DAYS OF THE WEEK

The 'days of the week' in various world languages can be classified as either planetary or numerical, both of which may have the names of one or more days changed due to religious or secular reasons. Sunday is often named "Lord" while Saturday is often named "Sabbath" or "washing day". The numerical days may associate day one with Sunday as in Hebrew, or may associate day one with Monday as in Russian and other Slavic languages. The days of the planetary week are named for the Sun, Moon, and five visible planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, which were named in turn for Roman gods with the same names. The Germanic languages, including English, substitute Nordic gods with similar characteristics for many of the Roman gods, although the Nordic gods themselves do not represent planets.
The English names for the days of the week derive from the Anglo-Saxon deities stemming from the indigenous pantheon of the Anglo-Saxons. An exception to this is Saturday, which takes its name from the Roman deity Saturn. To varying extents, most regions with dominant Germanic languages practice a similar naming convention, basing most of their week days in recognition of their native Germanic deities.
''Saturday'' and ''Sunday'' are commonly called the weekend and are days of rest and recreation in most western cultures. The other five days are then known as weekdays. ''Friday'' and ''Saturday'' are the days of rest in Muslim and Jewish cultures, respectively. The biblical Sabbath lasts from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.
Sunday was the first day in the astrological week, in the Hebrew week, and in the Ecclesiastical Latin week of the first millennium. Sunday still begins the week in the United States and to some extent in other English-speaking countries.
In many other countries, including most of Europe, South America, and parts of Asia, Monday is now considered the first day of the week. This agrees with the international standard for date and time representation, ISO 8601, which defines Monday as the first day of the week and Sunday the last.

Contents

Origins of the week

Order

First day of the week

Names

Germanic languages

Romance languages

Celtic languages

Christianization

Japanese & Korean

Chinese

Etymology

Tables

Planetary

Numerical

Notes

See also

References

External links

Origins of the week

Various sources point to the seven day week originating in ancient Babylonia or Sumer, with the planetary week originating in Hellenistic Egypt. It has been suggested that a seven day week might be much older, deriving from early human observation that there are seven celestial objects (the five visible planets plus the Sun and the Moon) which move in the night sky relative to the fixed stars.^[1] Seven days is also the approximate time between the principal phases of the Moon (new, first half, full, last half). In any event, a seven day week based on heavenly luminaries eventually diffused both East and West, to the Romans via the Greeks, and to the Japanese via Manicheans, Indians and Chinese.
The earliest known reference in Chinese writings is attributed to Fan Ning, who lived in the late 4th century, while diffusions via India are documented with the writings of the Chinese Buddhist monk Yi Jing and the Ceylonese or Central Asian Buddhist monk Bu Kong of the 8th century. The Chinese transliteration of the planetary system was soon brought to Japan by the Japanese monk Kobo Daishi; surviving diaries of the Japanese statesman Fujiwara Michinaga show the seven day system in use in Heian Period Japan as early as 1007. In Japan, the seven day system was kept in use (for astrological purposes) until its promotion to a full-fledged (Western-style) calendrical basis during the Meiji era.
The seven day week is known to have been unbroken for almost two millennia via the Alexandrian, Julian, and Gregorian calendars. The date of Easter Sunday can be traced back through numerous computistic tables to an Ethiopic copy of an early Alexandrian table beginning with the Easter of 311 as described by Otto Neugebauer in ''Ethiopic astronomy and computus''. Only one Roman date with an associated day of the week exists from the first century and it agrees with the modern sequence, if properly interpreted (see below). Jewish dates with a day of the week do not survive from this early period.

