Meaning of our weekday names

The tradition of the naming of the weekdays as well as the principle of the seven day week derives from the Romans. There they started to count the days after a certain astrology from that region, counting the planets as following:

Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn

All of their planets were dedicaded to deities, which were also the givers of the names of the weekdays.

That system soon stretched to many other parts of the world. In the Germanic regions the given names of the weekdays were replaced with deities of their own mythology that were in some way similar to the gods of the Greek one.

In the old counting Sunday was the first day of the week. Sunday is the day of the sun, dedicated to the goddess Sól. In old Norse: sunnudagr. In other languages, this day has later been changed to the day of the Lord.

Monday is the day of the moon, dedicated to the god Máni. In old Norse: mánadagr.

Tuesday is dedicated to the god of law and justice, Týr. In old Norse: týsdagr.

Wednesday is Wodan’s day (Odin). In old Norse: óðdinsdagr. In other languages (for example Icelandic, German, Finnish) this day is simply translated to mid-week.

Thursday is dedicated to the god of thunder, Thor. In old Norse: þórsdagr. In German and Dutch the name of the weekday means “day of thunder”.

Friday is dedicated to the goddess of beauty and fertility, Freya. In old Norse: frjádagr.

Saturday is still referring to the Roman origin: the day of Saturn. In the Scandinavian languages (Lördag/Lørdag) it simply means washing day. In old Norse: laugardagr.

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