The Names for the Days of the Week Filename: DaysOfTheWeek.txt ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Names for the Days of the Week - Table of Contents 1. Full Article 2. Summary 3. Alignment With the Planets 4. Keeping Time: Origins of the Days of the Week ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Names for the Days of the Week - Full Article https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/daysweek applet-magic.com Thayer Watkins Silicon Valley & Tornado Alley USA The names for the days of the week in English seem to be a mixed bag. Saturday, Sunday and Monday are named after the celestrial bodies, Saturn, Sun and Moon, but the other days are named after Germanic gods, Tuesday (Tiw's day), Wednesday (Woden's day), Thursday (Thor's day) and Friday (Freya's day). This is more of an apparent difference than a real difference as will be explained later. But first consider those Germanic gods and goddess. Thors is familiar as the god of thunder who had a boomarang hammer such that he could throw it and destroy something or someone at a distance but magically reappear back in his hand. (This sounds like a description of someone using a pistol by someone completely unfamiliar with guns. The shape would roughly correspond to a type of hammer. The report would be described as thunder. The destruction of something at a distance would be like be hit by a hammer. Is the god Thor evidence of a time traveler appearing in ancient Germanic times?) The god Woden or Odin was the god of wisdom who sacrificed one eye to gain the wisdom necessary to save the world. Freya was the goddess of love. But who was Tiw? The most striking story of Tiw is how he saved the abode of the gods Asgard from the giant wolf Fenfir. Fenfir was brought into Asgard as a cub. As he grew he became mor and more destructive. The gods tried to constrain him with ropes and chains but Fenfir broke the strongest of these. Fenfir even gloried in breaking the constraints the gods tried to impose upon him. He even allowed them to chain him so he could demonstrate that his power was greater than the strongest chain. After trying every constraint the gods of Asgard securing a magical rope. When the gods came to him with this new constraint Fenfir became suspicious. He said he would allow them to put the rope upon him only if one of the gods guaranteed that no trick was involved by placing his right hand in Fenfirs mouth. Tiw volunteered to do this and the rope was used to tie Fenfir. When Fenfir found he could not break the rope he bit off Tiw's hand, as Tiw knew would happen. This was another case of a god sacrificing something, as did Woden, for the good of the folk. As mentioned above the naming of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was less at odds with the naming of Saturday, Sunday and Monday than it seems. Freya, the Germanic goddess of love, corresponds to the Roman goddess of love, Venus, for whom the planet Venus is named. Tiw, roughly corresponds to the Roman god of war, Mars, whom another planet was named. The Roman god Jupiter was known for throwing bolts of lightening and therefore there was a correspondence with the Germanic god of thunder, Thor. In the Roman calendar the day between Mars' day (Tuesday) and Jupiter's day (Thursday) was Mercury's day. Somehow the ancient Germans found a correspondence between Mercury and Woden. Thus the days of the week in the Roman calendar were Sun's day, Moon's day, Mars' day, Mercury's day, Jupiter's day, Venus's day and Saturn's day. The days were not named after the gods, the days were named after the celestial bodies, which in some cases were named after gods and a goddess. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. The Names for the Days of the Week - Summary Saturday, Sunday and Monday are named after the celestrial bodies, Saturn, Sun and Moon. The other days are named after Germanic gods, Tuesday (Tiw's day), Wednesday (Woden's day), Thursday (Thor's day) and Friday (Freya's day). Sunday Celestrial Body: Sun Monday Celestrial Body: Moon Tuesday Germanic god: Tiw's day - He saved the abode of the gods Asgard from the giant wolf Fenfir. Tiw, roughly corresponds to the Roman god of war, Mars, whom another planet was named. Wednesday Germanic god: Woden's day - The god Woden or Odin was the god of wisdom who sacrifised one eye to gain the wisdom necessary to save the world. In the Roman calendar the day between Mars' day (Tuesday) and Jupiter's day (Thursday) was Mercury's day. Somehow the ancient Germans found a correspondence between Mercury and Woden. Thursday Germanic god: Thor's day - god of thunder who had a boomarang hammer. The report would be described as thunder. The Roman god Jupiter was known for throwing bolts of lightening and therefore there was a correspondence with the Germanic god of thunder, Thor. Friday Germanic god: Freya's day - Freya was the goddess of love. Freya, the Germanic goddess of love, corresponds to the Roman goddess of love, Venus, for whom the planet Venus is named. Saturday Celestrial Body: Saturn Thus the days of the week in the Roman calendar were Sun's day, Moon's day, Mars' day, Mercury's day, Jupiter's day, Venus's day and Saturn's day. The days were not named after the gods, the days were named after the celestial bodies, which in some cases were named after gods and a goddess. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. The Names for the Days of the Week - Alignment With the Planets Sunday - Sun Monday - Moon Tuesday - Mars Wednesday - Mercury Thursday - Jupiter Friday - Venus Saturday - Saturn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Keeping Time: Origins of the Days of the Week By Robert Coolman - Live Science Contributor May 07, 2014 https://www.livescience.com/45432-days-of-the-week.html As the days pass, the cycle of the week shapes how we live our lives. Have you ever wondered, "Why is a week seven days long?" How about where the names of each weekday come from? The seven-day week originates from the calendar of the Babylonians, which in turn is based on a Sumerian calendar dated to 21st-century B.C. Seven days corresponds to the time it takes for a moon to transition between each phase: full, waning half, new and waxing half. Because the moon cycle is 29.53 days long, the Babylonians would insert one or two days into the final week of each month. Jewish tradition also observes a seven-day week. The book of Genesis (and hence the seven-day account of creation) was likely written around 500 B.C. during the Jewish exile to Babylon. Assyriologists such as Friedrich Delitzsch and Marcello Craveri have suggested that the Jews inherited the cycle of seven days from the Babylonian calendar. The Romans also inherited this system from Babylonian tradition, though they didn’t begin using it until the instatement of the Julian Calendar in the first-century B.C. Up until this point the Romans had used the “nundinal cycle,” a system they inherited from the Etruscans. This was a market cycle of eight days labeled A-H. On market day, country folk would come to the city and city dwellers would buy eight days' worth of groceries. By the time the seven-day week was officially adopted by Constantine in A.D. 321, the nundinal cycle had fallen out of use. The Romans named the days of the week after their gods and corresponded to the five known planets plus the sun and moon (which the Romans also considered planets). To this day, all Romance languages (most familiarly Spanish, French, and Italian) still bear the mark of Roman day names, the exception being Sunday, which now translates to “Lord’s Day” and Saturday, which translates to "Sabbath." Day Planet Latin Spanish French Italian Monday Moon Dies Lunae lunes lundi lunedi Tuesday Mars Dies Martis martes mardi martedi Wednesday Mercury Dies Mercurii miércoles mercredi mercoledì Thursday Jupiter Dies Jovis jueves jeudi giovedi Friday Venus Dies Veneris viernes vendredi venerdì Saturday Saturn Dies Saturni sábado samedi sabato Sunday Sun Dies Solis domingo dimanche domenica Germanic adaptations The English words for each day bear remnants of Roman tradition, but they have been filtered through centuries of Germanic and Norse mythos. The Germanic people adapted the Roman system by identifying Roman gods with their own deities. Sunday comes from Old English “Sunnandæg," which is derived from a Germanic interpretation of the Latin dies solis, "sun's day." Germanic and Norse mythology personify the sun as a goddess named Sunna or Sól. Monday likewise comes from Old English “Mōnandæg,” named after Máni, the Norse personification of the moon (and Sól's brother). Tuesday comes from Old English “Tīwesdæg,” after Tiw, or Tyr, a one-handed Norse god of dueling. He is equated with Mars, the Roman war god. Wednesday is "Wōden's day." Wōden, or Odin, was the ruler of the Norse gods' realm and associated with wisdom, magic, victory and death. The Romans connected Wōden to Mercury because they were both guides of souls after death. “Wednesday” comes from Old English “Wōdnesdæg.” Thursday, "Thor's day," gets its English name after the hammer-wielding Norse god of thunder, strength and protection. The Roman god Jupiter, as well as being the king of gods, was the god of the sky and thunder. “Thursday” comes from Old English “Þūnresdæg.” Friday is named after the wife of Odin. Some scholars say her name was Frigg; others say it was Freya; other scholars say Frigg and Freya were two separate goddesses. Whatever her name, she was often associated with Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility. “Friday” comes from Old English “Frīgedæg.” As for Saturday, Germanic and Norse traditions didn’t assign any of their gods to this day of the week. They retained the Roman name instead. The English word “Saturday” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “Sæturnesdæg,” which translates to “Saturn’s day.” ----------------------------------------------------------------------