Order

The week as we know it was introduced around the 1^st century. It gradually replaced the 8-day Roman nundinal cycle previously in use, and became fully integrated into the calendar (through Christianity) by order of Constantine I in AD 321. The order of the days was explained by Vettius Valens and Dio Cassius (and Chaucer gave the same explanation in his ''Treatise on the Astrolabe''). According to these authors, it was a principle of astrology that the heavenly bodies presided, in succession, over the hours of the day. The Ptolemaic system asserts that the order of the heavenly bodies, from the farthest to the closest to the Earth, is: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. (This order was first established by the Greek Stoics.)
In astrological theory, not only the days of the week, but the hours of the day are dominated by the seven luminaries. If the first hour of a day is dominated by Saturn (), then the second hour is dominated by Jupiter (), the third by Mars (), and so on, so that the sequence of planets repeats every seven hours. Therefore, the twenty-fifth hour, which is the first hour of the following day, is dominated by the Sun; the forty-ninth hour, which is the first hour of the next day, by the Moon. Thus, if a day is labelled by the planet which dominates its first hour, then Saturn's day is followed by the Sun's day, which is followed by the Moon's day, and so forth, as shown below.
According to Vettius Valens, the first hour of the day began at sunset, which follows Greek and Babylonian convention. He also states that the light and dark halves of the day were presided over by the heavenly bodies of the first hour of each half. This is confirmed by a Pompeian graffito which calls 6 February 60 a Sunday, even though by modern reckoning it is a Wednesday. Thus this graffito used the daylight naming convention of Valens whereas the nighttime naming convention of Valens agrees with the modern astrological reckoning, which names the day after the ruler of the first daylight hour.
These two overlapping weeks continued to be used by Alexandrian Christians during the fourth century, but the days in both were simply numbered 1-7. Although names of gods were not used, the week beginning on Wednesday was named in Greek ''ton theon'' ([day] of the gods), as used by the late fourth-century editor of the Easter letters of Bishop Athanasius, and in a table of Easter dates for 311–369 that survives in an Ethiopic copy. These overlapping weeks are still used in the Ethiopic computus. Each of the days of the week beginning on Sunday is called a "Day of John" whereas each of the days of the week beginning on Wednesday is called a "tentyon", a simple transcription of the Greek ''ton theon''.

Hour:	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	Luminary → name
Day 1	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Saturn → Saturday
Day 2	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Sun → Sunday
Day 3	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Moon → Monday
Day 4	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mars → Tuesday
Day 5	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Mercury → Wednesday
Day 6	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Jupiter → Thursday
Day 7	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Saturn	Jupiter	Mars	Sun	Venus	Mercury	Moon	Venus → Friday

The same order can be derived "geometrically" from an acute heptagram, the {7/3} star polygon (as 24 mod 7 = 3). The luminaries are arranged in the same Ptolemaic/Stoic order around the points of the heptagram. Tracing the unicursal line from one planet to the next gives the order of the weekdays.
Aleister Crowley (notwithstanding his mistaken use of the term ''hex''agram) in ''The Book of Thoth'' (1944) (Pt. 1, Ch. 1) states that:
:''It is believed that this neat discovery is due to the late G. H. Frater D.D.C.F.''
According to some sources, however, the 'weekday heptagram' is considerably older:
:''It was with the adoption and widespread use of the seven-day week throughout the Hellenistic world of mixed cultures that this heptagram was created.'' ^[2]

First day of the week

According to the Bible, God created the Earth in six days, and rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath, i.e. Saturday. This made Sunday the first day of the week, while Saturdays were sanctified for celebration and rest. After the week was adopted in Early Christian Europe, Sunday remained the first day of the week, but also gradually displaced Saturday as the day of celebration and rest, being considered the Lord's Day. In some places Sunday thus came to be viewed as the last day of the week.
The variation is evident from names of the days in some languages — in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Church Latin and Portuguese, some days are simply called by their number starting from Sunday, e.g. Monday is called "Second day" etc. In other languages, like Slavic languages, days are also called after their ordinal numbers, but starting from Monday, making Tuesday the "Second day".

Names

:''For personal names taken from the days of the week, see Akan names.''

