Days of The Week

Diambil dari buku The Golden Book Encyclopedia, tentang kisah asal-usul nama-nama hari dalam satu minggu menurut legenda Yunani: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The seven days of the week are named in honor of the sun, the moon, and five of the planets. The five planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. These were the only planets the people of long ago knew about. The sun, moon, and these five planets were supposed to take turns ruling over the days. The seven days from the sun’s day to the sun’s day became the week.

Sunday is the sun’s day. Monday is the moon’s day. Saturday is Saturn’s day. Tuesday is Mars’ day. Wednesday is Mercury’s day. Thursday is Jupiter’s day. And Friday is Venus’ day. “Tuesday,” “Wednesday”, “Thursday,” and “Friday” do not sound at all like “Mars’ day,” “Mercury’s day,” “Jupiter’s day,“ and “Venus’ day.” The names of these four days came about this way:

The planets were named for Roman gods and goddesses. Mars was the Roman god of war. Mercury was the messenger of the gods. Jupiter was the king of the gods. Venus was the goddess of beauty. The old Norse gods and goddesses were very much the same as the Roman ones. But they had different names. Our names Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday came from Norse gods. Tuesday is “Tiu’s day,” Wednesday is “Woden’s day,” Thursday is “Thor’s day,” and “ Friday is “Frigg’s day.”

We cannot change the number of days in a year without getting dates all out of place in the seasons. Our year is made for us by the journey of earth around the sun. We cannot change the length of the day. The day is made for us by the turning of the earth on its axis. But there is no reason why we have to have seven days in a week. We could have any number of days we liked. Five-day, eight-day, and ten-day weeks have all been tried. If the people of long ago had known about Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, we might have ten days in a week instead of seven. But we are so used to seven now that few people would want to change.