Why the days are called Monday Tuesday and so......
Could you name me the days of the week? A different way to start a discussion but still if anyone asks us to give names of the days in a week in English one would generally say Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
So we all have names right? Obviously and surely there must have been some thought process or some reasoning behind as to why our names have been the way they are.. today we are going to see why the days are named the way they are...
Well, some credit do goes to some ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome and also before them to the Babylonian civilization some 4000 years back who were among those who looked at Sun, Moon and the five planets of Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn.
Why these planets?? Because these planets are the ones which are considered closest to our planet Earth and which are possibly visible without a telescope.
One of the reasons it is said why in the ancient times people considered Earth to be centre of universe, well until some notable people like Copernicus, Galileo and few others arrived on the scene and explained how we are not the centre of universe and there is much more the whole galaxies, stars and stuff.
So the days became, (Sun)day, (Moon)day, (Mars)day, (Mercury)day, (Jupiter)day, (Venus)day, (Saturn)day.
The names we have today came from the language transition and influence of other languages accordingly.
For example, if we consider Wednesday which has Mercury has its planet, the Romans considered the same to Odin who was considered to be the all encompassing creator of universe. Odin, also called as Wodan. Coming on the influence of old english where it was called Wodnesdæg kind of calling it as Wodan’s day and now "Wednesday."
Mars, considered as god of war got equivalency with Nordic god Tyr also know as Tiu or Tiw and we had Tiwesdæg which became “Tuesday.”
Jupiter has the association with someone's favourite Avenger Thor considered as God of Thunder. Someone who controlled thunder and lightning. So Thunresdaeg and we had Thursday.
For planet Venus which had Freya (also known as Frigg or Frigga), wife of Odin, and considered to be goddess of love and beauty. So the word “Frigadæg” in old english evolved over time into “Friday.”
Most of the western civilization adopted these system from Roman, while Germans substituted to the german equivalents of the same. Some countries like Japan based the names on the five elements which are actually loosely connected to these planets.
Just to add a little bit more of a touch on this. They say, the history has always been written by victors or the rulers and most of the history is still there to be unravelled. Even for the case of this question at hand there could be many civilizations from different geographies say Asia, Africa who would have set these systems which would have then be followed by the Babylonians thereafter!
To give an example some part of Asia say India, has days called Adityavaar(Aditya means sun), Somvaar, Mangalvaar, Budhvaar, Guruvaar, Shukravaar, Shanivaar. Here "vaar" means day and the other part of the word pays it own homage to the corresponding planets and their gods.
That's about it for the curious mind now. Until next time, let the curious mind wander!
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