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.

Thursday

Thursday, the fourth day of the week or the fifth, depending on whether or not your week starts on Monday or on Sunday.


Let's look at Thursday in other languages:


French: jeudi
Italian: giovedi
Spanish: jueves

German: Donnerstag
Latin: dies Iovis


Looking at the Romance languages, they are all named after Jupiter, the supreme Roman god. He is also the god of thunder which leads to ... Thor in old Norse mythology. Yes, Thor was not the supreme Norse god, that was Oden, but because he was also the god of thunder, that's where we got Thursday. Donnerstag is also named after the Germanic Thor.