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Trina Thomas, age 12, of Kingston, Ont., Canada, for her question:     


HOW DID THE WEEKDAYS GET THEIR NAMES?

Last week we traced the names of the months way back to the Roman calendar, invented by Julius Caesar. Now it seems only right and proper to investigate the names of the weekdays. These stories also take us back through past historic events. They include the conquering Romans and also the fearsome Vikings.

Several early civilizations invented a seven day week as a convenient quarter for the lunar month. The Romans, who named our months, chose to name the days for seven heavenly bodies  the sun, the moon and the five visible planets. Previously they had named the planets for five of their favorite gods and goddesses.

These Latin names for the weekdays were adopted into our language some 2,000 years ago, when the Romans conquered most of Europe. But about 1,000 years. later, Europe was subdued again, this time by the plundering Vikings of Scandinavia.    These Norsemen also had a seven day week  with names chosen from their own favorite gods and goddesses.

Our entire language is a rich tapestry, woven from these and other historic sources. For example, the old Moonday sounded similar to the Latin lunae dies, sacred to the moon goddess Luna. The various threads merged to give us a good name for Monday.

The Romans named the sixth planet from the sun Saturn   and borrowed the same name for one of their weekdays. It survived and became our Saturday. Our Sunday survived from their name honoring the sun. Other old weekday names were replaced by those brought by the invading Vikings.

The Roman day of Mars, their god of war, was renamed for Tiu, the Viking god of war  and became Tuesday. Wednesday was renamed for Woden, king of the Viking gods. Thor, the Viking god of thunder, replaced the Roman Jupiter  and became Thursday.

Venus was the old Roman goddess of love. A planet and a day of the week were named in her honor. This day was changed to honor Frigga, wife of Woden and the Norse goddess of love. It became our Friday.    

Maybe we lost something when the Viking names were adopted. The neat Roman system was based on the sun and moon and five visible planets, which were named for their deities. The Vikings honored the sun and moon but ignored the planets. However, like the Romans, their weekday names also honored the king of the gods, the gods of war and thunder  plus the goddess of motherly love.

 

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