# Survival of Pagan Names for Days of the Week **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666 "2012-12-20T21:02:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/1 "2012-12-20T21:02:44Z")
How is it that days of the week were able to keep their obviously pagan-derived names through the times when the Christian church had near total power? It’s kind of surprising (to me anyway) that we don’t have Jesusday, Maryday, Matthewday, Markday, Lukeday, Johnday, and Paulday instead. (The same goes for the names of the months and planets.) How was the church so oppressive toward non-believers on the one hand, and blatantly allowing such quotidian recognition of pagan gods and secular figures on the other? ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/2 "2012-12-21T03:19:09Z")
The Catholic calendar has saints for nearly every day of the year so it doesn’t make sense to assign a saint every week. And the Julian calendar was officially adopted without much fuzz until it was corrected for accuracy. I’ve a feeling that naming monthly and weekly time scales were more in the hands of scientists and scholars rather than the church. Sorry I can’t provide factuals. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/3 "2012-12-21T04:11:19Z")
Maybe the Church wasn’t as oppressive as you thought? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/4 "2012-12-21T04:12:24Z")
In Latin ( the language of the Church ) the days get their names from heavely bodies so they are at least once removed from the Pagan gods. For the most part Rome didn’t care what people called things in the vernacular languages like English. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/5 "2012-12-21T04:42:44Z")
> [@whc.03grady](#): > > How was the church so oppressive toward non-believers on the one hand… Cite? (Please note that heretics are not at all the same thing as non-believers.) > [@the\_diego](#): > > I’ve a feeling that naming monthly and weekly time scales were more in the hands of scientists and scholars rather than the church. On the other hand, all through the middle ages, _all_ the scientists and scholars worked for the Church, so this is a distinction without a difference. However, I think you will find that the naming of things like months and days was in the hands of ordinary people: the community as a whole, like other aspects of language. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/6 "2012-12-21T05:42:42Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > In Latin ( the language of the Church ) the days get their names from heavely bodies so they are at least once removed from the Pagan gods. For the most part Rome didn’t care what people called things in the vernacular languages like English. They were almost certainly named after greco-roman gods as not all the planets have not been discovered/named then: Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus. The Norse names likewise were direct allusion to the gods: Moon, Tiw, Odin, Thor, Freya, Surtur. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/7 "2012-12-21T06:50:42Z")
**njtt** : the treatment of the mesoamericans is one instance. The crusades are also of note. The history of Christianity is marred by occasional waves of forced conversion, sometimes extremely violent. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/8 "2012-12-21T06:51:41Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > They were almost certainly named after greco-roman gods as not all the planets have not been discovered/named then: Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus. The Norse names likewise were direct allusion to the gods: Moon, Tiw, Odin, Thor, Freya, Surtur. The sun (Sōlis), the moon (Lūnae), Mars ( Martis), Mercury (Mercuriī), Jupiter, ( Jovis), Venus (Veneris) and Saturn (Saturnī) were most certainly known to the ancients and those are where the days get their names in Latin. The Norse adopted the Roman calendar and simply substitutied the corresponding god to each planet’s namesake which mattered little to the early Church since it couldn’t care less what the days were called in “barbaric” languages like German or English. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/9 "2012-12-21T09:00:28Z")
The Spanish/Portugese ‘Sabado’ is from ‘Sabbatum’ or the Sabbath. I’m not convinced that ‘Saturday’ is from the Latin dies Saturni (Saturn’s day)and anglicised to Saeternesdaeg because of the sheer deviation from previous 5 days. Granted the Spanish Lunes, Martes, Miyerkules, Hueves and Viernes are named after the the moon and planets, not the Gods themselves, it is but natural that Germanics would give counterpart names using traditional Gods of their own. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/10 "2012-12-21T09:27:00Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > **njtt** : the treatment of the mesoamericans is one instance. The crusades are also of note. The history of Christianity is marred by occasional waves of forced conversion, sometimes extremely violent. To my mind (and especially in the context of the OP), being “oppressive to non-believers” suggests something very different from conquering or attempting to conquer foreign lands where the people happen to have a different religion, and using your religion to justify your aggression. The latter is what happened in the crusades and in mesoamerica. The OP was talking about how the Church behaved within already Christianized lands, but in such a way as to suggest that he or she has a false conception of that behavior. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/11 "2012-12-21T09:33:47Z")
Note how the two most important christian holidays, x-mas and easter, are liberally salted with pagan components. The church was not shy about converting people by co-opting parts of their own culture. Even christmas, Jesus birthday, is originally one or more pagan dates (Jesus was actually apparently born in September). ---