Germanic languages

In English all the days of the week are named after the ruling luminary, with most of the names coming from Germanic deities, such as Wodan (Wednesday) and Thor (Thursday). Sunday and Monday are named directly from the Sun and Moon.
Saturday is the only day named directly after a Roman god, though the Germanic god associated with each day is generally a syncretic calque of the corresponding divinity from the Roman calendar. Other Germanic languages generally follow the same pattern, although the German for Wednesday is Mittwoch (mid-week) and Dutch is the only other that preserves all the astronomical names.
Icelandic is notably divergent, maintaining only the Sun and Moon (''sunnudagur'' and ''mánudagur'' respectively), while dispensing with the names of the explicitly heathen gods in favor of a combination of numbered days and days whose names are linked to pious or domestic routine (''föstudagur'', "Fasting Day" and ''laugardagur'', "Washing Day").

Romance languages

In most Romance languages, such as Italian, Spanish, French and Romanian, the names of the days ''except Saturday and Sunday'' come from Roman gods via Latin. The Roman (Latin) names of the days are still used in some English courts such as the House of Lords.^[3].

Celtic languages

Welsh, the closest living language to that of Roman Britain, faithfully preserves all the Latin names, even though the language itself is not directly descended from Latin.
In Irish, the Latin names are used for Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. Three days are named for the traditional Roman Catholic days of fasting and abstinence. Wednesday is "the first fast", ''An Chéadaoin'', Friday "the fast", ''An Aoine'', leaving Thursday as "the day between two fasts", ''An Déardaoin''. Sunday is ''An Domhnach'', "the Lord['s day]".

Christianization

The early Christian Church was uncomfortable using names based on pagan gods, and introduced a simple numerical nomenclature which persists in some European languages such as Portuguese and Greek, although in Slavic languages the numbering starts on Monday rather than Sunday (anticipating ISO 8601). The Christian names are derived from Hebrew, which numbers all days of the week beginning with "First day" for Sunday but ending with the "Sabbath" for Saturday. Arabic names are also derived from Hebrew, except Friday (the Muslim day of prayer) is named the "gathering day".

Japanese & Korean

In Japanese and Korean, Sunday and Monday are named after the Sun and Moon, while the other five days are translated using the names of the five classical planets, which themselves are named using the Five Elements of traditional Chinese philosophy (in a different order). For example, Mercury is called "Planet of Water" in Japanese and Korean, and Wednesday (Mercury's day in the Romance languages) is called "day of water". These names of days of the week were borrowed from Chinese, but are no longer used in China. These names were not widely used in daily Japanese or Korean life until being adopted during the Korean period as corresponding to the Western terms.

Chinese

In modern Chinese, days of the week are numbered from one to six, except Sunday. Literally, the Chinese term of Sunday means "week day" (星期日 or 星期天). Monday is named literally "week one" in Chinese, Tuesday is "week two", and so on. However, China adopted the Western calendar, putting Sunday at the beginning of the calendar week, and Saturday (星期六, meaning "week six" in Chinese) at the end.
Another Chinese numbering system, found more in spoken Chinese than in written, refers to Sunday as the "day of worship" (礼拜日 or 礼拜天) and numbers the other days "first [day after] worship" (Monday) through "sixth [day after] worship" (Saturday). The Chinese word used for "worship" is associated with Christian and Muslim worship, and the system's use may be connected with the spread of Christianity.

Etymology

Remnants of the Germanic deities remain in the English language names for days of the week, as (more or less) calques of the Roman names:

★ 'Sunday': The name Sunday comes from the Old English ''sunnandæg'', meaning "Day of the Sun". This is a translation of the Latin phrase ''Dies Solis''. English, like most of the Germanic languages, preserves the original pagan/sun associations of the day. Many other European languages, including all of the Romance languages, have changed its name to the equivalent of "the Lord's day" (based on Ecclesiastical Latin ''Dies Dominica''). Compare Spanish ''Domingo''.

★ 'Monday': The name Monday comes from the Old English ''Mōnandæg'', meaning "Day of the Moon". This is likely based off of a translation of the Latin name ''Dies Lunae'' (cf. Romance language versions of the name, e.g., French ''Lundi'', Spanish, ''Lunes'').

