Weekday names

"Days of the week" redirects here. For the song by Stone Temple Pilots, see Days of the Week (song).

The names of the days of the week from the Roman period have been both named after the seven planets of classical astronomy and numbered, beginning with Monday. In Slavic languages, a numbering system was adopted, but beginning with Monday. There was an even older tradition of names in Ancient Indian Astrology which could arguably be the origin of all these naming systems. All of these systems have been adopted in many languages, with some exceptions resulting from a number of religious and secular considerations.

Weekdays named after planets

History

Between the 1st and 3rd centuries the Roman Empire gradually replaced the eight day Roman nundinal cycle with the seven-day week. The astrological 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 with the Sun (), Venus (), Mercury (), and the moon (), 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 4th 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	Stellar Object → Day
Day 1																									Saturn → Saturday
Day 2																									Sun → Sunday
Day 3																									Moon → Monday
Day 4																									Mars → Tuesday
Day 5																									Mercury → Wednesday
Day 6																									Jupiter → Thursday
Day 7																									Venus → Friday

Greco-Roman tradition

The earliest attestation of a seven day week associated with heavenly luminaries are from Vettius Valens, an astrologer writing ca 170 AD in his Anthologiarum. The order was Sun, Moon, Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Cronos. From Greece the planetary week names passed to the Romans, and from Latin to other languages of southern and western Europe, and to other languages later influenced by them.

Day: (see Irregularities)	Sunday Sōl (Sun)	Monday Luna (English: Moon)	Tuesday Mars (Mars)	Wednesday Mercurius (Mercury)	Thursday Iuppiter (Jupiter)	Friday Venus (Venus)	Saturday Saturnus (Saturn)
Ancient Greek	ἡμέρα Ἡλίου heméra Helíou	ἡμέρα Σελήνης heméra Selénes	ἡμέρα Ἄρεως heméra Áreos	ἡμέρα Ἕρμου heméra Hérmou	ἡμέρα Διός heméra Diós	ἡμέρα Ἀφροδίτης heméra Aphrodítes	ἡμέρα Κρόνου heméra Krónou
Latin	dies Sōlis	dies Lūnae	dies Martis	dies Mercuriī	dies Jovis	dies Veneris	dies Saturnī
Italian	domenica [☉1]	lunedì	martedì	mercoledì	giovedì	venerdì	sabato [♄1]
Portuguese	domingo	segunda-feira	terça-feira	quarta-feira	quinta-feira	sexta-feira	sábado
Spanish	domingo [☉1]	lunes	martes	miércoles	jueves	viernes	sábado [♄1]
Romanian	duminică [☉1]	luni	marţi	miercuri	joi	vineri	sâmbătă [♄1]
French	dimanche [☉1]	lundi	mardi	mercredi	jeudi	vendredi	samedi [♄1]
Galician	domingo [☉1]	luns	martes	mércores	xoves	venres	sábado [♄1]
Catalan	diumenge [☉1]	dilluns	dimarts	dimecres	dijous	divendres	dissabte [♄1]
Friulian	domenie [☉1]	lunis	martars	miercus	joibe	vinars	sabide [♄1]
Sardinian	dominiga [☉1]	lunis	martis	mercuris	giobia	chenabura	sappadu [♄1]
Interlingua	Dominica [☉1]	Lunedi	Martedi	Mercuridi	Jovedi	Venerdi	Sabbato [♄1]
Ido	Sundio	Lundio	Mardio	Merkurdio	Jovdio	Venerdio	Saturdio Ido dicationary
Esperanto	dimanĉo [☉1]	lundo	mardo	merkredo	ĵaŭdo	vendredo	sabato [♄1]
Irish	An Domhnach [☉1] Dé Domhnaigh	An Luan Dé Luain	An Mháirt Dé Máirt	An Chéadaoin [☿2] Dé Céadaoin	An Déardaoin [♃1] Déardaoin	An Aoine [♀1] Dé hAoine	An Satharn Dé Sathairn
Scots Gaelic	Di-Dòmhnaich [☉1]	Di-Luain	Di-Màirt	Di-Ciadain [☿2]	Di-Ardaoin [♃1]	Di-Haoine [♀1]	Di-Sàthairne
Welsh	dydd Sul	dydd Llun	dydd Mawrth	dydd Mercher	dydd Iau	dydd Gwener	dydd Sadwrn
Cornish	Dy Sul	Dy Lun	Dy Meurth	Dy Mergher	Dy Yow	Dy Gwener	Dy Sadorn
Breton	Di'sul	Di'lun	Di'meurzh	Di'merc’her	Di'riaou	Di'gwener	Di'sadorn
Manx	Jedoonee [☉1]	Jelune	Jemayrt	Jecrean	Jerdrein	Jeheiney	Jesarn
Albanian	E diel	E hënë	E martë	E mërkurë	E enjte	E premte	E shtunë
Tagalog	Linggo [☉1]	Lunes	Martes	Miyerkules	Huwebes	Biyernes	Sabado [♃1]