**Author:** ![Lauren-C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Lauren-C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lauren-C)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/12 "2012-12-21T10:27:36Z")
It’s connected with astrology and planetary hours. In addition to days, hours were named after the seven traditional planets too, in the order of decreasing distance from the earth in the geocentric model: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. So, the first hour of the first day was named after Saturn, and we find that the first hour of the second day is named after the Sun. And so on, though the week. The planet that ruled the first hour of the day also ruled the whole day, to which it gave its name. Hence the weird order of weekday names. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/13 "2012-12-21T11:37:27Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > The Norse names likewise were direct allusion to the gods: Moon, Tiw, Odin, Thor, **Freya** , Surtur. Make that **Frigga** instead. For what it’s worth, in Scandinavian Saturday is _lördag_, which means the day to take a bath. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/14 "2012-12-21T12:22:41Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > To my mind (and especially in the context of the OP), being “oppressive to non-believers” suggests something very different from conquering or attempting to conquer foreign lands where the people happen to have a different religion, and using your religion to justify your aggression. The latter is what happened in the crusades and in mesoamerica. The OP was talking about how the Church behaved within already Christianized lands, but in such a way as to suggest that he or she has a false conception of that behavior. All right. So tell us how incredibly tolerant the Church was toward the Jews and atheists in their midst. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/15 "2012-12-21T12:31:51Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > Granted the Spanish Lunes, Martes, **Miyerkules** , **Hueves** and Viernes are named after the the moon and planets, not the Gods themselves, it is but natural that Germanics would give counterpart names using traditional Gods of their own. Miércoles and Jueves, and it’s not as if checking the spelling would have left you crippled from the effort… Sábado and Domingo come from Sabbath and Dominicus. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/16 "2012-12-21T12:51:34Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > The sun (Sōlis), the moon (Lūnae), Mars ( Martis), Mercury (Mercuriī), Jupiter, ( Jovis), Venus (Veneris) and Saturn (Saturnī) were most certainly known to the ancients and those are where the days get their names in Latin. The Norse adopted the Roman calendar and simply substitutied the corresponding god to each planet’s namesake which mattered little to the early Church since it couldn’t care less what the days were called in “barbaric” languages like German or English. In fact, I did some research a while back on a lark and this is pretty widespread throughout the whole Old World. For instance, Tuesday comes from Tyr, the god of Justice/Law and War – which was more or less a direct localization of the Latin word for the day dies Martis (or Mars’ day, noting that Mars is the god of War). But that’s not all, in Japanese, the word is Kayoubi – or fire day… because fire is associated with kasei, or the planet of fire, a.k.a Mars. The Korean word is also “fire day” for similar reasons. Sanskrit related languages do the same as well, alluding to Mars and/or the god of war. Though I admit, I’m not 100% clear on the cause and effect here, is fire associated with Mars because it was originally called fire day and then they associated fire with Mars because others associated the same day they use for fire with Mars, or is the calendar day associated with fire to fall in line with other calendar systems? I’d guess the latter since Mars IS pretty fire-y, but you never know. The other common naming system is just calling Monday “first day”, Tuesday “second day” etc. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/17 "2012-12-21T13:09:56Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > Make that **Frigga** instead. For what it’s worth, in Scandinavian Saturday is _lördag_, which means the day to take a bath. Whenever someone says “Put \*Christ \*back in _Christ_mas”, I tell them we should also put the \*Thor \*back in _Thur_sday. They never seem to get it. ---
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/18 "2012-12-21T13:51:47Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > All right. So tell us how incredibly tolerant the Church was toward the Jews and atheists in their midst. Thank you. Because we know if there were large pockets of people openly and vigorously worshipping the Norse gods in, say, France in the 1320s that the Church would’ve pretty much left them alone. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/19 "2012-12-21T13:57:28Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > Whenever someone says “Put \*Christ \*back in _Christ_mas”, I tell them we should also put the \*Thor \*back in _Thur_sday. They never seem to get it. And then you beat them with a giant hammer (preferably with a strong current running through it) until they have a eureka moment? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666/20 "2012-12-21T14:55:33Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > The other common naming system is just calling Monday “first day”, Tuesday “second day” etc. Portuguese and Galego call Monday “Second Day”, etc. Galego also has versions which correspond to those used in other Romance languages. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-of-pagan-names-for-days-of-the-week/644666.md?page=2)