The origin of days of the week

Where did the 7 days in the week originate from?

Have you ever thought , for a second, about the origin of the days of the week?

“What are the 7 days named after?”

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monday

Monday comes from Old English “Mōnandæg, ” named after Máni, the Norse personification of the moon . The names of the day of the week were coined in the Roman era, in Greek and Latin, in the case of Monday as ἡμέρᾱ Σελήνης, diēs Lūnae "day of the Moon". Many languages use terms either directly derived from these names or loan translations based on them. The English noun Monday derived sometime before 1200 from monedæi, which itself developed from Old English.

tuesday

Tuesday comes from Old English “Tīwesdæg, ” after Tiw, or Tyr, a onehanded Norse god of dueling. He is equated with Mars, the Roman war god.

The English name is derived from Old English Tiwesdæg and Middle English Tewesday, meaning "Tīw ' s Day " , the day of Tiw or Týr, the god of single combat, and law and justice in Norse mythology. Tiw was equated with Mars in the interpretatio germanica, and the name of the day is a translation of Latin dies Martis. he name Tuesday derives from the Old English Tiwesdæg and literally means "Tiw ' s Day " Tiw is the Old English form of the Proto-Germanic god Tîwaz, or Týr in Old Norse. The German Dienstag and Dutch dinsdag are derived from the Germanic custom of the thing, as Tiw / Týr also had a strong connection to the thing.

wednesday (Odın's day)

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.

In English, the name is derived from Old English Wōdnesdæg and Middle English Wednesdei, 'day of Woden ' , reflecting the religion practiced by the Anglo-Saxons, the English equivalent to the Norse god Odin. The name Wednesday continues Middle English Wednesdei. Old English still had wōdnesdæg, which would be continued as Wodnesday. By the early 13th century, the i-mutated form was introduced unetymologically The name is a calque of the Latin dies Mercurii 'day of Mercury ' , reflecting the fact that the Germanic god Woden (Wodanaz or Odin) during the Roman era was interpreted as "Germanic Mercury ".

thursday (thor's day)

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".

frıday (frıg's day)

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.” The name Friday comes from the Old English frīġedæġ, meaning the "day of Frig " , a result of an old convention associating the Germanic goddess Frigg with the Roman goddess Venus, with whom the day is associated in many different cultures. The same holds for Frīatag in Old High German, Freitag in Modern German, and vrijdag in Dutch. The expected cognate name in Old Norse would be friggjar-dagr. The name of Friday in Old Norse is frjá-dagr instead, indicating a loan of the week-day names from Low German;however, the modern Faroese name is fríggjadagur. The modern Scandinavian form is fredag in Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish, meaning Freyja's day. The distinction between Freyja and Frigg in some Germanic mythologies is contested.

saturday

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.”

Between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, the Roman Empire gradually replaced the eightday Roman nundinal cycle with the seven-day week. The astrological order of the days was explained by Vettius Valens and Dio Cassius. According to these authors, it was a principle of astrology that the heavenly bodies presided, in succession, over the hours of the day. The association of the weekdays with the respective deities is thus indirect, the days are named for the planets, which were in turn named for the deities.

sunday

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.

The name "Sunday " , the day of the Sun, is derived from Hellenistic astrology, where the seven planets, known in English as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon, each had an hour of the day assigned to them, and the planet which was regent during the first hour of any day of the week gave its name to that day. During the 1st and 2nd century, the week of seven days was introduced into Rome from Egypt, and the Roman names of the planets were given to each successive day. Germanic peoples seem to have adopted the week as a division of time from the Romans, but they changed the Roman names into those of corresponding Teutonic deities. Hence, the dies Solis became Sunday (German, Sonntag).

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