DAYS OF THE WEEK

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 4, 26 March 1927, Page 24 (Supplement)

DAYS OF THE WEEK

SUN DAY AND THOR’S DAY TUESDAY WAS MARS’ DAY The names by which we call the days of the week are not Christian but pagan: they are derived from heathen mythology, each of the seven being dedicated to some deity or to the personification of some object of Nature Thus. Sunday is patently the day of sun worship, for Old Sol has been an object of adoration from the very earliest times. It is usually understood that the great circle of monoliths which we know as Stonehenge was built as a temple of the sun. Monday, similarly, is Moon Day. The moon was popularly imagined to be the sun’s wife. The Greeks called her Diana, and thought that Phoebus Apollo, the sun-god, drove his glowing chariot across the sky by day, and that Diana drove a silver chariot by night. Woods are sacred to the mooft-goddess. The silver gleams through the trees are the marks of her footsteps. SMITH THE MIGHTY The French call our Tuesday, Marti, or Mars’ Day. Mars was the Roman god of war, and, strangely enough, the war-god of the Norsemen, who was called Tyr, or Tew. has given his name to the third day of our week, Tuesday. Thus Tuesday was evidently considered by the ancients as the propitious day for going to battle, the favourite day of the war-gods. Wednesday also takes its name from Scandinavian mythology; it belongs to the greatest of the northern gods, the mighty Woden, or Odin. But the most interesting of all the Scandinavian gods is Thor the Thunderer. It is not for nothing that the name Smith is the commonest of all our surnames, for so important was the smith’s job that he has a god and a day all to himself! REAL “BLACK FRIDAYS” Thor was the mighty smith, the brawniest of the gods. He had a hammer which only he could lift, a pair of iron gloves, and a belt which doubled his strength. Thor’s Day, or Thursday, should be the best of all working days, for it is the day of strength. Funnily enough, as Monday is Sunday’s wife, Friday is Wednesday’s spouse, and Thursday is their son’ The Norsemen feared that Freya, or Frega, might be jealous, unless she got a day of the week also, and so Freya’s Day has become our Friday. In ancient times it was a sacred day. In the Middle Ages Friday was considered a luckless day, and even now some superstitious people cling to this belief. According to our ancestors, i‘. was on a Friday that Adam sinned, Cain killed Abel, the Flood began, tongues were confused at the Tower of Babel, and Egypt’s plagues commenced. SUNDAY BEST With Saturday we return to southern mythology, for Saturday is Saturn’s Day. The Saturnalia of the ancient Romans were times of licensed debauchery. To-day, Saturady begins the week-end holiday and revelry of a much more innocent and sober kind. The notion that to be born on a certain day of the week influenced both one’s character and career is very ancient indeed. This belief is embodied in an old English rhyme, which many people doubtless can repeat: “Monday’s child is fair of face, Tuesday’s child is full of grace, Wednesday’s child is full of woe, Thursday’s child has far to go, Friday’s child is loving and giving, Saturday’s child works hard for its living. But the child that is born on the Sabbath Day Is bonny, and blithe, and good, and gay.” Evidently one should arrange, if possible, to be born on a Sunday!