Gaelic-Irish traditions

In pre-Christian Gaelic-Irish society, time was measured in "one-, three-, five-, ten-, or fifteen-day periods; the seven-day week was entirely unknown." (Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, 2003, p. 7). MS. 17, dating from at least 1043, is now held at St. John's College, Oxford. It records five week-day lists, which it names as follows: secundum Hebreos ('Hebrew' days); secundum antiquos gentiles (Roman days of the week);secundum Siluestrum papam (a list derived from the apocryphal Acta Syluestri); secundum Anglos (Anglo-Saxon week-days); secundum Scottos (days of the week 'according to the Irish'). Each term begins with the word Diu, Classical Old Irish for dia, day. Diu, according to Ó Cróinín, "we have a clear reflex of the Indo-European nominative singular, with a lenghtened grade, giving arhaic Old Irish diu; it is suggested that what we have in the Oxford list and in Cormac's Glossary is the oldest form of Old Irish dia, representing the old nominative case of the noun in adverbial usage." (Ó Cróinín, 2003, p. 12).

The names in the Irish list are:

• dies scrol - Sunday. The word scrol is glossed in Sanas Cormaic as Scroll .i. soillsi, unde est aput Scottos diu srol .i. dies solis/Sroll, that is brightness, when 'diu srol' among the Irish, that is Sunday.

• Diu luna - Monday. Ó Cróinín has Diu luna as "represent[ing] the transitioal form between Latin dies lunae and the later, Classical Old Irish dia luain ... a translation of, not a calque on, the Latin ... [It] would seem to reflect a pre-assimilation state in respect of both words" (2003, p. 13), again demonstrating the antiquity of the forms. It is now rendered as Dia luain, Monday.

• Diu mart - Tuesday. "The Irish word perhaps derives from Latin forms where cases other than the genetive were used, e.g., Marte." (2003, p. 15)

• Diu iath - Wednesday. A form unique to Irish, meaning uncertain. See following.

• Diu eathamon - Thursday. A form unique to Irish. Ó Cróinín writes "I suggest that it means simply 'on Thursday' ... it is temporal dat. of an n-stem (nom. sg. etham, gen. sg. ethamon - as in our Oxford list - and acc./dat. sg. ethamain)." (2003, p. 17) He furthermore suggests that etham ('arable land') "may be a noun of agency from ith (gen. sg. etho), with a meaning like corn-maker or some such thing; Diu eathamon might then be a day for sowing seed in a weekly regimen of activities such as we find in Críth Gablach." (2003, p. 17). A "very old" word for Wednesday, Mercúir (borrowed from the Latin (dies) Mercurii), does occur in early Leinster poems but Ó Cróinín is of the belief that Diu eathamon "reflects a still older Irish word for 'Wednesday';".

• Diu triach - Friday. A form unique to Irish, its meaning unclear.

• Diu satur - Saturday. Error for Diu Saturn, because of omission of the n-stroke.

The form Ethomuin is found in Rawlinson B 502.

Germanic languages

The Germanic peoples adapted the system introduced by the Romans but glossed their indigenous gods over the Roman deities (with the exception of Saturday) in a process known as Interpretatio germanica. The date of the introduction of this system is not known exactly, but it must have happened later than AD 200 but before the introduction of Christianity during the 6th to 7th centuries, i.e. during the final phase or soon after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.^[1] This period is later than the Common Germanic stage, but still during the phase of undifferentiated West Germanic. The weekday names in Scandinavian languages were not calqued from Latin directly, but taken from the West Germanic names.

