Days of the Week

Each day of our week is named after a Pagan God. The Roman names were changed in English to match the similar gods of English Mythology. The week is a period of seven days, having no reference whatever to the celestial motions. Although it did not enter into the calendar of the Greeks, and was not introduced in Rome till after the reign of Theodosius, it has been employed from time immemorial in almost all eastern countries.

The days of the week might have been suggested by the phases of the moon, or by the number of the planets known in ancient times; an origin which is rendered more probable from the names universally given to the different days of which it is composed. In Egyptian astronomy, the order of the planets, beginning with the most remote, is Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. Each hour in the day was consecrated to a particular planet. One to Saturn, the next to Jupiter, the third to Mars, and so on according to the above order; and the day received the name of the planet which presided over its first hour.

If the first hour of a day was consecrated to Saturn, that planet would also have the 8th, the 15th, and the 22nd hour. The 23rd would fall to Jupiter, the 24th to Mars, and the 25th, or the first hour of the second day, would belong to the Sun. In like manner the first hour of the 3rd day would fall to the Moon, the first of the 4th day to Mars, of the 5th to Mercury, of the 6th to Jupiter, and of the 7th to Venus. The cycle being completed, the first hour of the 8th day would return to Saturn, and all the others succeed in the same order.

According to Dio Cassius, the Egyptian week began on Saturday. On their flight from Egypt, the Jews, out of hatred toward the Egyptians, made Saturday the last day of the week.

The English names of the days are derived from the Saxon. The ancient Saxons had borrowed the week from some Eastern nation, and substituted the names of their own divinities for those of the gods of Greece. In legislative and judiciary acts the Latin names are still retained.

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