Most countries have seven days of the week, but they call them by different names. Where do these names come from? And is Sunday in England the same as Sunday in Saudi Arabia, for example?
The Origins of the Names of the Days of the Week in Modern
English
Most countries have seven days of the week,
but they call them by different names. Where do these names come from? And is
Sunday in England the same as Sunday in Saudi Arabia, for example?
Sunday
In many languages in southern Europe, the name
of Sunday has changed from the name of the old Roman sun god of 2,000 years ago
to the Christian ‘God’s Day’, but in Slavic languages in eastern Europe they
say ‘the day of no work’. In the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh, it’s the
first working day of the week. In Saudi Arabia and Oman, they have just changed
that working week in the last decade, so that Sunday is the first working day,
not the second.
In Germanic and Indian languages, however, we still
use the old pre-Christian name meaning the ‘day of the sun’. This comes from an
old German myth.
It tells us that a man, called Mundilfar, had two beautiful children. The boy
was so lovely that his father called him ‘Sun’. The gods were angry and jealous
of the name and made him live in the sky.
In the Christian religion, Sunday is a day for
God. A decreasing
number of people don’t do any work on this day, even gardening.
Monday
In Slavic languages, the name for Monday means
‘the day after the holiday’ and in Arabic and Chinese, it is called only ‘day
number two’. In French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, which are in the same
language family as Latin, it is the ‘day of the moon’. (The Romans called the
day by this name and in Latin ‘moon’ is ‘luna’ and so, in French, for example,
they use ‘lundi’ for Monday. ‘Luna’ and ‘lundi’ – you can see they are derivatives
from the same word.)
After the end of the
Roman Empire around 400 C.E., the
Germans translated the Latin names for many days to their own language.
In north European languages, then, Monday comes from the word ‘moon’. (In
Dutch, the language of Holland, for instance, ‘maan’ is ‘moon’ and ‘maandag’ is
Monday.) The old German myth about Mundilfar’s children tells
us about Mani, the beautiful sister of ‘Sun’. She went to live in the sky with
her brother but two wolves chase her across the sky every night.
Mondays are not happy days. Women did their
washing in England on Mondays. That was before the days of washing machines and
so it was a lot of hard work.
Tuesday
Tuesday comes from the old German name for the
god of justice and war, Tiwe. He had only one hand because a wolf ate
the right one. He was a very brave god and put his hand in a wolf’s
mouth so that other gods could catch the animal while it ate him. You see, it
had been terrorizing the gods’ lands. At one time, Tiwe was the most important
god but later Woden took his place.
The Germans changed the Latin name which came
from the Roman god of war, Mars. So, in Spanish, another language in the same
family as Latin, for instance, Tuesday is ‘martes’.
Wednesday
In Old English, Wednesday meant ‘Woden’s day’.
Woden was, in some ways, the same as the Roman god, Mercury – in Italian, the
modern language they use in Rome, the word for Wednesday is ‘mercoledi’. Woden
liked music and poetry, the same as Mercury. He was an old man with one eye and
a big beard. He walked all over the world and looked
after people’s souls. He was the most important god in Anglo
Saxon mythology.
Thursday
Thursday comes from the Norse god of thunder,
Thor. The Romans thought that Jupiter was the god of thunder and so southern
European languages still use this name (except Portuguese, which calls Thursday
‘day number five’, just like Chinese and Arabic). So, in Catalan, the language
they speak in Barcelona, the word is ‘Dijous’ – the day of Jupiter.
Thor was a very handsome god and very strong too.
He always carried a hammer and he could break mountains
with it. He killed his enemies but looked after people. He
was a very popular god.
Thursday is very popular in Kuwait,
the United Arab Emirates and some other Arab countries, because it is the last
day of the working week. The next day, a lot of people can stay in bed and so
they stay up late on Thursday night.
Friday
In Roman times, they gave the name of
the goddess Venus to Friday. She was the goddess of love
and beauty. The Germans changed the name to Friday after the
Norse goddess Frige. She was also important for love and so many
people went to her if they wanted happy marriages.
Friday is called ‘juma’ in Arabic and Turkish
(cuma) and is the most important day of the week in Islam, when everyone goes
to the mosque. Jews start their most important religious day
at sunset on Friday. They eat flat bread and salt to
remember the difficult times when they were slaves and hungry, before they have
their evening meal.
Saturday
Saturday is the only day in English, German
and Dutch that keeps the Latin word, Saturn, also the name of
the planet with rings round it. In the Ancient Greek and
Roman religions, Saturn was the father of the greatest god Zeus (in
Greece) and Jupiter (in Rome).
The Jewish word for Saturday (sabat) is nearly
the same as the Arabic (sebt) and Portuguese (sabado). But on Saturday, the
Jews have a day of rest and go to the synagogue.
The Scandinavian countries did not keep the Roman name. They call Saturday ‘Lördag’ or ‘washing day’. Of course, in England, women did their washing on Mondays. Perhaps the only thing that is true all over the world is that it’s always women who always have to do the washing!
If you want to watch some videos on this topic, you can click on the links to YouTube videos below.
If you want to answer questions on this article to test how much you understand, you can click on the green box: Finished Reading?
Videos :
1. Where do the Names of the Days of the Week Come From? (11:43)
2. How did the Days of the Week Get their Names? (5:00)
3. The Roman and Norse Origin of the Days of the Week (5:00)