• Sunday: Old English Sunnandæg (pronounced [sun.nan.dæg] or [sun.nan.dæj), meaning "sun's day". 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 and Portuguese domingo, French dimanche, Romanian duminică, Italian domenica and Irish domhnach. In both West Germanic and North Germanic mythology the sun is personified as a goddess, Sunna/Sól.
• Monday: Old English Mōnandæg (pronounced [mon.nan.dæg] or [mon.nan.dæj'), meaning "moon's day". This is likely based on a translation of the Latin name dies lunae (cf. Romance language versions of the name, e.g., French lundi, Spanish lunes, Romanian luni, Italian lunedì, Irish luan). In North Germanic mythology, the moon is personified as a god, Máni.
• Tuesday: Old English Tīwesdæg (pronounced [ti.wes.dæg] or [ti.wes.dæj], meaning "Tiw's day." Tiw (Norse Týr) was a one-handed god associated with single combat and pledges in Norse mythology and also attested prominently in wider Germanic paganism. The name of the day is based on Latin dies Martis, "Day of Mars" (the Roman war god); compare: French mardi, Spanish martes, Romanian marţi, Italian martedì and Irish mairt.
• Wednesday: Old English Wōdnesdæg (pronounced [woːd.nes.dæg] or [woːd.nes.dæj) meaning the day of the Germanic god Wodan (later known as Óðinn among the North Germanic peoples), and a prominent god of the Anglo-Saxons (and other Germanic peoples) in England until about the seventh century. It is based on Latin dies Mercurii, "Day of Mercury"; compare: French mercredi, Spanish miércoles, Romanian miercuri and Italian mercoledì. The connection between Mercury and Odin is more strained than the other syncretic connections. The usual explanation is that both Wodan and Mercury were considered psychopomps, or leaders of souls, in their respective mythologies; both are also associated with poetic and musical inspiration. The Icelandic Miðviku, German Mittwoch and Finnish keskiviikko all mean 'mid-week'.
• Thursday: Old English Þūnresdæg (pronounced [θuːn.res.dæg] or [θuːn.res.dæj]), meaning the Þunor's day. Þunor is commonly known in Modern English as Thor, the god of thunder in Germanic Paganism. Old High German's name for Þunor, Donar, leads to Donnerstag. (The modern German word for "thunder" is still Donner.) The day is based on the Latin dies Iovis, "day of Jupiter"; compare: French jeudi, Spanish jueves, Romanian joi and Italian giovedì. In the Roman pantheon, Jupiter was the chief god, who seized and maintained his power on the basis of his thunderbolt (Fulmen).
• Friday: Old English Frīgedæg (pronounced [fri.je.dæg] or [fri.je.dæj]), meaning the day of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Fríge. The Norse name for the planet Venus was Friggjarstjarna, 'Frigg's star'. It is based on the Latin dies Veneris, "Day of Venus"; compare: French vendredi, Spanish viernes, Romanian vineri and Italian venerdì. Venus was the Roman goddess of beauty, love and sex.
• Saturday: the only day of the week to retain its Roman origin in English, named after the Roman god Saturn associated with the Titan Cronus, father of Zeus and many Olympians. Its original Anglo-Saxon rendering was Sæturnesdæg (pronounced [sæ.tur.nes.dæg] or [sæ.tur.nes.dæj]). In Latin it was dies Saturni, "Day of Saturn"; compare French samedi. The Spanish and Portuguese sábado, the Romanian sâmbătă, and the Italian sabato come from Sabbata dies (Day of the Sabbath). The Scandinavian Lørdag/Lördag deviates significantly as it has no reference to the old norse gods, the latin gods nor the roman gods. It derives from old norse laugardagr, which literary translates to washing-day.

Day: (see Irregularities)	Sunday Sunna/Sól	Monday Mona/Máni	Tuesday Tiw/Tyr	Wednesday Woden/Odin	Thursday Thunor/Thor	Friday Frige or Freya	Saturday Saturn
Old English	Sunnandæg	Mōnandæg	Tīwesdæg	Wōdnesdæg	Þunresdæg	Frīgedæg	Sæternesdæg
Old High German	Sunnûntag	Mânetag	Zîestag	Wôdanstag (Wuotanstag)	Donarestag	Frîjatag	Sunnûnâband or Sambaztag [♄1]
German	Sonntag	Montag	Dienstag [♂1] or Ziestag (Swiss German)	Mittwoch [☿1]	Donnerstag	Freitag	Sonnabend [♄3] or Samstag [♄1]
Dutch	zondag	maandag	dinsdag [♂1]	woensdag	donderdag	vrijdag	zaterdag
Afrikaans	Sondag	Maandag	Dinsdag [♂1]	Woensdag	Donderdag	Vrydag	Saterdag
West Frisian	Snein	Moandei	Tiisdei	Woansdei	Tongersdei	Freed	Sneon[♄3] or Saterdei
Old Norse	sunnudagr	mánadagr	tysdagr	óðinsdagr	þórsdagr	frjádagr	laugardagr [♄2] or sunnunótt
Faroese	sunnudagur	mánadagur	týsdagur	mikudagur	hósdagur or tórsdagur	fríggjadagur	leygardagur
Icelandic	sunnudagur	mánudagur	þriðjudagur	miðvikudagur	fimmtudagur	föstudagur	laugardagur
Norwegian, Bokmål	søndag	mandag	tirsdag	onsdag	torsdag	fredag	lørdag [♄2]
Norwegian, Nynorsk	sundag	måndag	tysdag	onsdag	torsdag	fredag	laurdag [♄2]
Danish	søndag	mandag	tirsdag	onsdag	torsdag	fredag	lørdag [♄2]
Swedish	söndag	måndag	tisdag	onsdag	torsdag	fredag	lördag [♄2]
Finnish	sunnuntai	maanantai	tiistai	keskiviikko [☿1]	torstai	perjantai	lauantai [♄2]
Estonian	pühapäev [☉2]	↓	↓	↓	↓	reede	laupäev [♄2]

Indian astrology

The Greco-Roman scheme of planetary names was also adopted into Indian astrology during the 2nd century AD. Sanskrit attestations of the navagraha "nine astrological forces", seven of which are used for day names, date to the Yavanajataka "Sayings of the Greeks", a 150 AD translation of a 120 AD Greek Alexandrian text.

This was probably the oldest and the most original tradition which traveled through ambassadors to the Near East and beyond into Europe. This forms the basis of week day names in most Indian languages and the languages of South Asia and South East Asia.

Though the explanation on the sequence of the name is only available in ancient texts in India. Which goes as below,

The division of days among the planets was done based on the speed of each planet as perceived from earth. Sun and Moon being the nearest and most important planets were allotted first two days and then the planet next in sequence to the original position of the planet was given the next day.. The sequence based on speed is Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.

