# Why don't fundamentalist Christians get worked up over the days of the week? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574 "2011-05-11T21:58:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/41 "2011-05-12T17:21:09Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Quakers still refer to Sunday as First Day. The idea was to have\* plain \*names for the days. Some do, but most don’t. They don’t wear funny hats anymore or pepper their speech with “thees” and “thous”. Some, including my dad, have even served in the military. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/42 "2011-05-12T17:24:38Z")
Assuming that _fundamentalist_ is mean tot include all varieties of Evangelicals & Pentecostals, I’d say they generally don’t know that _Thursday_ is named after Thor and so forth. In particular, many Pentecostal ministers are poorly educated. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/43 "2011-05-12T17:29:07Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Assuming that _fundamentalist_ is mean tot include all varieties of Evangelicals & Pentecostals, I’d say they generally don’t know that _Thursday_ is named after Thor and so forth. In particular, many Pentecostal ministers are poorly educated. Why didn’t they call it Thorsday? That would be cool. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/44 "2011-05-12T17:31:35Z")
> [@lukeinva](#): > > Why didn’t they call it Thorsday? That would be cool. They do in Ireland (phonetically). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/45 "2011-05-12T17:32:35Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > Some do, but most don’t. They don’t wear funny hats anymore or pepper their speech with “thees” and “thous”. Some, including my dad, have even served in the military. I meant they use terms like ‘First Day’ with each other. As an example, Sunday School is often called First Day School. They’ve mostly stopped using _plain_ language otherwise, because it’s not plain if it’s different from the common usage. During WWII, the majority of male Quakers eligible for military service enlisted, attempted to enlist, or did not request exemption for the draft based on CO status. Many did use CO status to request assignment as medics or chaplains though. All this is off target though. It is very difficult to find a Quaker who could be described as a fundamentalist. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/46 "2011-05-12T17:38:27Z")
> [@lukeinva](#): > > Why didn’t they call it Thorsday? That would be cool. I’m not in charge of that. If I were, it’d all be about.. Nah. I don’t have any Athena-jokes in me today. Maybe tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/47 "2011-05-12T18:08:24Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > Nevertheless, the Jewish Sabbath has been kept with diligent accuracy for a long long time. Yes, but the (supposed) instructions from God don’t actually say that the Sabbath must be arrived at by an unbroken count from an original Creative week, just that one day in seven be sanctified in numerological imitation. As I tried to explain once before, > [@What's the first day of the week?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-day-of-the-week/551476/25): > > Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 16:23-30, 20:11, 23:12, 31:13-17, and 35:2-3; Leviticus 23:3; etc., refer to a “seventh day,” a day following six work days, sanctified and observed as such. I don’t see a specification for a _particular_ day. > > Yes, I understand that the Jewish Sabbath is traditionally Saturday, or rather that Saturday is the day in the traditional Jewish count that they called Shabbat _as their designated Sabbath_. > > But that’s just a tradition, _one possible_ proper observance. Because of the sundown-to-stars demarcation, it’s not even the same time frame for members of the same tradition in different places. > > Beyond that, I understand in the Mishnah Rav Huna says that if a man is wandering in the wilderness and does not know which day it is in the common or traditional count, he should simply count off six days and then observe the next as a Sabbath. (A dissent says he should observe one day as Sabbath, then count off six.) He “recognizes his Sabbath” by the kiddush and havdalah rituals. It is the reverence and _act_ of observance which signifies his obedience to God, not the time frame per se. > > So why would it matter if some group faithfully observed, and made traditional, another day? It seems to me it shouldn’t be theologically significant if some community kept their Sabbath on Tuesday, as long as they rested, did no servile work, kindled no fire, and so on. > [@What's the first day of the week?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-day-of-the-week/551476/43): > > That’s all it is, a traditional schedule. Bookkeeping, you might say. There are seven possible six-and-one schedules that conform to the Biblical mandate. One has _very_ long standing among Jews, another merely very long standing among most Christians. The others were perhaps used sometimes by wanderers in the wilderness, or isolated communities, or round-the-world travelers who paid attention to sunsets. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/48 "2011-05-12T18:30:52Z")
Once upon a time, this was tried in German, but only of them took. They changed Wednesday, which was probably something like Wodenstag, to Mittwoch (midweek) but none of the others changes survived. I’m surprised that even the one did. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/49 "2011-05-12T20:26:27Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > 😕 Wait, if Sabbado means Sabbath, then why is Sunday Lord’s Day? Isn’t that what Sabbath means?!? According to RAE, “Sabbath” means “rest”. Hey, any Hebrew-speakers around? C’mon, it isn’t even the Sabbath, I know some of you are here! And Sunday is the Day of the Lord (which isn’t exactly the same as “Lord’s Day”) because it’s the day He resurrected, by our counting. > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Not to mention the months of January, February, March, April, May & June, all named after Roman gods and goddesses. All twelve months inherit their names from Latin, including the two named after divinized men that you left out. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/50 "2011-05-12T21:06:31Z")
