Days of the Week

So we now finish up the days of the week, and the one thing I want you to take away from the past week is the Latin names for the days of the week. The moment calendar used today (the Gregorian Calendar) was a revision of the Julian Calendar which was based on the old Roman calendar. What this calendar gave us was the 7-day week. And the ancient Romans also thought that there were 7 celestial bodies orbiting around the Earth: the Moon, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which also happen to be what the Romans named the days of the week after.

Saturday

It's Saturday! And you know that this means we'll look at Saturday in other languages.

French: samedi
Italian: Sabato
Spanish: Sabado
German: Samstag
Latin: dies Saturni

English and Latin have the same root, the Roman god Saturn, while the others refer to the day of Sabbath, which has always been Saturday. East Germans sometimes use Sonnabend, which literally means Sunday Eve.