Origins of our day names
The days of the week are based on Greek mythology. The original Greek and Roman naming has changed over the years to match the equivalent gods of north European mythology.
But first, let's go back to the Egyptian astronomers who identified seven celestial bodies: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the moon. They believed these revolved in Heaven about the fixed Earth and stars.
Having determined these bodies were pretty mysterious and therefore important, they had little to do other than amuse themselves by sitting on the banks of the Nile, contemplating the concept of 'time'. They divided the daylight time into 12 hours; a convenient number which divides cleanly by 2, 3, 4 and 6. The night time was also divided by 12, but the length of day 'hours' and night 'hours' would differ according to the season.
The names of the days of the week in various world languages can be classified as either numerical or planetary, both of which may have the names of one or more days changed for religious or secular reasons. As exceptions, Sunday is often named "Lord" (for Lord's Day) while Saturday is often named "Sabbath" or "washing day". Numerically named days may associate day one with Sunday as in Arabic, Hebrew and Portuguese, or may associate day one with Monday as in Russian and other Slavic languages. Planetary names for the days are derived from the Sun, Moon, and five visible planets (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn), which in turn were named for Roman gods with the same names. The Germanic languages, including English, substitute Nordic gods with similar characteristics for many of the Roman gods, although the Nordic gods themselves never were associated with the planets.
The English names for the days of the week derive from the Anglo-Saxon deities stemming from the indigenous pantheon of the Anglo-Saxons. Thursday and Friday come from Scandinavian deities Thor and Freyja. An exception to this is Saturday, which takes its name from the Roman deity Saturn. To varying extents, most regions with dominant Germanic languages practice a similar naming convention, basing most of their week days in recognition of their native Germanic deities.
The seven-day workweek is generally comprised of five working days ("weekdays") and two non-working days (the "weekend"), though which days of the week are which varies from country to country. Which day of the week is the "first" day also varies, even among countries that share the same weekend days.
Sources:
Seiyaku and
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