★ 'Tuesday': Tuesday comes from the Old English ''Tiwesdæg'', meaning "Tyr's day." Tyr (in Old English, ''Tiw'', ''Tew'' or ''Tiu'') was a god of combat and heroic glory in Germanic paganism. The name of the day is based on Latin ''Dies Martis'', "Day of Mars" (the Roman war god); compare French ''Mardi'' and Spanish ''Martes''.

★ 'Wednesday': This name comes from the Old English ''Wodnesdæg'' meaning the day of the Germanic god Woden (Wodan), more commonly known as Odin, who was the highest god in Norse mythology, and a prominent god of the Anglo-Saxons (and other places) in England until about the seventh century. It is based on Latin ''Dies Mercurii'', "Day of Mercury"; compare French ''Mercredi'' and Spanish ''Miércoles''. The connection between Mercury and Odin is more strained than the other syncretic connections. The usual explanation is that both Odin and Mercury were considered psychopomps, or leaders of souls, in their respective mythologies. Also, in Old Norse myth, Odin, like Mercury, is associated with poetic and musical inspiration.

★ 'Thursday': The name Thursday comes from the Old English ''Þunresdæg'', meaning the day of Þunor, commonly known in Modern English as Thor, the Germanic god of thunder. It is based on the Latin ''Dies Iovis'', "Day of Jupiter"; compare French ''Jeudi'' and Spanish ''Jueves''. In the Roman pantheon, Jupiter was the chief god, who seized and maintained his power on the basis of his thunderbolt (''Fulmen'').

★ 'Friday': The name Friday comes from the Old English ''Frigedæg'', meaning the day of Frige, the Germanic goddess of beauty, who is a later incarnation of the Norse goddess Frigg, but also potentially connected to the Goddess Freyja. It is based on the Latin ''Dies Veneris'', "Day of Venus"; compare French ''Vendredi'' and Spanish ''Viernes''. Venus was the Roman god of beauty, love and sex.

★ 'Saturday': Saturday is the only day of the week to retain its Roman origin in English, named after the Roman god Saturn associated with the Titan Cronos, father of Zeus and many Olympians. In Latin it was ''Dies Saturni'', "Day of Saturn"; compare French ''Samedi'' and Spanish ''Sábado'', which come from ''Sambata Dies'' (Day of the Sabbath).
What is different is that the gods in question (except Saturn) don't appear to rule over the planets involved. However, as shown above, they correspond to some extent to Roman gods that rule over the respective planets.

Tables

:''The (suggested) purpose of these tables is to show how far different languages preserve the associations with the ruling luminaries and the Church's numbering of the days. (That is, 'not' to list the names in "every" language: Wiktionary entries for the day names offer such lists – click on the links in the header row.)''

