth days; Friday (the day when Muslims are expected to perform noon prayers as a group) is named the "gathering day" and Saturday is Sabt which means "the End" because the count of the days of the week end with it.

It was Saint Martin of Dumio (c. 520–580), archbishop of Braga, who decided that it was unworthy of good Christians to call the days of the week by the Latin names of pagan gods and decided to use the ecclesiastic terminology to designate them (Feria secunda, Feria tertia, Feria quarta, Feria quinta, Feria sexta, Sabbatum, Dominica Dies), from which came the present Portuguese numbered system. Martin also tried to replace the names of the planets, but in that he was not successful. In Middle Ages, Galician-Portuguese still retained both systems (as seen in older texts), nowadays only Portuguese's sister language Galician uses the old Roman gods system. For that reason, the first day of the week in Portuguese is Sunday (Domingo).

The Slavic languages adopted numbering but took Monday rather than Sunday as the "first day".

[edit] Celtic languages

Welsh, the closest living language to that of Roman Britain, faithfully preserves all the Latin names,[3] even though the language itself is not directly descended from Latin.

In Irish, the Latin names are used for Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.[4] Three days are named for the traditional Roman Catholic days of fasting and abstinence. Wednesday is "the first fast": An Chéadaoin; Friday "the fast": An Aoine; leaving Thursday as "the day between two fasts", An Dé idir dhá aoin, contracted to An Déardaoin.

[edit] Germanic languages

In English all the days of the week are named after the ruling luminary, with most of the names coming from Germanic deities, such as Wodan (Wednesday) and Thor (Thursday). Sunday and Monday are named directly from the Sun and Moon.

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, although the German for Wednesday is Mittwoch (mid-week) and Dutch is the only other with an equivalent to Saturday.

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 or domestic routine (föstudagur, "Fasting Day" and laugardagur, "Washing Day"). The "washing day" is also used in other North Germanic languages, although the "pagan" names generally are retained .

[edit] Indic Languages

In the Hindu Calendar followed in South Asia and South-East Asia the days of the week (named after the planets, starting from Sunday) are called bhaanu vaasara (Sun), indu vaasara (Moon), mangal vaasara (Mars), saumya vaasara (Mercury), guru vaasara (Jupiter) bhrigu vaasara (Venus), sthira vaasara (Saturn).

The names of days in India are Ravivar (Sunday), Somavar (Monday), Mangalvar (Tuesday), Budhavar (Wednesday), Guruvar (Thursday), Shukravar (Friday) and Shanivar (Saturday)

[edit] Japanese and Korean

In Japanese and Korean, the days of the week are named after the Chinese astrological week, which is based on the Indian luminary week. The Chinese associated the five classical planets with the Five Elements. Notably, the order of the planets follows the Indian week, and not the order of the Chinese elements. (See table below.) For example, the planet Mercury is associated with the element Water, and Wednesday (dies Mercuris) is called "day of water" (suiyoubi, in Sino-Japanese). These names of days of the week were introduced by the end of the first millennium CE to Japan and Korea, but they were not widely used in Japanese or Korean daily life until the late 19th century.

[edit] Chinese

In modern Chinese, days of the week are numbered from one to six, except Sunday. Literally, the Chinese term of Sunday means "week day"(星期日 or 星期天). Monday is named literally "week one" in Chinese, Tuesday is "week two", and so on. However, China adopted the Western calendar, putting Sunday at the beginning of the calendar week, and Saturday (星期六, meaning "week six" in Chinese) at the end.[citation needed]

A second way to refer to weekdays is using the word zhou (周), meaning "cycle." Therefore Sunday is referred to as zhoumo (周末), meaning "cycle's end" and Monday through Saturday is termed accordingly zhouyi (周一） "first of cycle," zhouer (周二 ) "second of cycle," and etc.

Another Chinese numbering system, found sometimes in spoken Chinese of southern languages (i.e. Cantonese/Yue, or Fukinese/Min), 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 arrival of Christianity, especially prevalent during in the 18th and 19th centuries in south coastal port cities.

In traditional Chinese calenders, days may still be referred to by their association with the sun, moon, and the Chinese elements of fire, water, wood, metal, and earth.

