Day of the week
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The names of the days of the week in various world languages can be classified as either numerical or planetary; however in either case the names of one or more days may have been changed for religious or secular reasons. For instance Sunday is often named "Lord" (for Lord's Day) while Saturday is often named "Sabbath" or "washing day". Numerically named days may associate day one with Sunday as in Arabic, Hebrew and Portuguese, or may associate day one with Monday as in Russian and other Slavic languages. Planetary names for the days are derived from the Sun, Moon, and five visible planets (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn), each of which was associated with a Roman deity. The Germanic languages, including English, substitute indigenous Germanic gods with similar characteristics for many of the Roman deities.

The English names for the days of the week derive from the Anglo-Saxon deities stemming from the native paganism of the Anglo-Saxons. An exception to this is Saturday, which takes its name from the Roman deity Saturn. To varying extents, most regions with dominant Germanic languages practise a similar naming convention, with most of their weekdays named for their native Germanic deities.

The seven-day workweek is generally comprised of five working days ("weekdays") and two non-working days (the "weekend"), though which days of the week are which varies from country to country. Which day of the week is the "first" day also varies, even among countries that share the same weekend days.

Names of the days

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Remnants of Germanic deities are reflected in the English language names for days of the week, as (more or less) calques of the Roman names:

• Sunday: The name Sunday comes from the Old English Sunnandæg (pronounced [sun.nan.dæg] or [sun.nan.dæj), meaning "Day of the Sun". This is a translation of the Latin phrase Dies Solis. English, like most of the Germanic languages, preserves the original pagan/sun associations of the day. Many other European languages, including all of the Romance languages, have changed its name to the equivalent of "the Lord's day" (based on Ecclesiastical Latin Dies Dominica). Compare: Spanish and Portuguese Domingo, French Dimanche, Romanian Duminică and Italian Domenica.
• Monday: The name Monday comes from the Old English Mōnandæg (pronounced [mon.nan.dæg] or [mon.nan.dæj'), meaning "Day of the Moon". This is likely based on a translation of the Latin name Dies Lunae (cf. Romance language versions of the name, e.g., French Lundi, Spanish, Lunes, Romanian Luni, Italian Lunedì).
• Tuesday: The name Tuesday comes from the Old English Tiwesdæg (pronounced [ti.wes.dæg] or [ti.wes.dæj], meaning "Tyr's day." Tyr (in Old English, Tiw, Tew or Tiu) was a god of combat and heroic glory in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. The name of the day is based on Latin Dies Martis, "Day of Mars" (the Roman war god); compare: French Mardi, Spanish Martes, Romanian Marţi and Italian Martedì.
• Wednesday: The name Wednesday comes from the Old English Wōdnesdæg (pronounced [woːd.nes.dæg] or [woːd.nes.dæj) meaning the day of the Germanic god Wodan, more commonly known as Odin, who was the highest god in Norse mythology, and a prominent god of the Anglo-Saxons (and other peoples) in England until about the seventh century. It is based on Latin Dies Mercurii, "Day of Mercury"; compare: French Mercredi, Spanish Miércoles, Romanian Miercuri and Italian Mercoledì. The connection between Mercury and Odin is more strained than the other syncretic connections. The usual explanation is that both Odin and Mercury were considered psychopomps, or leaders of souls, in their respective mythologies. Also, in Old Norse myth, Odin, like Mercury, is associated with poetic and musical inspiration. In German, the day is referred to as Mittwoch (mid week). Similarly in Finnish it is referred to as keskiviikko (keski = mid, viikko = week).
• Thursday: The name Thursday comes from the Old English Þūnresdæg (pronounced [θuːn.res.dæg] or [θuːn.res.dæj]), meaning the day of Þunor, commonly known in Modern English as Thor, the god of thunder in Norse Mythology and Germanic Paganism. It is based on the Latin Dies Iovis, "Day of Jupiter"; compare: French Jeudi, Spanish Jueves, Romanian Joi and Italian Giovedì. In the Roman pantheon, Jupiter was the chief god, who seized and maintained his power on the basis of his thunderbolt (Fulmen).
• Friday: The name Friday comes from the Old English Frigedæg (pronounced [fri.je.dæg] or [fri.je.dæj]), meaning the day of Frige, the Germanic goddess of beauty, who is a later incarnation of the Norse goddess Frigg, but also potentially connected to the Goddess Freyja. It is based on the Latin Dies Veneris, "Day of Venus"; compare: French Vendredi, Spanish Viernes, Romanian Vineri and Italian Venerdì. Venus was the Roman goddess of beauty, love and sex.
• Saturday: Saturday is the only day of the week to retain its Roman origin in English, named after the Roman god Saturn associated with the Titan Cronus, father of Zeus and many Olympians. Its original Anglo-Saxon rendering was Sæturnesdæg (pronounced [sæ.tur.nes.dæg] or [sæ.tur.nes.dæj]). In Latin it was Dies Saturni, "Day of Saturn"; compare: French Samedi. The Spanish and Portuguese Sábado, the Romanian Sâmbătă, and the Italian Sabato come from Sabbata Dies (Day of the Sabbath).

What is different is that the Germanic gods don't appear to preside over the planets involved. However, as shown above, they correspond to some extent to Roman gods that rule over the respective planets.