Planetary

Day
Luminary & symbol	Sun Sun	Moon Moon	Mars Mars	Mercury Mercury	Jupiter Jupiter	Venus Venus	Saturn Saturn
Latin
Italian	(1)						(2)
Spanish	(1)						(2)
Romanian	(1)						(2)
French	(1)						(2)
Catalan	(1)						(2)
Interlingua	(1)						(2)
Ido							(2)
Esperanto	(1)						(2)
Welsh
Cornish	Dy Sul	Dy Lun	Dy Meurth	Dy Mergher	Dy Yow	Dy Gwener	Dy Sadorn
Breton	Disul	Dilun	Dimeurzh	Dimerc’her	Diriaou	Digwener	Disadorn
Irish	(1)
Scots Gaelic	(1)
Manx	Jedoonee (1)	Jelune	Jemayrt	Jecrean	Jerdrein	Jeheiney	Jesarn
Old High German	Sunnuntag	Mānetag	Zeistag ''Ziu's day''	Wodanstag ''Wodan's day''	Donerestag ''Donar's day''	Friatag ''Freia's day''	Sambaztag (2)
German				(3)			(2) or Sonnabend
Dutch	''Sun day''	''Moon day''	''Thing day''	''Woden's day''	''Thunder day''	''Freia day''
Old Norse	Sunnundagr ''Sunna's day''	Mánandagr	Tysdagr ''Tyr's day''	Óðensdagr ''Odin's day''	Þorsdagr ''Thor's day''	Friádagr ''Freyja's day''	Laugardagr (4)
Norwegian, Bokmål							(4)
Norwegian, Nynorsk							(4)
Danish							(4)
Swedish							(4)
Finnish				(3)			(4)
Albanian
Old English	Sunnandæg ''Sunne's day''	Mōnandæg	Tiwesdæg ''Tiw's day''	Wodnesdæg ''Woden's day''	Þunresdæg ''Thunor's day''	Frigesdæg ''Frige's day''	Sæternesdæg
Tagalog	(1)						(2)
Sanskrit & Hindi	रविवार Ravi day (Sun)	सोमवार Soma day (Moon)	मंगलवार Mangala day (Mars)	बुधवार Budha day (Mercury)	गुरूवार Guru day (Jupiter)	शुक्रवार Shukra day (Venus)	शनिवार Shani day (Saturn)
Bengali	Ravibaar Ravi day (Sun)	Sombaar Soma day (Moon)	Mangalbaar Mangala day (Mars)	Budhbaar Budha day (Mercury)	Brihashpatibaar Brihashpati day (Jupiter)	Shukrabaar Shukra day (Venus)	Shanibaar Shani day (Saturn)
Gujarati	રવિવાર Ravi day	સોમવાર Soma day	મંગળવાર Mangala day	બુધવાર Budha day	ગુરૂવાર Guru day	શુક્રવાર Shukra day	શનિવાર Shani day
Tamil	ஞாயிற்று கிழமை Nyāyitru day	திங்கட் கிழமை Thingat day	செவ்வாய்க ்கிழமை Sevvāi day	புதன்க் கிழமை Budhan day	வியாழக் கிழமை Vyāzha day	வெள்ளிக் கிழமை Velli day	சனிக் கிழமை Shani day
Telugu	Aadi day	Soma day	Mangala day	Budha day	Bestha/Guru/Lakshmi day	Shukra day	Shani day
Thai	วันอาทิตย์ (Sun day) (Colour: Red)	วันจันทร์ (Moon day) (Colour: Yellow)	วันอังคาร (Mars (planet) day) (Colour: Pink)	วันพุธ (Mercury (planet) day) (Colour: Green)	วันพฤหัสบดี (Jupiter (planet) day) (Colour: Orange)	วันศุกร์ (Venus (planet) day) (Colour: Blue)	วันเสาร์ (Saturn (planet) day) (Colour: Purple)
Japanese (5)	にちようび (Sun day)	げつようび (Moon day)	かようび (Fire planet day) (Mars)	すいようび (Water planet day) (Mercury)	もくようび (Wood planet day) (Jupiter)	きんようび (Metal planet day) (Venus)	どようび (Earth planet day) (Saturn)
Korean (5)	(Sun's day)	(Moon's day)	(Fire planet day) (Mars)	(Water planet day) (Mercury)	(Wood planet day) (Jupiter)	(Metal planet day) (Venus)	(Earth planet day) (Saturn)
Tibetan	(Sun's day)	(Moon's day)	(Fire planet day) (Mars)	(Water planet day) (Mercury)	(Wood planet day) (Jupiter)	(Metal planet day) (Venus)	(Earth planet day) (Saturn)
Mongolian (arga)	nyam (planet Sun)	davaa (planet Moon)	myagmar (planet Mars)	lkhagva (planet Mercury)	pürev (planet Jupiter)	baasan (planet Venus)	byamba (planet Saturn)
Mongolian (bilig)	adiya (planet Sun)	sumiya (planet Moon)	angarag (planet Mars)	bud (planet Mercury)	barhasbadi (planet Jupiter)	sugar (planet Venus)	sanchir (planet Saturn)
Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday

