Emporiblog - The Days Of The Week
First off, a bit of calendar history....
The 7 day calendar is thought to have originated from the Babylonians and the Sumerians around 2000 BC, give or take a century or a millennia. They figured out how long it took for a Moon to complete each phase and organised their calendars appropriately, adding 1 or 2 days to the final week of the month as the average full Moon phase is 29.53 days. A 7 day calendar is also observed in the Jewish calendar and was inherited from the Jewish exile to Babylon in about 500 BC. The Roman emperor Constantine also adopted the 7 day calendar in 321 AD after their own Nundinal cycle had fallen out of use.
It was the Romans who then named their days of the week after the 5 plants/stars known to them and 2 of their gods as follows:
Monday - Moon
Tuesday - Mars
Wednesday - Mercury
Thursday - Jupiter
Friday - Venus
Saturday - Saturn
Sunday - Sun
Germanic and Norse adaptation
This might be the one that some of you are more familiar with as in this version the days of the week correspond to a Germanic/Norse Deity and is as follows:
Monday - Mōnandæg for Máni (Sól's brother)
Tuesday - Tīwesdæg for Tiw or Tyr
Wednesday - Wōdnesdæg for Wōden or Odin
Thursday - Þūnresdæg for Thor
Friday - Frīgedæg for Frigg or Freya
Saturday - Sæturnesdæg - Saturn's Day (No Norse/Germanic Deity was assigned to this day)
Sunday - Sunnandæg for Sunna or Sól.
Of course, each day then took on the attributes of the Deity or celestial body that was assigned to them.
I think we'll leave this here!! I hope you've enjoyed this post!! A reminder that the next Full Moon is this Tuesday!
Blessings,
C )0(
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