So after Sunday and Monday, the next to Sun was Mars hence the day was 'Mangalwar', next to moon was Mercury and hence 'Budhawar' next Mars was Jupiter and hence Guruwar , next to Mercury was Venus and hence ‘Shukrawar’ , next to Jupiter was Saturn and hence ‘Shaniwar’ and thus the seven names in this particular sequence.

Day	Sunday Surya (the Sun)	Monday Soma (the Moon)	Tuesday Mangala (Mars)	Wednesday Budha (Mercury)	Thursday Guru (Jupiter)	Friday Shukra (Venus)	Saturday Shani (Saturn)
Sanskrit	भानुवासरम् Bhaanu Vāsaram	इन्दुवासरम् Indu Vāsaram	भौमवासरम् Bhauma Vāsaram	सौम्यवासरम् Saumya Vāsaram	गुरूवासरम Bruhaspathi/Guru Vāsaram	भृगुवासरम् Bhrgu Vāsaram	स्थिरवासरम् Sthira Vāsaram
Hindi	रविवार Ravivār	सोमवार Somavār	मंगलवार Mangalavār	बुधवार Budhavār	गुरूवार Guruvār	शुक्रवार Shukravār	शनिवार Shanivār
Sinhala	ඉරිදා Iridaa	සදුදා Sandudaa	අඟහරැවදා Anngaharuwadaa	බදාදා Badaadaa	බූරහස්පතින්දා Brahaspathindaa	සිකුරාදා Sikuradaa	සෙනසුරාදා Senasuraadaa
Marathi	रविवार Ravivār	सोमवार Somavār	मंगळवार MangaLavār	बुधवार Budhavār	गुरूवार Guruvār	शुक्रवार Shukravār	शनिवार Shanivār
Bengali	রবিবার Robibar	সোমবার Shombar	মঙ্গলবার Monggolbar	বুধবার Budhbar	বৃহস্পতিবার Brihôshpotibar	শুক্রবার Shukrobar	শনিবার Shonibar
Urdu	Itwaar اتوار	Peer پیر[☽4] or Somwar سوموار	Mangal منگل	Budh بدھ	Jumaa-raat جمعراتRaat = Eve	Jumaah جمعہ[♀4]	Saneechar سنیچرor ہفتہ Haftah [♄6]
Burmese	တနင်္ဂနွေ IPA: [tənɪ́ɴ ɡənwè] (Tananganve)	တနင်္လာ IPA: [tənɪ́ɴ là] (Tanangla)	အင်္ဂါ IPA: [ɪ̀ɴ ɡà] (Angga)	ဗုဒ္ဓဟူး IPA: [bouʔ dəhú] (Buddhahu) (afternoon=new day) ရာဟု Rahu	ကြာသာပတေး IPA: [tɕà ðà bədé] (Krasapate)	သောကြာ IPA: [θauʔ tɕà] (Saukra)	စနေ IPA: [sənè] (Cane)
Mon	တ္ၚဲ အဒိုတ် [ŋoa ətɜ̀t] from Sans. āditya	တ္ၚဲ စန် [ŋoa cɔn] from Sans. candra	တ္ၚဲ အၚါ [ŋoa əŋɛ̀a] from Sans. aṅgāra	တ္ၚဲ ဗုဒ္ဓဝါ [oa pùt-həwɛ̀a] from Sans. budhavāra	တ္ၚဲ ဗြဴဗ္တိ [ŋoa pɹɛ̀apətɔeʔ] from Sans. bṛhaspati	တ္ၚဲ သိုက်. [ŋoa sak] from Sans. śukra	တ္ၚဲ သ္ၚိ သဝ် [ŋoa hɔeʔ sɔ] from Sans. śani
Khmer	ថ្ងៃអាទិត្យ [tŋaj ʔaatɨt]	ថ្ងៃចន្ទ [tŋaj can]	ថ្ងៃអង្គារ [tŋaj ʔɑŋkie]	ថ្ងៃពុធ [tŋaj put]	ថ្ងៃព្រហស្បត្ណិ [tŋaj prɔhoah]	ថ្ងៃសុក្រ [tŋaj sok]	ថ្ងៃសៅរ៍ [tŋaj sav]
Gujarati	રવિવાર Ravivār	સોમવાર Somvār	મંગળવાર Mangaḷvār	બુધવાર Budhvār	ગુરૂવાર Guruvār	શુક્રવાર Shukravār	શનિવાર Shanivār
Maldivian	އާދީއްތަ Aadheettha	ހޯމަ Homa	އަންގާރަ Angaara	ބުދަ Budha	ބުރާސްފަތި Buraasfathi	ހުކުރު Hukuru	ހޮނިހިރު Honihiru
Tamil	ஞாயிற்று கிழமை Nyāyitru kizhamai	திங்கட் கிழமை Thingat kizhamai	செவ்வாய்க் கிழமை Sevvāi kizhamai	புதன்க் கிழமை Budhan kizhamai	வியாழக் கிழமை Vyāzha kizhamai	வெள்ளிக் கிழமை Velli kizhamai	சனிக் கிழமை Shani kizhamai
Telugu	ఆదివారం Aadi Vāram	సోమవారం Soma Vāram	మంగళవారం Mangala Vāram	బుధవారం Budha Vāram	గురువారం Bestha/Guru/Lakshmi Vāram	శుక్రవారం Shukra Vāram	శనివారం Shani Vāram
Malayalam	ഞായര്‍ Njyāyar	തിങ്കള്‍ Thingal	ചൊവ്വ Chouvva	ബുധന്‍ Budhan	വ്യാഴം Vzyāzham	വെള്ളി Velli	ശനി Sheni
Kannada	ಭಾನುವಾರ Bhanu Vaara	ಸೋಮವಾರ Soma Vaara	ಮಂಗಳವಾರ Mangala Vaara	ಬುಧವಾರ Budha Vaara	ಗುರುವಾರ Guru Vaara	ಶುಕ್ರವಾರ Shukra Vaara	ಶನಿವಾರ Shani Vaara
Lao	ວັນອາທິດ [wán ʔàːtʰīt]	ວັນຈັນ [wán càn]	ວັນອັງຄານ [wán ʔàŋkʰáːn]	ວັນພຸດ [wán pʰūt]	ວັນພະຫັດ [wán pʰāhát]	ວັນສຸກ [wán súk]	ວັນເສົາ [wán sǎu]
Shan	ဝၼ်းဢႃတိတ်ႉ IPA: [wan˦ ʔaː˩ tit˥]	ဝၼ်းၸၼ် IPA: [wan˦ tsan˩]	ဝၼ်းဢင်းၵၼ်း IPA: [wan˦ ʔaŋ˦ kan˦]	ဝၼ်းၽုတ်ႉ IPA: [wan˦ pʰut˥]	ဝၼ်းၽတ်း IPA: [wan˦ pʰat˦]	ဝၼ်းသုၵ်း IPA: [wan˦ sʰuk˦]	ဝၼ်းသဝ် IPA: [wan˦ sʰaw˩]
Thai	วันอาทิตย์ Wan Āthit	วันจันทร์ Wan Chan	วันอังคาร Wan Angkhān	วันพุธ Wan Phut	วันพฤหัสบดี Wan Phruehatsabodi	วันศุกร์ Wan Suk	วันเสาร์ Wan Sao
Mongolian	адъяа adiya	сумъяа sumiya	ангараг angarag	буд bud	бархабадь barhasbadi	сугар sugar	санчир sanchir
Javanese	Raditya	Soma	Anggara	Buda	Respati	Sukra	Tumpek
Balinese	Redite	Coma	Anggara	Buda	Wraspati	Sukra	Saniscara
Punjabi	ਐਤਵਾਰ etvār	ਸੋਮਵਾਰ sōmvār	ਮੰਗਲਵਾਰ mangalvār	ਬੁੱਧਵਾਰ búdvār	ਵੀਰਵਾਰ vīrvār	ਸ਼ੁੱਕਰਵਾਰ shukkarvār	ਸ਼ਨਿੱਚਰਵਾਰ shaniccharvār

