Days of the week
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In English the days of the week are:
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 days of rest in Muslim and Jewish countries respectively. The biblical Sabbath lasts from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.In many countries, including most of Europe, Asia, and South America (except Brazil), 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 ancient Jews, Egyptians and the Holy Roman Empire. ISO 8601 defines Monday as the first day of the week, making Sunday the seventh.
Origins of the week
Various sources point to the seven day week originating in ancient Babylonia or Sumeria, with possible origins dating back to the Egyptians. 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. 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 occur this early.
Order
The week as we know it was introduced by astromancers around the 1st 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. By modern reckoning, which reflects the ruler of the night, it was a Wednesday, but according to the system described by Valens the daylight hours were indeed controlled by the Sun.
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 |
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| Day 1 | 
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| Saturn → Saturday |
| Day 2 | 
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| Sun → Sunday |
| Day 3 | 
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| Moon → Monday |
| Day 4 | 
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| Mars → Tuesday |
| Day 5 | 
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| Mercury → Wednesday |
| Day 6 | 
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| Jupiter → Thursday |
| Day 7 | 
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| Venus → Friday |
The same order can be derived "geometrically" from an acute heptagram, the 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.
- 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. [Symbol 29:16]
First day of the week
According to some interpretations of 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 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 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.
Names
- For personal names taken from the days of the week, see Akan names.
In most Romance languages, such as Italian, Spanish and French, 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.
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. 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.
In modern Chinese, however, 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 week" in Chinese, Tuesday is the "second", and so on. But many regions, in which Chinese languages are widely used today (e.g. China, Hong Kong SAR, etc.), regard Sunday as the start of a week, therefore putting Sunday at the beginning of a calendar week, while Saturday (星期六, meaning "the sixth day of week" in Chinese) is the end of a week.
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".
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 monandæg, 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 Tíwesdæ, 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 Martis Dies, "Day of Mars" (the Roman war god); compare French mardi.
- Wednesday: This name comes from the Old English Wodnesdæg meaning the day of the Germanic god Woden, 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 Mercurii Dies, "Day of Mercury"; compare French mercredi. 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. However, 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 Iovis Dies, "Day of Jupiter"; compare French jeudi. 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 Freya. It is based on the Latin Veneris Dies, "Day of Venus"; compare French vendredi. 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 Saturni Dies, "Day of Saturn"; compare French samedi.
- 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 is relatively rare among modern European languages in preserving the original pagan/sun associations of the day; most Romance langauges, e.g., have changed the name of the day to the equivalent of "the Lord's day" (based on Ecclesiastical Latin dies Dominica).
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.)
Astronomical
| Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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) |
| Esperanto | [dimanĉo] | [lundo] | [mardo] | [merkredo] | [ĵaŭdo] | [vendredo] | [sabato] |
| 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 | Dé Luain | Dé Mháirt | Dé Chéadaoin | Déardaoin | Dé hAoine | Dé Sathairn |
| Scots Gaelic | Didòmhnaich | Diluain | Dimàirt | Diciadain | Diardaoin | Dihaoine | Disàthairne |
| Manx | Jedoonee | Jelune | Jemayrt | Jecrean | Jerdrein | Jeheiney | Jesarn |
| Old High German | sunnuntag | mānetag | zeistag Ziu's day | wodenstag Woden's day | donerestag Thor's day | friatag Freia's day | sambaztag (2) |
| German | [Sonntag] | [Montag] | [Dienstag] | [Mittwoch] (3) | [Donnerstag] | [Freitag] | [Samstag] or Sonnabend (2) |
| Danish/Norwegian | [søndag] | [mandag] | [tirsdag] | [onsdag] | [torsdag] | [fredag] | [lørdag] (4) |
| Dutch | [zondag] | [maandag] | [dinsdag] | [woensdag] | [donderdag] | [vrijdag] | [zaterdag] |
| Old Norse | sunnundagr Sunna's day | mánandagr | tysdagr Tyr's day | óðensdagr Odin's day | þorsdagr Thor's day | friádagr Freya's day | laugardagr (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 |
| 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 | ஞாயிற்றுகிழமை Nyāyitru day | திங்கட்கிழமை Thingat day | ெசவ்வாய்க்கிழமை Sevvāi day | புதன்க்கிழமை Budhan day | வியாழக்கிழமை Vyāzha day | ெவௗ்ௗிக்கிழமை Velli day | சனிக்கிழமை 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) | วันพฤหัส day of (planet) Jupiter (Colour: Orange) | วันศุกร์ day of (planet) Venus (Colour: Blue) | วันเสาร์ day of (planet) Saturn (Colour: Purple) |
| Japanese | [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* | [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 | [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 |
Numerical
| Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latin (Church usage) | prima feria or dominica | secunda feria | tertia feria | quarta feria | quinta feria | sexta feria | sabbatum |
| 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 (Sabbath) |
| Portuguese | [domingo] (1) | [segunda-feira] | [terça-feira] | [quarta-feira] | [quinta-feira] | [sexta-feira] | [sábado] (2) |
| Greek | Κυριακή ("Lord's day") | Δευτέρα ("second") | Τρίτη ("third") | Τετάρτη ("fourth") | Πέμπτη ("fifth") | Παρασκευή ("preparation") | Σάββατο ("sabbath") |
| Vietnamese | chủ nhật ("Master's day") or chúa nhật ("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] (5) ("sun day") | [mánudagur] (5) ("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] ("middle") | [czwartek] ("fourth") | [piątek] ("fifth") | [sobota] (2) |
| Slovenian | [nedelja] ("no work") | [ponedeljek] ("after no-work") | [torek] (archaic "second") | [sreda] ("middle") | [četrtek] ("fourth") | [petek] ("fifth") | [sobota] (2) |
| Hungarian | [vasárnap] ("market day") | [hétfő] ("head of the week") | [kedd] ("second") | [szerda] (< Slavic "middle") | [csütörtök] (< Slavic "fourth") | [péntek] (< Slavic "fifth") | [szombat] (2) |
| Lithuanian | [sekmadienis] ("seventh day")(2) | [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] sreda ("center") | [четверг] chetverk ("fourth") | [пятница] pyatnitsa ("fifth") | [суббота] subbota (2) |
| Chinese (Standard Mandarin transcription in Hanyu Pinyin) | [星期日] xīngqí rì ("week: sun") or [星期天] xīngqí tiān ("week: heaven") | [星期一] xīngqí yī ("week: one") | [星期二] xīngqí èr ("week: two") | [星期三] xīngqí sān ("week: three") | [星期四] xīngqí sì ("week: four") | [星期五] xīngqí wǔ ("week: five") | [星期六] xīngqí liù ("week: six")
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| 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") |
| ISO 8601 # | 7 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Day | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
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.
- Icelandic sunnudagur and mánudagur are astronomical, persisting presumably because there's no explicit reference to pagan gods.
See also
References
- Falk, Michael (1999). "[Astronomical Names for the Days of the Week]", Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 93:122.
- Neugebauer, Otto (1979). Ethiopic astronomy and computus, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische klasse, sitzungsberichte, 347 (Vienna)
External links
- [Planetary Linguistics and the Days of the Week -- The Definitive Site]
- [Days of the week and months of the year in many different languages]
- [Names of Weekdays at TheScian.com Science Wiki]
- [Days of the Week in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese (much history of Western systems too)]
- [The Days of the Week]
- [Why Seven Days in a Week?]
| Days of the week |
|---|
| Sunday > Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
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