I realized as I was reading this thread that after over twenty years with the language, those oddball Portuguese days are as infused with meaning for me as our English days. _Segunda_ feels exactly like what it is: laundry day, and back to work. _Quinta_ feels exactly like Thursday. I’m not sure how many other parts of the Portuguese language have so fully bound themselves to their concepts in my mind as the days of the week. Numbers certainly don’t share the same level of familiarity in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/51 "2011-05-12T21:08:59Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > _[Interpretatio graeca/romana/germanica](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretatio_graeca)_. Some of these are pretty straightforward–Frigg or Freya for Venus, Tyr for Mars. Thor for Jupiter is more of a stretch, since while both are “thunder gods”, Thor was not the All-Father and King of the Gods in Northern pantheons. Wotan or Odin for Mercury is just kind of weird. I’ve heard at least two possible reasons for Mercury being Germanicized as Odin for Wednesday: that they were both gods of commerce at one time, or that they were both psychopomps, guides of the dead to the afterlife. I’ve heard others as well, but can only remember those two offhand. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/52 "2011-05-12T21:32:06Z")
It goes back at least to Julius Caesar, who wrote that the Gauls’ principal god (their equivalent of Wotan) was Mercury. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/53 "2011-05-12T21:42:02Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > It goes back at least to Julius Caesar, who wrote that the Gauls’ principal god (their equivalent of Wotan) was Mercury. Can you explain this statement? The Gauls were no closer to the Germanic tribes than the Romans. Further, Gaulish Lugos (presumably who Caesar meant, though no Gaulish name is given) isn’t particularly like Wotan, as least based on what we know, as least no more like Wotan than either is to Jupiter. The “Storm God” aspect seems the simplest explanation for the Germanic days. For the Celtic days, Brythonic Celts borrowed the Roman calendar: Welsh _Dydd Mercher_ (day + Mercury), Breton _Dimerc’her_. We don’t know the Gaulish names for the weekdays, if any, and the Irish names are post-Christian and on a different system: Irish _Dé Céadaoin_ (day +first-fast). ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/54 "2011-05-12T22:38:12Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > It’s my opinion that, comparatively speaking, Frigga is not worshipped by many people. It comes pretty close to worship for most teenage boys! ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/55 "2011-05-13T00:55:04Z")
Oh,and some of the months too. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/56 "2011-05-13T01:08:11Z")
> [@thelabdude](#): > > Oh,and some of the months too. Psst. Post 14. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/57 "2011-05-13T01:32:26Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > All twelve months inherit their names from Latin, including the two named after divinized men that you left out. Just to nitpick some more since what the hell, the origins of the names of the months: January = Janus, Roman god of doorways. February = Februa, a purification ritual. March = Mars, Roman god of war. April = Apire, a verb meaning to open, an allusion to spring. May = Maia, a Greek maternity and fertility goddess. June = Juno, Roman goddess. July = Julius, aka Julius Caesar. August = Augustus, emperor of Rome. September = Septem, seventh. October = Octo, eighth. November = Novem, ninth. December = Decem, tenth. So, we have 2 named after Roman gods, 1 named after a Roman goddess, 1 named after a Greek goddess, 1 named after the season it happens in (more or less), one named after a ritual that happens in that month, 2 named after powerful Romans, and 4 named after numbers that do not coincide with their place in the year (although they are in order). ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/58 "2011-05-13T01:43:02Z")
> [@RadicalPi](#): > > Just to nitpick some more since what the hell, the origins of the names of the months: > > January = Janus, Roman god of doorways. > February = Februa, a purification ritual. > March = Mars, Roman god of war. > April = Apire, a verb meaning to open, an allusion to spring. > May = Maia, a Greek maternity and fertility goddess. > June = Juno, Roman goddess. > July = Julius, aka Julius Caesar. > August = Augustus, emperor of Rome. > September = Septem, seventh. > October = Octo, eighth. > November = Novem, ninth. > December = Decem, tenth. > > So, we have 2 named after Roman gods, 1 named after a Roman goddess, 1 named after a Greek goddess, 1 named after the season it happens in (more or less), one named after a ritual that happens in that month, 2 named after powerful Romans, and 4 named after numbers that do not coincide with their place in the year (although they are in order). The months have the right number if you start the year where the ancient Romans did, in March ([March - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March)) ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/59 "2011-05-13T01:49:28Z")
I thought you were going to ask why the 7th day of the week is the 1st day of the week? Then again, in W. Europe, isn’t Mon the 1st day? So, who’s to say when the Sabbath is? ---
**Author:** ![\_mostly\_Harmless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/9d8465/32.png) [@\_mostly\_Harmless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_mostly_Harmless)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574/60 "2011-05-13T02:30:54Z")
> [@These are my own pants](#): > > What’s all this Saturday, Sundany, Monday, January, February, etc nonsense? > > Today is Duodi, 22 Floréal 219 Don’t take this the wrong way but I love you for saying this. Nothin’ funny, though… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-fundamentalist-christians-get-worked-up-over-the-days-of-the-week/581574.md?page=4)