Numerical

Day
Ecclesiastical Latin	''Dominica'' (1) (Lord's [Day])	''Feria Secunda '' (Second weekday)	''Feria Tertia '' (Third weekday)	''Feria Quarta '' (Fourth weekday)	''Feria Quinta '' (Fifth weekday)	''Feria Sexta '' (Sixth weekday)	''Sabbatum'' (2) (Sabbath)
Hebrew	יום ראשון (First day)	יום שני (Second day)	יום שלישי (Third day)	יום רביעי (Fourth day)	יום חמישי (Fifth day)	יום שישי (Sixth day)	שבת (2) (Sabbath)
Arabic	يوم الأحد yaum al-ahad (first day)	يوم الإثنين yaum al-ithnayn (second day)	يوم الثُّلَاثاء yaum ath-thulatha (third day)	يوم الأَرْبعاء yaum al-arbiaa (fourth day)	يوم الخَمِيس yaum al-khamees (fifth day)	يوم الجُمْعَة yaum al-jumuah (meeting day)	يوم السَّبْت yaum as-sabt (2) (sabbath day)
Portuguese	(1) (Lord's day)	(Second weekday)	(Third weekday)	(Fourth weekday)	(Fifth weekday)	(Sixth weekday)	(2) (Sabbath)
Greek	Κυριακή (1) ''Kyriakí'' (Lord's day)	Δευτέρα ''Dheftéra'' (Second)	Τρίτη ''Tríti'' (Third)	Τετάρτη ''Tetárti'' (Fourth)	Πέμπτη ''Pémpti'' (Fifth)	Παρασκευή ''Paraskeví'' (Preparation)	Σάββατο (2) ''Sávato'' (Sabbath)
Georgian	კვირა ''Kvira'' (Lord)	ორშაბათი ''Oršabat'i'' (two days after Sabbath)	სამშაბათი ''Samšabat'i'' (three days after Sabbath)	ოთხშაბათი ''Ot'xšabat'i'' (four days after Sabbath)	ხუთშაბათი ''Xut'šabat'i'' (five days after Sabbath)	პარასკები ''Paraskevi'' (Preparation)	შაბათი ''Šabat'i'' (2) (Sabbath)
Persian	''Yekshanbeh'' (First day)	''Doshanbeh'' (Second day)	''Seshanbeh'' (Third day)	''Chaharshanbeh'' (Fourth day)	''Panjshanbeh'' (Fifth day)	''Adineh'' (Day of Faith)	''Shanbeh'' (Night and Day) ''shabAneh rooz''
Kazakh	zheksenbe (first day)	duysenbe (second day)	seysenbe (third day)	sersenbe (fourth day)	beysenbe (fifth day)	zhuma (week)	senbe (Night and Day) ''shabAneh rooz''
Turkish	(bazaar day)			(fourth day)	(fifth day)	(weekday)
Vietnamese	chủ nhật ("Master's day") or chúa nhật (1) (Lord's day)	(ngày) thứ hai (Second day)	(ngày) thứ ba (Third day)	(ngày) thứ tư (Fourth day)	(ngày) thứ năm (Fifth day)	(ngày) thứ sáu (Sixth day)	(ngày) thứ bảy (Seventh day)
Icelandic	(6) (Sun day)	(6) (Moon day)	(Third day)	(3) (Mid week day)	(Fifth day)	(Fast day)	(4) (Washing day)
Estonian	(Holy day)			(Third) or ''Kesknädal'' (3)	(Fourth)	(ON ''Friádagr'')	(4)
Polish	(No work)	(After no-work)	(Second)	(3) (Middle)	(Fourth)	(Fifth)	(2)
Czech	(No work)	(also ''Pondělek'') (After no-work)	(also ''Úterek'') (Second)	(3) (Middle)	(Fourth)	(Fifth)	(2)
Croatian	(No work)	(After no-work)	(Second)	(3) (Middle)	(Fourth)	(Fifth)	(2)
Slovenian	(No work)	(After no-work)	(Second)	(3) (Middle)	(Fourth)	(Fifth)	(2)
Macedonian	недела (No work)	понеделник (After no-work)	вторник (Second)	среда (3) (Middle)	четврток (Fourth)	петок (Fifth)	сабота (2) (Sabbath)
Hungarian	(Market day)	(Head of the week)	(Second)	(3) (Middle) < Slavic	(Fourth) < Slavic	(Fifth) < Slavic	(2)
Lithuanian (7)	(Seventh day)	(First day)	(Second day)	(Third day)	(Fourth day)	(Fifth day)	(Sixth day)
Russian	''voskresen'ye'' (resurrection)	''ponedel'nik'' (after no-work)	''vtornik'' (second)	(3) ''sreda'' (middle)	''chetverk'' (fourth)	''pyatnitsa'' (fifth)	''subbota'' (sabbath) (2)
Ukrainian	''nedilya'' (no-work)	''ponedilok'' (after no-work)	''vivtorok'' (second)	(3) ''sereda'' (middle)	''chetver'' (fourth)	''p'yatnitsya'' (fifth)	''subota'' (sabbath) (2)
Chinese (Standard Mandarin transcription in Hanyu Pinyin)	''xīngqī rì'' (week: day) or ''xīngqí tiān'' (week: day)	''xīngqī yī'' (week: 1)	''xīngqī èr'' (week: 2)	''xīngqī sān'' (week: 3)	''xīngqī sì'' (week: 4)	''xīngqī wǔ'' (week: 5)	''xīngqī liù'' (week: 6)
Mongolian (numerical)	buten sain odor (full weekend)	neg deh odor (first day)	hoyor dahi odor (second day)	gurav dahi odor (third day)	dorov deh odor (fourth day)	tav dahi odor (fifth day)	hagas sain odor (half weekend)
ISO 8601 #	7	1	2	3	4	5	6
Swahili[4]	jumapili (second [day of the] week)	jumatatu (third [day of the] week)	jumanne (fourth [day of the] week)	jumatano (fifth [day of the] week)	alhamisi (five) Arabic	ijumaa (assembly) Arabic	jumamosi (first [day of the] week)
Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday

