The days of the week
Romans
originally had
a "week" of eight days, with a market day (nundinum) at the end of it.
Later they
adopted the idea of a seven-day week. They named the days after the five
planets which were then known (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter
and
Saturn), and the Sun and the Moon. (Like the planets
the Sun and the Moon "wandered" in relation to
the stars - "planet" in Greek means a wanderer).
The
"day of the Sun"
was called the "day of the Lord" by Christians, and the "day of Saturn"
was often
called the "Sabbath" (the Jewish day of rest).
The
names used by the
Romans are still used in Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan and
Romanian. In fact
of all the Romance languages (those descended from Latin) only
Portuguese uses different words.
English Latin Spanish French
Monday Lunae dies lunes lundi
Tuesday Martis dies martes mardi
Wednesday Mercurii dies miércoles mercredi
Thursday Iovis dies jueves jeudi
Friday Veneris dies viernes vendredi
Saturday Saturni dies sábado samedi
Sunday
Dominica dies
domingo
dimanche
Italian Catalan Romanian
lunedí dilluns luni
martedí dimarts marti
mercoledí dimercres miercuri
giovedí dijous joi
venerdí divendres vineri
sabato dissabte simbata
The peoples in the
north of Europe did not have the same gods as the Romans, and so they
named the
days after similar gods.
Woden/Wotan/Odin = Mercury
Thor/Donar = Jupiter
Freya/Frija =
Venus
The
Sun, the Moon and
Saturn were used for the other days.
English German Dutch
Monday Montag Maansdag
Tuesday Dienstag Dinsdag
Wednesday Mittwoch Woensdag
Thursday Donnerstag Donderdag
Friday Freitag Vrijdag
Saturday Samstag Zaterdag
Sunday
Sonntag
Zondag