[edit] Cross-linguistic overview

The (suggested) purpose of these tables is to show how far different languages preserve the associations with the associated celestial bodies of ancient times 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] Planetary

Day Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Celestial Body & Astronomical symbol Sun Sun Moon Moon Mars Mars Mercury Mercury Jupiter Jupiter Venus Venus Saturn 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)
Galician domingo (1) luns martes mércores xoves venres sábado (2)
Catalan diumenge (1) dilluns dimarts dimecres dijous divendres dissabte (2)
Interlingua Dominica (1) Lunedi Martedi Mercuridi Jovedi Venerdi Sabbato (2)
Ido Sundio Lundio Mardio Merkurdio Jovdio Venerdio Saturdio (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 An Domhnach (1)
Dé Domhnaigh		 An Luan
Dé Luain		 An Mháirt
Dé Máirt		 An Chéadaoin
Dé Céadaoin
first fast		 An Déardaoin
Déardaoin
day between two fasts		 An Aoine
Dé hAoine
fast		 An Satharn
Dé Sathairn
Scots Gaelic Di-Dòmhnaich (1) Di-Luain Di-Màirt Di-Ciadain Di-Ardaoin Di-Haoine Di-Sàthairne
Manx Jedoonee (1) Jelune Jemayrt Jecrean Jerdrein Jeheiney Jesarn
West Frisian Snein Moandei Tiisdei Woansdei Tongersdei Freed Sneon (8) or
Saterdei
Old English Sunnandæg
sun's day		 Mōnandæg Tiwesdæg
Tiw's day		 Wodnesdæg
Woden's day		 Þunresdæg
Thunor's day		 Frigesdæg
Frige's day		 Sæternesdæg
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 (8)
Dutch zondag
Sun day		 maandag
Moon day		 dinsdag
Thing day		 woensdag
Woden's day		 donderdag
Donar's 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 måndag 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)
Albanian E diel E hënë E martë E mërkurë E enjte E premte E shtunë
Tagalog Linggo (1) Lunes Martes Miyerkules Huwebes Biyernes Sabado (2)
Sanskrit भानुवासरम्
Bhaanu day (Sun)		 इन्दुवासरम्
Indu day (Moon)		 भौमवासरम्
Bhauma day (Mars)		 सौम्यवासरम्
Saumya day (Mercury)		 गुरूवासरम
Guru day (Jupiter)		 भ्रगुवासरम्
Bhrgu day (Venus)		 स्थिरवासरम्
Sthira day (Saturn)
Hindi रविवार
Ravivār (Sun day)		 सोमवार
Somavār (Moon day)		 मंगलवार
Mangalavār (Mars day)		 बुधवार
Budhavār (Mercury day)		 गुरूवार
Guruvār (Jupiter day)		 शुक्रवार
Shukravār (Venus day)		 शनिवार
Shanivār (Saturn day)
Bengali রবিবার
Robibar (Sun day)		 সোমবার
Shombar (Moon day)		 মঙ্গলবার
Monggolbar (Mars day)		 বুধবার
Budhbar (Mercury day)		 বৃহস্পতিবার
Brihôshpotibar (Jupiter day)		 শুক্রবার
Shukrobar (Venus day)		 শনিবার
Shonibar (Saturn day)
Gujarati રવિવાર
Ravivār		 સોમવાર
Somavār		 મંગળવાર
Mangalavār		 બુધવાર
Budhavār		 ગુરૂવાર
Guruvār		 શુક્રવાર
Shukravār		 શનિવાર
Shanivār
Tamil ஞாயிற்று
கிழமை
Nyāyitru day		 திங்கட்
கிழமை
Thingat day		 செவ்வாய்க்
கிழமை
Sevvāi day		 புதன்க்
கிழமை
Budhan day		 வியாழக்
கிழமை
Vyāzha day		 வெள்ளிக்
கிழமை
Velli day		 சனிக்
கிழமை
Shani day
Telugu Aadi day Soma day Mangala day Budha day Bestha/Guru/Lakshmi day Shukra day Shani day
Thai วันอาทิตย์
(Sun day)
(Colour: Red)		 วันจันทร์
(Moon day)
(Colour: Yellow)		 วันอังคาร
(Mars (planet) day)
(Colour: Pink)		 วันพุธ
(Mercury (planet) day)
(Colour: Green)		 วันพฤหัสบดี
(Jupiter (planet) day)
(Colour: Orange)		 วันศุกร์
(Venus (planet) day)
(Colour: Blue)		 วันเสาร์
(Saturn (planet) day)
(Colour: Purple)
Old Chinese (5) 日曜日
(Sun's day)		 月曜日
(Moon's day)		 火曜日
(Fire planet day) (Mars)		 水曜日
(Water planet day) (Mercury)		 木曜日
(Wood planet day) (Jupiter)		 金曜日
(Metal planet day) (Venus)		 土曜日
(Earth planet day) (Saturn)
Japanese (5) 日曜日
にちようび
(Sun day)		 月曜日
げつようび
(Moon day)		 火曜日
かようび
(Fire planet day) (Mars)		 水曜日
すいようび
(Water planet day) (Mercury)		 木曜日
もくようび
(Wood planet day) (Jupiter)		 金曜日
きんようび
(Metal planet day) (Venus)		 土曜日
どようび
(Earth planet day) (Saturn)
Korean (5) 일요일
(Sun's day)		 월요일
(Moon's day)		 화요일
(Fire planet day) (Mars)		 수요일
(Water planet day) (Mercury)		 목요일
(Wood planet day) (Jupiter)		 금요일
(Metal planet day) (Venus)		 토요일
(Earth planet day) (Saturn)
Tibetan gza' nyi ma
(Sun's day)		 gza' zla ba
(Moon's day)		 gza' mig mar
(Fire planet day) (Mars)		 gza' lhag pa
(Water planet day) (Mercury)		 gza' phur bu
(Wood planet day) (Jupiter)		 gza' pa sangs
(Metal planet day) (Venus)		 gza' spen pa
(Earth planet day) (Saturn)
Mongolian (arga) ням
nyam
(planet Sun)		 даваа
davaa
(planet Moon)		 мягмар
myagmar
(planet Mars)		 лхагва
lkhagva
(planet Mercury)		 пүрэв
pürev
(planet Jupiter)		 баасан
baasan
(planet Venus)		 бямба
byamba
(planet Saturn)
Mongolian (bilig) адъяа
adiya
(planet Sun)		 сумъяа
sumiya
(planet Moon)		 ангараг
angarag
(planet Mars)		 буд
bud
(planet Mercury)		 бархабадь
barhasbadi
(planet Jupiter)		 сугар
sugar
(planet Venus)		 санчир
sanchir
(planet Saturn)