East Asian Seven Luminaries

The East Asian naming system of weekdays closely parallels that of the Latin system and is ordered after the "Seven Luminaries" (七曜), which consists of the Sun, Moon and the five planets visible to the naked eye. The five planets are named after the five elements in traditional East Asian philosophy: Fire (Mars), Water (Mercury), Wood (Jupiter), Metal (Venus), and Earth (Saturn). The earliest known reference in East Asia to the seven-day week in its current order and name is the writings attributed to the Chinese astrologer Fan Ning, who lived in the late 4th century of Jin Dynasty. Later diffusions from the Manichaeans are documented with the writings of the Chinese Buddhist monk Yi Jing and the Ceylonese Buddhist monk Bu Kong of the 8th century under the Tang Dynasty. 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. In China, with the founding of the Republic of China in 1911, Monday through Saturday in China are now numbered one through six, with the reference to the Sun remaining for Sunday （星期日）.

For more information on the Chinese ten-day week, see Week#China.

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Celestial Object	Sun (日)	Moon (月)	Mars (火)	Mercury (水)	Jupiter (木)	Venus (金)	Saturn (土)
Chinese (now obsolete)	日曜日 Rìyàorì	月曜日 Yuèyàorì	火曜日 Huǒyàorì	水曜日 Shuǐyàorì	木曜日 Mùyàorì	金曜日 Jīnyàorì	土曜日 Tǔyàorì
Japanese	日曜日 Nichiyōbi	月曜日 Getsuyōbi	火曜日 Kayōbi	水曜日 Suiyōbi	木曜日 Mokuyōbi	金曜日 Kin'yōbi	土曜日 Doyōbi
Korean (Hangul)	일요일 Iryoil	월요일 Woryoil	화요일 Hwayoil	수요일 Suyoil	목요일 Mogyoil	금요일 Geumyoil	토요일 Toyoil
Tibetan (བོད་ཡིག)	གཟའ་ཉི་མ།	གཟའ་ཟླ་བ།	གཟའ་མིག་དམར།	གཟའ་ལྷག་པ།	གཟའ་ཕུར་བུ།	གཟའ་པ་སངས།	གཟའ་སྤེན་པ།

Pronunciations for Old Chinese names are given in Modern Standard Chinese.

