| Days of the week
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Where do the names of the days of the week come from?
In English, we call our days of the week after Saxon gods, apart from Saturday.
The French call their days of the week after Roman gods.
But the Saxon and Roman gods who look after the same day are the same
type of god.
The English 'Saturday' is called after a Roman god, not a Saxon one. In Swedish, the word for Saturday is Lördag. It is an ancient Swedish word meaning "bath". Apparently the Vikings only took one bath a week and it was on Saturday, so
they called it "bath day". Perhaps the Saxons were far cleaner than the Vikings and they
preferred to use a Roman word!
| English |
Saxon |
Title of God |
Roman |
French |
| Monday |
Mona |
The Moon | Moon |
Lundi |
| Tuesday |
Tiu |
God of War |
Mars | Mardi |
| Wednesday |
Woden |
The Cunning God |
Mercury | Mercredi |
| Thursday |
Thor |
Thunder God |
Jove | Jeudi |
| Friday |
Freyja |
Goddess of Love |
Venus |
Vendredi |
| Saturday |
--- |
God of Time |
Saturn | Samedi |
| Sunday |
Sunne |
The Sun |
Sun | Dimanche |
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The Romans had eight days in their week, with a market day instead of a weekend, so they didn't use these names. But why do we have seven days in a week?
The Roman months were the same as ours.
Go back to Roman gods website
Go back to Nordic gods website