[edit] Numerical

Starting on Sunday
Day Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Hebrew יום ראשון
yom rishon
(First day)		 יום שני
yom sheyni
(Second day)		 יום שלישי
yom shlishi
(Third day)		 יום רביעי
yom revi'i
(Fourth day)		 יום חמישי
yom khamishi
(Fifth day)		 יום שישי
yom shishi
(Sixth day)		 יום שבת
yom Shabbat
(Sabbath) (2)
Arabic يوم الأحد
yaum al-ahad
(First day)		 يوم الإثنين
yaum al-ithnayn
(Second day)		 يوم الثُّلَاثاء
yaum ath-thulatha
(Third day)		 يوم الأَرْبعاء
yaum al-arbiaa
(Fourth day)		 يوم الخَمِيس
yaum al-khamees
(Fifth day)		 يوم الجُمْعَة
yaum al-jumuah
(Meeting day)		 يوم السَّبْت
yaum as-sabt (2)
(End day)
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)
Portuguese (also Galician) domingo (1)
(Lord's day)		 segunda-feira
(Second weekday)		 terça-feira
(Third weekday)		 quarta-feira
(Fourth weekday)		 quinta-feira
(Fifth weekday)		 sexta-feira
(Sixth weekday)		 sábado (2)
(Sabbath)
Greek Κυριακή (1)
Kyriakí
(Lord's day)		 Δευτέρα
Dheftéra
(Second)		 Τρίτη
Tríti
(Third)		 Τετάρτη
Tetárti
(Fourth)		 Πέμπτη
Pémpti
(Fifth)		 Παρασκευή
Paraskeví
(Preparation)		 Σάββατο (2)
Sávato
(Sabbath)
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)
Armenian Կիրակի
Kiraki
 Երկուշաբթի
Yerkushabti
(two days
after Sabbath)		 Երեքշաբթի
Yerekshabti
(three days
after Sabbath)		 Չորեքշաբթի
Chorekshabti
(four days
after Sabbath)		 Հինգշաբթի
Hingshabti
(five days
after Sabbath)		 Ուրբաթ
Urbat		 Շաբաթ
Shabat (2)
(Sabbath)
Georgian კვირა
Kvira
(Lord)		 ორშაბათი
Oršabat'i
(two days
after Sabbath)		 სამშაბათი
Samšabat'i
(three days
after Sabbath)		 ოთხშაბათი
Ot'xšabat'i
(four days
after Sabbath)		 ხუთშაბათი
Xut'šabat'i
(five days
after Sabbath)		 პარასკები
Paraskevi (Preparation)		 შაბათი
Šabat'i (2)
(Sabbath)
Kazakh жексенбi
zheksenbe
(first day)		 дүйсенбi
Düysenbi
(second day)		 сейсенбi
Seysenbi
(third day)		 сәрсенбі
Särsenbi
(fourth day)		 бейсенбі
Beysenbi
(fifth day)		 жұма
Juma
(week)		 сенбі
Senbi
(Night and Day) shabAneh rooz
Persian یکشنبه
yekshanbeh
(first day)		 دوشنبه
doshanbeh
(second day)		 سه شنبه
seshanbeh
(third day)		 چهارشنبه
chaharshanbeh
(fourth day)		 پنجشنبه
panjshanbeh
(fifth day)		 آدینه, alt. جمه
Adineh, alt. Jomeh
(day of faith, alt. gathering day)		 شنبه
shanbeh
(night and day) shabAneh rooz
Turkish pazar
(bazaar day)		 pazartesi
(after the bazaar)		 salı
(third day)		 çarşamba
(fourth day)		 perşembe
(fifth day)		 cuma
(gathering day)		 cumartesi
(after the gathering)
Old Turkic birinç kün
(first day)		 ikinç kün
(second day)		 üçünç kün
(third day)		 törtinç kün
(fourth day)		 beşinç kün
(fifth day)		 altınç kün
(sixth day)		 yetinç kün
(seventh 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)
Starting on Monday
Day Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Estonian Esmaspäev Teisipäev Kolmapäev (Third) or Kesknädal (3) Neljapäev (Fourth) Reede
(ON Friádagr)		 Laupäev (4) Pühapäev
