In antiquity, the concepts of "week" and "days of the week" did not exist, because it was too difficult to name each day. However, with the development of cities, it became necessary to designate certain days for recreation, trade, and religious customs. At times, every tenth day, or fifth, or seventh, was appointed for specific purposes.
The first mention of a seven-day week dates back to 2, 000 BC. It was the seven-day time frame that was invented in Ancient Babylon, and it became the most convenient combination of days, in which the last, seventh day is a day off. Ancient Babylonian astronomers identified seven days of the week by changing the phases of the moon, in addition, the number "7" since ancient times was considered sacred and endowed with special powers.
From Babylon, this tradition passed to the Jews, Greeks, Egyptians, Romans. Jews celebrated every seventh day as religious. But the Egyptians and Romans called the seven days of the week by the names of the planets. Jews and Christians felt that the seven-day structure of time was established by God. All this is because the Old Testament says that on the first day of creation, light was created, on the second - water and firmament, on the third - seas, land, vegetation, in the fourth - heavenly bodies, in the fifth - the animal world, in the sixth - man and, finally, on the seventh day it was called to rest.
The names of the days of the week in the languages of the Latin group are very similar. For example, Monday is the day of the moon (Moon - English): Monday - in English, Lundi - in French, el Lunes - in Spanish.
In the names of Tuesday, the name of the god of Mars is hidden: Dies Martis - in Latin, Mardi - in French, el Martes - in Spanish, Martedi - in Italian. And in other languages of this group the name of the ancient German god Tiu is hidden, as warlike as Mars - Tiistai - in Finnish, Tuesday - in English, Dienstag - in German.
Mercury is easily guessed in the names of the medium. Dies Mercuri - in Latin, le Mercredi - in French, Italian - Mercoledi, in Spanish - el Miercoles. In other languages, you can see that the name came from the name of the god Woden, who invented the runic alphabet, this fact can be correlated with the fact that Mercury is the patron god of oral and written speech. Thus, Wednesday is Wednesday in English, Onstag is in Swedish, Woenstag is in Dutch.
Thursday is the day of Jupiter, in Latin it is Dies Jovis. From here, Jeudi is Thursday in French, Jueves is in Spanish, Giovedi is in Italian. And other names have a connection with the god Thor: English Thursday, Torstai - in Finnish, Torsdag - in Swedish.
The name of Friday immediately shows the influence of Venus. French Vendredi, Italian Venerdi, Spanish Viernes. And English Friday, Swedish Fredag and German Freitag came from the name of the Scandinavian goddess of love and fertility Freyja (Frigge).
The image of Saturn is immediately visible in the names of Saturday: Saturday - in English and Saturni in Latin. Finnish Lauantai, Swedish Lördag and Danish Loverdag are similar to the ancient German Laugardagr and mean "bathing day", which means that traditionally Saturday is a bathing day.
In the names of the resurrection there is an image of the Sun, various variations of Sun / Son. But there is another origin of the names - Lord's Day, it can be traced in Spanish - Domingo, French - Dimanche and Italian - Domenica.
In Russia, the names evolved according to a different principle. The week was called the week. Monday is literally "day after week." Tuesday, the name speaks for itself - the second day of the week. Wednesday got its name as the average day of the week, but if you take it into account, it’s not quite like it is now: earlier the week started on Sunday, and then Wednesday took its rightful place. In the Old Russian language, the name of the medium is still found as a "third one." Thursday, like Tuesday, is named by its serial number, the fourth day. The same story with Friday - the fifth day of the week. Saturday came from the Hebrew Sabbath / Shabbat, which means the last working day of the week, the end of all affairs. Sunday used to be called a "week" ("no work", "do not do it"), and with the advent of Christianity it was renamed in honor of the Day of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