Numbered weekdays

Weekdays numbered from Sunday

In the Judeo-Christian or Abrahamic tradition, the first day of the week is Sunday. Biblical Sabbath (corresponding to Saturday), when God rested from six-day Creation, made the day following Sabbath the first day of the week (corresponding to Sunday). Seventh-day Sabbaths were sanctified for celebration and rest. After the week was adopted in early Christianity, 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.

Saint Martin of Dumio (c. 520–580), archbishop of Braga, decided it unworthy to call days by pagan gods and decided to use ecclesiastic terminology to designate them. This was the birth of the present Portuguese numbered system.^{[citation needed]} Martin also tried to replace the names of the planets, but was not successful. In the Middle Ages, Galician-Portuguese retained both systems. The Roman gods' names are still used in Galician.

In the Hebrew and Islamic calendars the days extend from sunset to sunset. Thus, Jewish Shabbat starts at sunset on Friday and extends into Saturday nightfall when three stars become visible.^[2] The first day of the Islamic calendar, yaum al-ahad, starts on Saturday after sunset and extends to sunset on Sunday.

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 favour of a combination of numbered days and days whose names are linked to pious or domestic routine (föstudagur, "Fasting Day" and laugardagur, "Washing Day"). The "washing day" is also used in other North Germanic languages, although the Pagan names generally are retained.

Day (see Irregularities)	Sunday First Day	Monday Second Day	Tuesday Third Day	Wednesday Fourth Day	Thursday Fifth Day	Friday Sixth Day	Saturday Seventh Day
Icelandic	sunnudagur (Sun)	mánudagur (Moon)	þriðjudagur	miðvikudagur [☿1]	fimmtudagur	föstudagur [♀1]	laugardagur [♄2]
Hebrew	יום ראשון yom rishon Literal transl.: 1st Day	יום שני yom sheyni Literal transl.: 2nd Day	יום שלישי yom shlishi Literal transl.: 3rd Day	יום רביעי yom revi'i Literal transl.: 4th Day	יום חמישי yom khamishi Literal transl.: 5th Day	יום שישי yom shishi Literal transl.: 6th Day	יום שבת yom Shabbat[♃1] Literal transl.: day of rest
Ecclesiastical Latin	Dominica [☉1]	feria secunda	feria tertia	feria quarta	feria quinta	feria sexta	sabbatum [♄1]
Portuguese	domingo [☉1]	segunda-feira	terça-feira	quarta-feira	quinta-feira	sexta-feira	sábado [♄1]
Greek	Κυριακή Kyriakí [☉1]	Δευτέρα Dheftéra	Τρίτη Tríti	Τετάρτη Tetárti	Πέμπτη Pémpti	Παρασκευή Paraskeví [♀2]	Σάββατο Sávato [♄1]
Armenian	Կիրակի Kiraki [☉1]	Երկուշաբթի Yerkushabti	Երեքշաբթի Yerekshabti	Չորեքշաբթի Chorekshabti	Հինգշաբթի Hingshabti	Ուրբաթ Urbat	Շաբաթ Shabat [♄1]
Vietnamese	chủ nhật or chúa nhật [☉1]	(ngày) thứ hai	(ngày) thứ ba	(ngày) thứ tư	(ngày) thứ năm	(ngày) thứ sáu	(ngày) thứ bảy
Malay	Ahad	Isnin	Selasa	Rabu	Khamis	Jumaat [♀4]	Sabtu [♄5]
Arabic	يوم الأحد yaum al-aḥad	يوم الإثنين yaum al-ithnayn	يوم الثُّلَاثاء yaum ath-thulathā’	يوم الأَرْبعاء yaum al-’arbi‘ā	يوم الخَمِيس yaum al-khamīs	يوم الجُمْعَة yaum al-jum‘ah [♀4]	يوم السَّبْت yaum as-sabt [♄5]
Maltese	Il-Ħadd	It-Tnejn	It-Tlieta	L-Erbgħa	Il-Hamis	Il-Gimgħa [♀4]	Is-Sibt [♄5]
Indonesian	Minggu [☉1] (Portuguese)	Senin	Selasa	Rabu	Kamis	Jumat [♀4]	Sabtu [♄5]
Javanese	Ngaat / Akad meaning?	Senen	Slasa	Rebo	Kemis	Jemuwah [♀4]	Setu [♄5]
Sundanese	Minggu / Minggon	Senén	Salasa	Rebo	Kemis	Jumaah [♀4]	Saptu [♄5]
Persian	یکشنبه yekshanbeh 1-shanbe	دوشنبه doshanbeh 2-shanbe	سه شنبه seshanbeh 3-shanbe	چهارشنبه chaharshanbeh 4-shanbe	پنجشنبه panjshanbeh 5-shanbe	آدینه Adineh [♀3] or جمعه Jomeh [♀4]	شنبه shanbeh (Night & Day) shabAneh rooz
Turkish	pazar [☉4]	pazartesi [☽2]	salı	çarşamba	perşembe	cuma [♀4]	cumartesi [♄4]
Old Turkic	birinç kün	ikinç kün	üçünç kün	törtinç kün	beşinç kün	altınç kün	yetinç kün

Weekdays numbered from Monday

The ISO prescribes Monday as the first day of the week with ISO-8601 for software date formats.

