The months of the year all have Roman origins yet the days of the week are all named after Anglo Saxon, Danish or Germanic deities...(with the single exception of Saturday). Why aren't the days of the week named after Roman gods or Goddesses too? Why are one lot Roman and the other North European? Why not ALL Roman or all North European? Why the mix?
2006-09-30 11:05:05 · 3 answers · asked by paulmurphy42 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
We have 7 days in the week because the ancients were aware of seven "heavenly bodies": Sun, Moon, and the five planets which they could see.
The Romans were the first to name the days after mythological Gods which had planetary connections, such as Jupiter (chief God), Mars (God of War), and Venus (Goddess of Love).
Along the way, and much later, the Germans (aka Angles/Saxons/ Nordics/etc) replaced some of them with a few heavyweights from their own pantheon and so the days (in English) became a mix of planetary objects and Norse Gods.
In other Romance languages (derived from Latin, not Germanic) the original (Roman) planetary names are often retained. Thus we have:
Sunday From Sun's Day.
Monday From Moon's Day. (Fr:"Lundi" Ital:"Lundei" Sp:"Lunes";(all derived from luna/lunar)
Tuesday From Tewe's Day, a Norse/Germanic female deity.
Was: Mar's Day (Fr: "Mardi" ; Sp: "Martes")You knew that "Mardi Gras" is Fat Tuesday!)
Wednesday From Woden's Day, (aka: Odin's Day), the chief god in Teutonic mythology.
Was: Mercury's Day. (Fr:"Mercredi"Ital:"Mercoledi")
Thursday From Thor's Day. (He's the one that sends bolts into your surge protector and computer.)
Was: Jupiter's Day: "Jove" (Fr: "Jeudi" Sp: "Jeuves")
Friday From Frigg's Day, a rotund Germanic female deity.
Was: Venus' Day. (Fr: "Vendredi" Ital: "Venerdi")
Saturday From Saturn's Day.
2006-09-30 11:20:53 · answer #1 · answered by johnslat 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
This was according to the civlization pioneer period .. Ancient Roman started with giving names to the months of the year , and they used to call days in Numbers 1 ,2 , 11 , 15 , 20 , 30 ...etc.
For the Days of the week , when the North Europian Civilzation got the leadership they needed to name the days so , they gave these names ..
2006-09-30 11:11:42 · answer #2 · answered by Ayman 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because the romans took the names of days from the anglo saxons.
2006-09-30 11:09:44 · answer #3 · answered by cesef1 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