How did the days of the week get their names?

Answer 1

The ancient Greeks knew that the sun was the source of life on the planet and they gave it prime importance in their thinking. When the Romans later adopted the seven day week they emphasize their respect for the sun by naming the first day of the week for it..."dies solis"..."day of the sun".

If sun is honored on Sunday, it follows that the Moon should be given a place of prominence on Monday. And, indeed, the word for Monday is derived via the ancient Anglo-Saxon/Germanic tongue from the word for Moon, "monandaeg".

The word "Tuesday", however, was derived from a wholly different religious tradition. Tyr or Tiw was the Norse God of War. When the Germanic Angles and Saxon's invaded England in the 500's they suplanted a culture that had been heavily influenced by Rome for several hundred years. The day, Tuesday, had already been named for the Roman God of War, Martius (notice in French, Italian, and Spanish - the word for Tuesday is still derivative of the Roman God - Mardi, Martedi and Martes - respectively). When the Germanic tribes conquered England, they laid their own lexicon over that of the Roman's so that the Norse God of War now supplanted the Roman God of War (after all the Norse God was obviously more potent). Thus they called the day of the God of War tiwesdaeg.

The mid-day of the week is named for the Norse God, Odin. He was also known as Woden or Wotan.

When the Germanic tribes suplanted the resident Roman's of England they also suplanted their Gods. They replaced Jupiter or Jove with Thor. Thus came the name, Thorsdaeg which comes down to modern English speakers as Thursday.

The name of the day is derived from yet another Norse God (in this case a goddess), Frigga. She was believed to be the wife of Odin and was the goddess of marriage and the hearth. The Roman's had named this day for their goddess of beauty, Venus. They called it "dies veneris". When the Germanic tribes invaded England they imposed their goddess upon the day meant to honor Venus. The day was called frigedaeg, it has been corrupted over the centuries (since the 500's) to be "Friday".

Saturday is the only day of the week that retained its Roman origins in the wake of the English invasions of the Angles and Saxons. This may have been because there was no Norse God to roughly correspond to the Roman God of Time and the Harvest, Saturn. The Anglo-Saxons simply adapted the Roman, "dies saturni", making it saterdaeg.

Kind of interesting if you like that sort of thing ...

Answer 2

Don't tell any one, because the liberals have that "separation of church and religion" thing, but the days of the week are all named after old Norse gods/goddesses. As well, several months (Janus for January, for instance) were named after Roman gods/goddesses. Even "electricity" was named after the Greek goddess, Electra.
If you get a good book on etymology, you will quickly find that many things in modern life were named after gods/goddesses, even people's names!

Answer 3

As with many seasonal holiday practices that seem odd or out of place, the names of the days of the week harken back to the indigenous religion of the European people. Under the old lunar calendar, the week was considered to be five days long, begining with Tuesday, originally Tyrsday after the Norse/Germanic god of war and trial by ordeal. Wednesday is named for Odin (or Woden as the Anglo-Saxons knew him), a god of wealth, war, poetry and magic. Thursday is for his son Thor, the defender of the folk and of Asgard. Friday is for Frija or Freyja, a goddess of love, sex, magic and warcraft. Saturday is for her twin brother, Ingunar-Freyr, often personified as the Satyr, a deity of lust, passion, fertility. Sunday and Monday (the day of the sun and the moon) were added after the conversion to the solar calendar with its seven day week.

Answer 4

The norse god thing is new to me but I guess it is the Northern European version of this answer.

The days of the week are named after the planets and are related to Roman deities:
Sunday, Sun (sol)
Monday Moon (lunes)
Tuesday Mercury ( miercoles)
Wednesday Mars (martedi, martes)
Thursday Jupiter/Jove (jovedi)
Friday Venus (venedi, viernes)
Saturday Saturn

The idea was that certain deities or energies ruled certain days and it was tied in with religion and magic.

Answer 5

Okay, because there is so much information, here is a great website that tells all about the days of the week.

http://www.cybersamurai.net/Mythology/nordic_gods/D/Days.htm

Answer 6

Here is a great website to answer your question.

http://webexhibits.org/calendars/week.html