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.

Tuesday

Tuesday in other languages:


French - mardi
Spanish - martes
Italian - martedi
German - Dienstag
Latin - dies Martis


As you can see, all the Romance languages are named after Mars, the Roman god of war and the fourth planet in the solar system. However, English and German are different. Who or what are they named after?


In English, Tuesday is named after the Norse god Tyr, who is the Norse god of combat. So in a way, Tuesday is named after the Roman god Mars, but with a Norse twist.


In German, there is some question that it may be named after Thingus, a Latinized version of a German god who may or may not be the same as Tiw or Tyr in Norse mythology.