Notes

#In Ecclesiastical Latin, the Romance languages, Greek, and the Gaelic languages, Sunday is named after the "Lord", because it is the day of the Resurrection of Jesus.
#The Romance languages, Old High German and German, and the Slavic languages have words for Saturday that are derived from the Hebrew Sabbath, via late Greek ''Sambaton''. German also has a second, Christianised name meaning "Eve of Sunday" (parallel to "Christmas Eve", for example). An alternative to the standard ''Samstag'' in northern dialects of German is ''Sonnabend'' ("Sun-evening").
#German and Finnish call Wednesday, prosaically, "mid-week"; Estonian ''Kesknädal'' is equivalent, with "Third day" (''kolmapäev'') also used; Icelandic uses "Mid-week day"; Polish, Russian, etc. have "Middle".
#Old Norse, Swedish (and other North Germanic languages), and Finnish and Estonian (Finnic languages) call Saturday "Washday" or "Bathday", as it was the traditional day for washing and bathing.
#The Japanese names are the same as the traditional way days of week were named in Chinese. The Korean names are also the same but written in Hangul.
#Icelandic ''sunnudagur'' and ''mánudagur'' are astronomical, persisting presumably because they make no explicit reference to pagan gods.
#See Lithuanian calendar.

See also

★ Calculating the day of the week

★ Week

References

1. The Nine Planets: Planetary Linguistics: Days of the Week
2. Symbol 29:16
3. United Kingdom House of Lords Decisions
4. Swahili days, months, dates


★ Falk, Michael (1999). "Astronomical Names for the Days of the Week", ''Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada'', '93':122-133.

★ Cecil H. Brown, Naming the days of the week: A cross-language study of lexical acculturation, ''Current Anthropology'' '30' (1989) 536-550.

★ Neugebauer, Otto (1979). ''Ethiopic astronomy and computus'', Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische klasse, sitzungsberichte, '347' (Vienna)

★ Days of the Week in Chinese, Japanese & Vietnamese

External links

★ Planetary Linguistics and the Days of the Week -- The Definitive Site

★ Days of the week and months of the year in many different languages

★ Names of Weekdays at TheScian.com Science Wiki

★ Days of the Week in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese (much history of Western systems too)

★ The Days of the Week

★ The days of the week in various languages