The Slavic, Baltic and Uralic languages (except Finnish) adopted numbering but took Monday rather than Sunday as the "first day".^[3]

Chinese Sunday means "week day" (星期日 or 星期天). Monday is named literally "first day of the (seven-day) week cycle", Tuesday is "second day of the (seven-day) week cycle", and so on. When China adopted the Western calendar Sunday was at the beginning of the calendar week but today Monday is preferred.

A second way to refer to weekdays is using the word zhōu (周), meaning "cycle." Therefore Sunday is referred to as zhōumò (周末), meaning "cycle's end" and Monday to Saturday are termed accordingly zhōuyī (周一) "first of cycle," zhōu'èr (周二) "second of cycle," and etc.

Another Chinese numbering system, found in spoken Mandarin and in southern dialects/languages (i.e. Cantonese and Min), refers to Sunday as the "day of worship" (lǐbàirì 禮拜日 or lǐbàitiān 禮拜天) and numbers the other days "first [day after] worship" (Monday) through to "sixth [day after] worship" (Saturday). The Chinese word used for "worship" is associated with Christian and Muslim worship.

Day (see Irregularities)	Monday First Day	Tuesday Second Day	Wednesday Third Day	Thursday Fourth Day	Friday Fifth Day	Saturday Sixth Day	Sunday Seventh Day
ISO 8601 #	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Russian	понедельник ponedel'nik [☽1]	вторник vtornik	среда sreda [☿1]	четверг chetverg	пятница pyatnica	суббота subbota [♄1]	воскресенье voskresen'je [☉3]
Belarusian	Панядзелак panyadzelak [☽1]	Аўторак autorak	Серада serada [☿1]	Чацьвер chats'ver	Пятніца pyatnitsa	Субота subota [♄1]	Нядзеля nyadzelya [☉6]
Ukrainian	понедiлок ponedilok [☽1]	вiвторок vivtorok	середа sereda [☿1]	четвер chetver	п'ятниця p'yatnitsya	субота subota [♄1]	недiля nedilya [☉6]
Bulgarian	понеделник ponedelnik [☽1]	вторник vtornik	сряда sryada [☿1]	четвъртък chetvărtăk	петък petăk	събота săbota [♄1]	неделя nedelya [☉6]
Polish	poniedziałek [☽1]	wtorek	środa [☿1]	czwartek	piątek	sobota [♄1]	niedziela [☉6]
Slovak	pondelok [☽1]	utorok	streda [☿1]	štvrtok	piatok	sobota [♄1]	nedeľa [☉6]
Czech	pondělí or pondělek [☽1]	úterý or úterek	středa [☿1]	čtvrtek	pátek	sobota [♄1]	neděle [☉6]
Slovene	Ponedeljek [☽1]	Torek	Sreda [☿1]	Četrtek	Petek	Sobota [♄1]	Nedelja [☉6]
Croatian	Ponedjeljak [☽1]	Utorak	Srijeda [☿1]	Četvrtak	Petak	Subota [♄1]	Nedjelja [☉6]
Serbian	Понедељак Ponedeljak [☽1]	Уторак Utorak	Среда Sreda [☿1]	Четвртак Četvrtak	Петак Petak	Субота Subota [♄1]	Недеља Nedelja [☉6]
Macedonian	понеделник ponedelnik [☽1]	вторник vtornik	среда sreda [☿1]	четврток chetvrtok	петок petok	сабота sabota [♄1]	недела nedela [☉6]
Lithuanian	Pirmadienis	Antradienis	Trečiadienis	Ketvirtadienis	Penktadienis	Šeštadienis	Sekmadienis
Latvian	Pirmdiena	Otrdiena	Trešdiena	Ceturtdiena	Piektdiena	Sestdiena	Svētdiena
Hungarian	hétfő [☽3]	kedd [♂2]	szerda [☿1] Slavic	csütörtök Slavic	péntek Slavic	szombat [♄1]	vasárnap [☉5]
Estonian	esmaspäev	teisipäev	kolmapäev or kesknädal [☿1]	neljapäev	reede	laupäev	pühapäev
Chinese characters (in Pinyin)	星期一 xīngqīyī	星期二 xīngqī'èr	星期三 xīngqīsān	星期四 xīngqīsì	星期五 xīngqīwǔ	星期六 xīngqīliù	星期日 or 星期天 xīngqīrì or xīngqítiān
Mongolian (numerical)	нэг дэх өдөр neg deh odor	хоёр дахь өдөр hoyor dahi odor	гурав дахь өдөр gurav dahi odor	дөрөв дэх өдөр dorov deh odor	тав дахь өдөр tav dahi odor	хагас сайн өдөр hagas sain odor [♄7]	бүтэн сайн өдөр buten sain odor [☉7]
Mongolian (Sanskrit)	Даваа davaa	Мягмар myagmar	Лхагва lkhagva	Пүрэв purev	Баасан baasan	Бямба byamba	Ням nyam

