Origin of the Names of the Days of the Week

AN inquiry into the origin of the names of the days of the week, leads us back to the remotest ages and earliest records of antiquity. The division of time into weeks can be derived from nothing else but the events of the first seven days of time, six of labor and one of rest. With the sacred writers, these days are designated by numbers, as first, second, third, etc., except the seventh, which is called the Sabbath. The heathen, however, although they doubtless derived the week from a traditional knowledge of creation, chose to designate the different days by applying to them the names of the heavenly bodies, or the names of their gods. They were at first named after the sun and planets; only six of which were known to the ancients. This was the case with the ancient Egyptians, the inhabitants of India, and the Chinese. Thus we have dies solis, day of the sun, Sunday; dies lunce, day of the moon, Monday; dies Martis, day of Mars, Tuesday; dies Mercurii, day of Mercury, Wednesday; dies Jovis, day of Jupiter, Thursday; dies Veneris, day of Venus, Friday; dies Saturni, day of Saturn, Saturday.

Three of our days, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, plainly enough show their origin from this source. With the others this is not so apparent. From what source then are these other names derived? They have come down to us through the ancient Saxons, who gave to these days the names of their deities.

The "Encyclopedia Americana" is quite full on these points. Under the word Tuesday it says: "Tuesday (Latin dies Martis); the third day of our week, probably so called from the Anglo-Saxon god of war, Tuu, (gen. Tuues, whence the Anglo- Saxon Tuuesdag)." Respecting this god of war, it says: "In the northern mythology, Tuiscon, Taut, Tot, Theot, Tuu, etc., is a god from whom the Gauls and Germans believed themselves descended. . . The ancient Germans revered Tuiscon as a man with a gray beard, clad in the skin of an animal, holding a scepter in his right hand, and stretching out the left with extended fingers. According to Julius Caesar, they offered to him human sacrifices. The name of Tuesday has been derived from this god."

"Wednesday; the fourth day of the week (in Latin, dies Mercurii) . . . The English name is derived from the old Scandinavian deity, Odin or Wodin," whence the name Wodensdag or Wednesday. Respecting this deity, Woden, we read that he was "one of the most powerful deities in the northern mythology. Some have derived him from the Indian Buddha. The ancient Saxons and Thuringians honored him as their god of war."

On the name Thursday, we have this information: "Thursday (in Latin, dies Jovis, whence the French Jeudi); the fifth day of the week, so called from the old Teutonic god of thunder, Thor, the northern Jupiter." From this it appears that this day bears the same name in the Saxon as in the still more ancient Latin, the only difference being in their name of the god Jupiter. Instead of having, with the Latins, the day of Jove, they had the day of Thor, or Thorsdag. Under the word Thor, the Encyclopedia says: "Thor or Tir; the Jupiter of the Germans; the god of thunder, He was represented as an old man with a long beard, a crown with diverging rays, dressed in a long garment, holding in his right hand a scepter with a lily, and having around his head a circle of stars. Sacrifices were offered to him under oaks; hence the German name thunder-oak. . . . Thursday (day of Thor) has its name from him."

Under the word Friday, it says: "Friday, with the Anglo-Saxon Frigedag, has its name from the wife of Odin, Frea or Friga." Respecting this goddess nothing more is said.

To recapitulate we thus have—

1. Sunday, the day dedicated to, and named after, the sun, by the nations who from the earliest times have worshiped that luminary. The North British Review calls it "The wild solar holiday of all Pagan times." "Verstegan's Antiquities," p. 68, speaking of the idols of our Saxon ancestors, says: "Of these they had many, yet seven among the rest they especially appropriated unto the seven days of the week. . . . Unto the day dedicated unto the especial adoration of the idol of the sun, they gave the name Sunday, as much as to say, the sun's day, or the day of the sun. This idol was placed in a temple, and there adored and sacrificed unto, for that they believed that the sun in the firmament did with, or in, this idol correspond and co-operate."

2. Monday, the day dedicated to the worship of the moon.

3. Tuesday, the day named after the Saxon god Tuiscon.

4. Wednesday, the day in like manner named for the old Saxon god Woden.

5. Thursday, the day dedicated to the god Thor.

6. Friday, so called from the goddess Friga.

7. Saturday, the day named by the ancient heathen from the planet Saturn.

From these facts the Encyclopedia concludes an article on the word week, thus: "The English names of the days of the week are derived from the Saxons, and are partly adopted from the more civilized nations of antiquity."

It may be of interest here to add a paragraph which we find under the word week, in the "Religious Encyclopedia:" "Week, a period of seven days. Under the name of a week, shabait: it is mentioned as far back as the time of the deluge, Gen. 7:4, 10; 8:10, 12; 29:27, 28. It must, therefore, be considered a very ancient division of time, especially as the various nations among whom it has been noticed, for instance, the Nigri in Africa, appear to have received it from the sons of Noah. The enumeration of the days of the week commenced at Sunday. Saturday was the last or seventh, and was the Hebrew Sabbath or day of rest. The Egyptians gave to the days of the week the same names that they assigned to the planets. From the circumstance that the Sabbath was the principal day of the week, the whole period of seven days was likewise called shabat, in Syriac, shabta, in the New Testament, sabbaton and sabbata. The Jews accordingly, in designating the successive days of the week, were accustomed to say, the first day of the Sabbath, that is, of the week; the second day of the Sabbath, that is, Sunday, Monday, etc. Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19."