(Holy day)
Polish Poniedziałek
(After no-work)		 Wtorek
(Second)		 Środa (3)
(Middle)		 Czwartek
(Fourth)		 Piątek
(Fifth)		 Sobota (2) Niedziela
(No work)
Czech Pondělí (also Pondělek)
(After no-work)		 Úterý (also Úterek)
(Second)		 Středa (3)
(Middle)		 Čtvrtek
(Fourth)		 Pátek
(Fifth)		 Sobota (2) Neděle
(No work)
Serbian Понедељак
(After no-work)		 Уторак
(Second)
(archaic root)		 Среда
(Middle)		 Четвртак
(Fourth)		 Петак
(Fifth)		 Субота Недеља
(No work)
Croatian Ponedjeljak
(After no-work)		 Utorak
(Second)
<archaic		 Srijeda (3)
(Middle)		 Četvrtak
(Fourth)		 Petak
(Fifth)		 Subota (2) Nedjelja
(No work)
Slovenian Ponedeljek
(After no-work)		 Torek
(Second) <archaic		 Sreda (3)
(Middle)		 Četrtek
(Fourth)		 Petek
(Fifth)		 Sobota (2) Nedelja
(No work)
Bulgarian понеделник
(After no-work)		 вторник
(Second)		 сряда (3)
(Middle)		 четвъртък
(Fourth)		 петък
(Fifth)		 събота (2)
(Sabbath)		 неделя
(No work)
Macedonian понеделник
(After no-work)		 вторник
(Second)		 среда (3)
(Middle)		 четврток
(Fourth)		 петок
(Fifth)		 сабота (2)
(Sabbath)		 недела
(No work)
Hungarian Hétfő
(Head of the week)		 Kedd
(Second)		 Szerda (3)
(Middle)
< Slavic		 Csütörtök
(Fourth)
< Slavic		 Péntek
(Fifth)
< Slavic		 Szombat (2) Vasárnap
(Market day)
Lithuanian (7) Pirmadienis
(First day)		 Antradienis
(Second day)		 Trečiadienis
(Third day)		 Ketvirtadienis
(Fourth day)		 Penktadienis
(Fifth day)		 Šeštadienis
(Sixth day)		 Sekmadienis
(Seventh day)
Russian понедельник
ponedel'nik
(after no-work)		 вторник
vtornik
(second)		 среда (3)
sreda
(middle)		 четверг
chetverg
(fourth)		 пятница
pyatnitsa
(fifth)		 суббота
subbota
(sabbath) (2)		 воскресенье
voskresen'ye
(resurrection)
Ukrainian понедiлок
ponedilok
(after no-work)		 вiвторок
vivtorok
(second)		 середа (3)
sereda
(middle)		 четвер
chetver
(fourth)		 п'ятниця
p'yatnitsya
(fifth)		 субота
subota
(sabbath) (2)		 недiля
nedilya
(no-work)
Chinese
(Standard Mandarin transcription in Hanyu Pinyin)		 星期一
xīngqī yī
(week: 1)		 星期二
xīngqī èr
(week: 2)		 星期三
xīngqī sān
(week: 3)		 星期四
xīngqī sì
(week: 4)		 星期五
xīngqī wǔ
(week: 5)		 星期六
xīngqī liù
(week: 6)		 星期日
xīngqī rì
(week: day)
or 星期天
xīngqí tiān
(week: day)
Mongolian
(numerical)		 нэг дэх өдөр
neg deh odor
(first day)		 хоёр дахь өдөр
hoyor dahi odor
(second day)		 гурав дахь өдөр
gurav dahi odor
(third day)		 дөрөв дэх өдөр
dorov deh odor
(fourth day)		 тав дахь өдөр
tav dahi odor
(fifth day)		 хагас сайн өдөр
hagas sain odor
(half weekend)		 бүтэн сайн өдөр
buten sain odor
(full weekend)
ISO 8601 # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Starting on Saturday
Day Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Swahili[5] jumamosi
(first [day
of the] week)		 jumapili
(second [day
of the] week)		 jumatatu
(third [day
of the] week)		 jumanne
(fourth [day
of the] week)		 jumatano
(fifth [day
of the] week)		 alhamisi
(five)
Arabic		 ijumaa
(assembly)
Arabic

