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The Names for the Days of the Week 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 arenamed 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 aswill be explained later. But first consider those Germanic gods and goddess. Thors is familiaras 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 descriptionof someone using a pistol by someone completely unfamiliar with guns. The shape would roughlycorrespond to a type of hammer. The report would be described as thunder. The destructionof something at a distance would be like be hit by a hammer. Is the god Thor evidence ofa time traveler appearing in ancient Germanic times?) The god Woden or Odin was the god ofwisdom who sacrifised one eye to gain the wisdom necessary to save the world. Freya was thegoddess 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 woldFenfir. 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. Heeven allowed them to chain him so he could demonstrate that his power was greater than thestrongest 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 wouldallow 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 therope was used to tie Fenfir. When Fenfir found he could not break the rope he bit off Tiw'shand, 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 oddswith the naming of Saturday, Sunday and Monday than it seems. Freya, the Germanic goddessof 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 Romangod Jupiter was known for throwing bolts of lightening and therefore there was a correspondencewith 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 calendarwere 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 celestialbodies, which in some cases were named after gods and a goddess.
FAQs
In English, the names of the days of the week are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sunday, Monday and Saturday are named after celestial bodies in the solar system. The other four days are named after Germanic gods.
What are the 7 days of the week names? ›
Here is the name of 7 days of the week in English and Hindi.
- SUNDAY – रविवार (ravivaar)
- MONDAY – सोमवार (somavaar)
- TUESDAY – मंगलवार (mangalavaar)
- WEDNESDAY – बुधवार (budhavaar)
- THURSDAY – गुरूवार/बृहस्पतिवार (guruvaar)
- FRIDAY – शुक्रवार (shukravaar)
- SATURDAY – शनिवार (shanivaar)
The Romans named the days of the week after the Sun and the Moon and five planets, which were also the names of their gods. The gods and planets were Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.
Who was Tuesday named after? ›
Tuesday was named for the Roman god of war, Mars, so in Latin was known as dies Martis. However, the Germanic god of war was known as Tiu and the English day of the week is derived from this Germanic god's name instead, first known as Tiwsday and eventually Tuesday.
What was Thursday named after? ›
It was named after the Norse god Thor. Thunor, Donar (German, Donnerstag) and Thor are derived from the name of the Germanic god of thunder, Thunraz, equivalent to Jupiter in the interpretatio romana. In most Romance languages, the day is named after the Roman god Jupiter, who was the god of sky and thunder.
Why is Friday called Friday? ›
The first records of the word Friday come from before 1000. It comes from the Old English Frīgedæg, meaning “Freya's day.” In Latin, the name for the day we call Friday is dies Veneris, meaning “Venus's day,” referring to the Roman goddess of love.
Who is Wednesday named after? ›
Wednesday is named for the god Woden, who is paralleled with the Roman god Mercury, probably because both gods shared attributes of eloquence, the ability to travel, and the guardianship of the dead.
How did Sunday get its name? ›
How Sunday got its name. The name for Sunday stems from the Middle English word sunnenday, which itself comes from the Old English word sunnandæg. The English derivations stem from the Latin diēs sōlis (“sun's day”). To know why this particular day is devoted to the sun, you have to look to Babylonian times.
Why is Monday called Monday? ›
The English name for Monday comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Mōnandæg, which loosely means “the moon's day.” Mōna is the word for moon in Old English. The second day of the week has been classified as the moon's day since Babylonian times.
How did Saturday get its name? ›
Saturday is the day of the week between Friday and Sunday. No later than the 2nd century, the Romans named Saturday diēs Sāturnī ("Saturn's Day") for the planet Saturn, which controlled the first hour of that day, according to Vettius Valens.
Saturday was named after the god Saturn, and is the only day of the week to retain its Roman name. Sunday, the day of the Sun, was called Solis in Latin and Sonnandæg in Anglo-Saxon.
What is Freya's day? ›
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).
Who are the months named after? ›
Some of their etymologies are well-established: January and March honor the gods Janus and Mars; July and August honor Julius Caesar and his successor, the emperor Augustus; and the months Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December are archaic adjectives formed from the ordinal numbers from 5 to 10 ...
Why was Monday named Monday? ›
How Monday got its name. The English name for Monday comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Mōnandæg, which loosely means “the moon's day.” Mōna is the word for moon in Old English. The second day of the week has been classified as the moon's day since Babylonian times.
What were the days of the week called in Bible times? ›
The Hebrew names of the days of the week are numerical: Sunday - Yom rishon- "first day", Monday -Yom shani- "second day", Tuesday -Yom shlishi- "third day", Wednesday -Yom reveci- "fourth day", Thursday -Yom khamshi- "fifth day", Friday -Yom shishi- "sixth day" and cErev shabbat -"eve of Sabbath", Saturday -Yom ha- ...
