Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch
Donnerstag, Freitag, Samstag
Sonntag
These are the days of the week in German.
Are these names randomly assigned,
or do they have a story and meaning?
In order to trace these names
We have to go back to ancient times.
In ancient times,
believed that the celestial bodies that they see with the naked eye were gods.
First, the Babylonians
gave a one-day gift to their each 7 gods,
consisting of the sun, moon and 5 planets,
and the week of 7 days emerged.
The beliefs of 7 gods in the sky continued,
but each society gave their own names.
The Romans called these objects Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Luna the Moon,
and the Sol the Sun.
In the 4th century, the mad Teutons
the ancestors of the Germans,
did not want to use the gods of the Romans as they were
when they met the days of the week.
They pushed the Roman gods aside
and named the days their own gods.
Montag is the Monday
Mond is moon, Tag is day
i.e. Mo(o)nday
he Germans dedicated this day to their god Mani,
not to Luna, the Roman moon god.
Tuesday belongs to Mars, the god of war.
And who is the Germanic god of war?
Tyr
tiu or so called other thingsus.
The English took the name tyr
and gave the name of Tuesday
But Teutons used the name thingsus
Dienstag became Tuesday
Wednesday belongs to Mercury
The god of commerce and travel.
Who is the merchant and wanderer god of Teutons?
Wotan.
Wotan was one of the most important gods to the Teutons.
Wotan?
Mittwoch?
It wasn't quite rhyming.
In the Middle Ages, the church could not take it any longer when wotan was involved
And said: "We will not lose this day to wotan."
And he came up with a bright and practical idea:
Wednesday is the middle of the week, he said.
In the past,
Sunday was considered the first day of the week until 1976,
in this case Wednesday was exactly the middle.
mitte- middle, woche-week,
Mittwoch = middle of the week.
On Thursday it's Jupiter,
the god of the sky.
The Teutons brought Thor,
aka Donar, in his place.
Donner means lightning,
thunder in German.
Donnerstag, Doner's so it's the lightning god's day
Friday belongs to Venus, the god of love.
The Teutons, of course, have a god who takes care of their hearts:
The god of marriage and fertility Fricka
Or Freyja.
Venus is gone, replaced by Freyja.
Freitag became the Freyja's day
Saturday is Saturn's day
The English adapted it to their language as
Saturday, the day of saturn.
But the Teutons
did not substitute another god for Saturn.
They were inspired by the days of Jewish rest and worship,
sabati dies, or sabbath.
Let's get to the last day of the week,
Sonne is the sun, tag is the day.
so the Sun day.
The Teutons dedicated this day to the sunna to their sun goddess.
This is the story of 7 days.
Fortunately, the telescope had not been invented back then,
and our ancestors did not have to make up days for
planets invisible to the naked eye
such as Uranus and Neptune.
Otherwise, we would have to wait much longer for the weekend.