[edit] Notes

  1. In Ecclesiastical Latin, the Romance languages, Greek, and the Gaelic languages, Sunday is named after the "Lord", because it is the day of the Resurrection of Jesus.
  2. 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 Sabbaton. German also has a second, Christianised name meaning "Eve of Sunday" (parallel to "Christmas Eve", for example).
  3. German and Finnish call Wednesday, prosaically, "mid-week"; Estonian Kesknädal is equivalent, with "Third day" (kolmapäev) also used; Icelandic and Faroese uses "Mid-week day"; Polish, Russian, etc. have "Middle".
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Icelandic sunnudagur and mánudagur are astronomical, persisting presumably because they make no explicit reference to pagan gods.
  7. See Lithuanian calendar.
  8. An alternative naming for Saturday, used in the northern parts of Germany and the Netherlands, is derived from Sun-eve, the day before the day of the sun. Northern dialects of German use Sonnabend. In Frisian Sneon (sinnejûn) is used.

[edit] Astrology

 The following text needs to be harmonized with text in the article Week.
 (See e.g. Wikipedia:Summary style.)

Between the 1st and 3rd centuries the Roman Empire gradually replaced the eight day Roman nundinal cycle with the seven-day week. The astrological 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.)

In astrological theory, not only the days of the week, but the hours of the day are dominated by the seven luminaries. If the first hour of a day is dominated by Saturn (Saturn), then the second hour is dominated by Jupiter (Jupiter), the third by Mars (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 Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Saturn → Saturday
Day 2 Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Sun → Sunday
Day 3 Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Moon → Monday
Day 4 Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mars → Tuesday
Day 5 Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Mercury → Wednesday
Day 6 Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Jupiter → Thursday
Day 7 Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Venus → Friday
Weekday heptagram
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.

According to some sources, the weekday heptagram is considerably old:

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.[6]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Nine Planets: Planetary Linguistics: Days of the Week
  2. ^ United Kingdom House of Lords Decisions
  3. ^ MacBain, Alexander. An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language. Gairm Publications, 1982 reprint of 1896 original.
  4. ^ MacBain, Alexander. An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language. Gairm Publications, 1982 reprint of 1896 original.
  5. ^ Swahili days, months, dates
  6. ^ Symbol 29:16

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Days of the week