Where Do The Days Of The Week Come From

Ever wondered why we call it Monday or Friday? Let's dive into the week's wild history, it's like a time-traveling scavenger hunt!

Meet the Romans

Our weekdays' story starts with the Romans, those clever engineers who brought us concrete and aqueducts. They had seven days, just like us, but they didn't name them after planets or gods. No, they named them after days of the week!

I know, right? It's like naming your kids 'Monday' and 'Tuesday'. But hey, they were Romans, they did things differently.

Planetary Takeover

Fast forward to the Middle Ages, the Romans were gone, but their days stuck around. Then, in swooped the Anglo-Saxons, who named the days after the planets and gods they knew. Boom! We got Monday (Moon's day), Tuesday (Mars' day), Wednesday (Mercury's day), Thursday (Jupiter's day), and Friday (Venus' day).

But what about Saturday and Sunday? Those are the Romans' Saturn's day and Sun's day, hanging out with the cool kids.

Where Did The Day Names Come From at Lynda Rahman blog

Weekend Warriors

Now, you might be thinking, "What about Saturday and Sunday? They're not named after gods or planets!" Well, that's because they're the weekend warriors, the party animals of the week.

The Romans named Saturday after Saturn, their god of agriculture and harvest. But the real fun starts with Sunday. The Romans named it after their sun god, Sol. But get this, in many Romance languages, like Spanish and Italian, Sunday is still called 'the day of the sun'!

Days Of The Week In Latin

Fun Facts!

Did you know that in some languages, Monday is 'the first day'? Like in French, it's 'lundi', which literally means 'first day'! And in Spanish, it's 'lunes', which also means 'moon', but hey, they're close!

And here's a fun one, in some African languages, the days of the week are named after the order they appear in the week. For example, in Swahili, the first day is 'Jumapili', the second day is 'Jumatatu', and so on. Talk about keeping it simple!

So there you have it, folks! The wild, wacky, and wonderful history of our weekdays. Next time you're dreading Monday, remember, it could be worse, you could be living in a world where every day is called 'First Day'!