Days of the week

The meanings behind the names of the seven days of the week.

 The days of the week are named after ancient gods.

Each is explained in detail below

Monday: The name Monday comes from the Old English Monandæg,

 meaning "day of the Moon

Days of the week

The meanings behind the names of the seven days of the week.

 The days of the week are named after ancient gods.

Each is explained in detail below

Monday: The name Monday comes from the Old English Monandæg,

 meaning "day of the Moon

Tuesday: Tuesday comes from the Old English Tiwesdæg,

meaning "Tyr's day." Tyr was the Norse god of combat.

In countries that didn't have a norse influence it is the

 "Day of Mars" (the Roman war god); In French this

translates as mardi and in Spanish martes

Wednesday: This name comes from the Old English

Wodnesdæg meaning the day of the Woden or Odin,

 the father of the Gods. It is based on Latin dies

 Mercurii, "Day of Mercury";in French mercredi and

Spanish miércoles. The germans have renamed this

day as Mittwoch, which simply means middle of the week

Thursday: comes from the Old English Þunresdæg,

or Thor's day. Thor was the Germanic and Norse god

of thunder. In Germany the same route leads

to Donnerstag. Donner can be directly translated as thunder

In latin countries Thursday was the "Day of Jupiter"

; which becomes the French jeudi and Spanish jueves

Friday: The name Friday celebrates the Norse goddess

 of beauty Frigg, In Latin the "Day of Venus"

(also the goddess of beauty); leads to vendredi and Spanish viernes

Saturday: Saturday is the only English day of the week

to retain its Roman origin. Saturday "Day of Saturn";

 In southern Europe the catholic church remembers

 the jewish sabbath in the names (French samedi and Spanish sábado)

Sunday: The name is quite literally the Sun's Day.

 Attempts by the church to replace this remenant

of pagan worship with 'The Lords Day' failed in

northern europe but succeeded in southern europe

 where Dimanche (french) and Domingo (spanish)

 have their routes in the Latin dies Dominica