Weekdays numbered from Saturday

In Swahili the day begins at sunrise, rather than ending at sunset, and so offset by twelve hours from the Arabic and Hebrew calendar. Saturday is therefore the first day of the week, as it is the day which includes the first night of the week in Arabic. Etymologically speaking, Swahili has two fifth days of the week, although this is not widely recognized. The word for Wednesday, Jumatano, contains the number five in Swahili: tano. Tano is of Bantu origin. The word for Thursday, Alhamisi, is of Arabic origin and literally means the fifth (day). The word for Friday, Ijumaa, is also of Arabic and means (day of) gathering for the Friday noon prayers in Islam.

Day (see Irregularities)	Saturday First Day	Sunday Second Day	Monday Third Day	Tuesday Fourth Day	Wednesday Fifth Day	Thursday Fifth Day	Friday Day of Congregational Prayers
Swahili[4]	jumamosi	jumapili	jumatatu	jumanne	jumatano	alhamisi [♃2]	ijumaa [♀4]

Mixing of numbering and planetary names

In the Žejane dialect of Istro-Romanian, lur (Monday) and virer (Friday) follow the Latin convention, while utorek (Tuesday), sredu (Wednesday), and četrtok (Thursday) follow the Slavic convention.^[5]

Day: (see Irregularities)	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Istro-Romanian, Žejane dialect	lur	utorek	sredu	četrtok	virer	simbota [♄1]	dumireca [☉1]

There are several systems in the different Basque dialects.^[6]

Day:	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Standard Basque, Guipuscoan Basque	astelehena ("week-first")	asteartea ("week-between")	asteazkena ("week-last")	osteguna ("Ortzi/Sky day")	ostirala (see Ortzi)	larunbata ("fourth", "meeting of friends"), neskenegun ("girls' day")	igandea
Biscayne Basque	astelena ("week-first"), ilen ("Moon day")	martitzena ("Mars day")	eguaztena ("day last")	eguena ("day of days", "day of light")	barikua ("day without supper"), egubakotx	zapatua (compare with Spanish sábado from Sabbath)	domeka (from Latin dominica [dies])

Notes

Sunday

^☉1 From Latin dominicus "the Lord" (Christian Sabbath)
^☉2 Holy Day (Christianity)
^☉3 Resurrection (Christianity)
^☉4 Bazaar Day
^☉5 Market Day
^☉6 No Work
^☉7 Full good day

Monday

^☽1 After No Work
^☽2 After Bazaar
^☽3 Head of Week
^☽4 Master (as in Pir, because Muhammad was born on a Monday^{[citation needed]})

Tuesday

^♂1 Thing (Assembly), of which god Tyr/Ziu was the patron.
^♂2 Second day of the week (cf. Hungarian kettő "two")

Wednesday

^☿1 Mid-week or Middle
^☿2 The First Fast (Christianity)
^☿1 Hump-Day

Thursday

^♃1 The day between two fasts (An Dé idir dhá aoin, contracted to An Déardaoin) (Christianity)
^♃2 Five (Arabic)

Friday

^♀1 The Fast (Celtic) or Fasting Day (Icelandic) (Christianity)
^♀2 Good Friday or Preparation (Christianity)
^♀3 Day of Faith (Islam)
^♀4 Gathering/Assembly/Meeting (Islam)

Saturday

^♄1 Shabbat or seventh-day Sabbath (Judeo–Christian)
^♄2 Wash or Bath day
^♄3 Sun-eve (Eve of Sunday)
^♄4 After the Gathering (Islam)
^♄5 End of the Week (Arabic Sabt = Rest) (Islam)
^♄6 Week
^♄7 Half good day holy day

External links

See also

• Akan names of the seven-day week, known as Nawotwe
• Week Wheel for Children
• Work Week
• Week
• Seven-day week
• Calculating the day of the week

Books

• Brown, Cecil H. (1989). "Naming the days of the week: A cross-language study of lexical acculturation". Current Anthropology 30 (4): 536–550. doi:10.1086/203782. JSTOR 2743391.
• Falk, Michael (1999). "Astronomical Names for the Days of the Week". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 93: 122–133. Bibcode 1999JRASC..93..122F. doi:10.1016/j.newast.2003.07.002.
• Neugebauer, Otto (1979). Ethiopic astronomy and computus, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische klasse, sitzungsberichte, 347 (Vienna)

Websites

• Days of the Week in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese (much history of Western systems too)
• Planetary Linguistics and the Days of the Week — The Definitive Site
• Days of the week and months of the year in many different languages
• The Days of the Week
• The days of the week in various languages
• RSS feed to show weekday names in indian languages

References