First day of the week

In English language countries the week may begin on either Sunday or Monday. Most business and social calendars in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia mark Sunday as the first day of the week, though in South Africa and South America, Monday is considered the first day of the working week^{citation needed}.

Sunday was the first day of the astrological week, the Hebrew week, and in the Ecclesiastical Latin week of the first millennium.

In Jewish and Christian tradition, the first day of the seven day week is Sunday. According to the Bible, God created the Earth in six days, and rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath, i.e. Saturday. This made Sunday the first day of the week, while Saturdays were sanctified for celebration and rest. After the week was adopted in Early Christian Europe, Sunday remained the first day of the week, but also gradually displaced Saturday as the day of celebration and rest, being considered the Lord's Day.

The variation is evident from names of the days in some languages — in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Portuguese some days are simply called by their number starting from Sunday, e.g. Monday is called "Second day" etc. In other languages, like Slavic languages, days are also called after their ordinal numbers, but starting from Monday, making Tuesday the "Second day". According to another possible explanation, days from Monday to Friday in Slavic languages aren't numbered by their position within the week, but by their distance from Sunday, especially given that Wednesday is named "The Middle day", which makes it a true statement only if Sunday is the first day of the week.

Through common usage in most of Europe for business purposes today, in South America, and in parts of Asia, Monday is considered to be the first day of the week and is literally named as such in languages such as Mandarin (xingqiyi) and Lithuanian (pirmadienis). The ISO prescribes Monday as the first day of the week with ISO-8601 for software date formats.

Origins

Various sources^who? point to the seven day week having originated in ancient Babylonia or Sumer.^{citation needed} It has been suggested^who? that a seven day week might be much older.^{citation needed} The seven day planetary week originated in Hellenistic Egypt.^{citation needed}

It is suggested that the seven day week derives from early human observation that there are seven celestial objects (the five visible planets plus the Sun and the Moon) which move in the night sky relative to the fixed stars.^[1] Seven days is also the approximate time between the principal phases of the Moon (new, first quarter, full, last quarter). In any event, a seven day week based on heavenly luminaries eventually diffused both East and West, to the Romans via the Greeks, and to the Japanese via Manicheans, Indians and Chinese.

Hindu civilization, which used a seven-day week, mentioned in the Ramayana, a sacred epic written in Sanskrit about 500 BC, used names such as Bhanu-vaar meaning Sunday, Soma-vaar meaning Moon-day and so forth.

The earliest known reference in Chinese writings is attributed to Fan Ning, who lived in the late 4th century, while diffusions via India are documented with the writings of the Chinese Buddhist monk Yi Jing and the Ceylonese or Central Asian Buddhist monk Bu Kong of the 8th century. The Chinese transliteration of the planetary system was soon brought to Japan by the Japanese monk Kobo Daishi; surviving diaries of the Japanese statesman Fujiwara Michinaga show the seven day system in use in Heian Period Japan as early as 1007. In Japan, the seven day system was kept in use (for astrological purposes) until its promotion to a full-fledged (Western-style) calendrical basis during the Meiji era.

The seven day week is known to have been unbroken for almost two millennia via the Alexandrian, Julian, and Gregorian calendars. The date of Easter Sunday can be traced back through numerous computistic tables to an Ethiopic copy of an early Alexandrian table beginning with the Easter of 311 as described by Otto Neugebauer in Ethiopic astronomy and computus. Only one Roman date with an associated day of the week exists from the first century and it agrees with the modern sequence, if properly interpreted (see below). Jewish dates with a day of the week do not survive from this early period.

In other languages

Romance languages

In most Romance languages, such as Italian, Spanish, French and Romanian, the names of the days except Saturday and Sunday come from Roman gods via Latin. Latin itself calqued the names from Greek. The Roman (Latin) names of the days are still used in some English courts such as the House of Lords.^[2]

The major exception is Portuguese which uses a numbered system derived from the Ecclesiastical Latin day names, as opposed to Classic Latin.

Christianization

The early Christian Church, uncomfortable using names based on pagan gods, introduced a simple numerical nomenclature which persists in some European languages such as Portuguese and Greek. The Christian names are derived from Hebrew, which numbers all days of the week beginning with "First day" for Sunday but ending with the "Sabbath" for Saturday. Arabic names for Sunday through Thursday are first through fifth days; Friday (the day when Muslims are expected to perform noon prayers as a group) is named the "gathering day" and Saturday is Sabt which means "the End" because the count of the days of the week end with it.

It was Saint Martin of Dumio (c. 520–580), archbishop of Braga, who decided that it was unworthy of good Christians to call the days of the week by the Latin names of pagan gods and decided to use the ecclesiastic terminology to designate them (Feria secunda, Feria tertia, Feria quarta, Feria quinta, Feria sexta, Sabbatum, Dominica Dies), from which came the present Portuguese numbered system. Martin also tried to replace the names of the planets, but in that he was not successful. In Middle Ages, Galician-Portuguese still retained both systems (as seen in older texts), nowadays only Portuguese's sister language Galician uses the old Roman gods system. For that reason, the first day of the week in Portuguese is Sunday (Domingo).

The Slavic languages adopted numbering but took Monday rather than Sunday as the "first day".

Celtic languages

Welsh, the closest living language to that of Roman Britain, faithfully preserves all the Latin names,^[3] even though the language itself is not directly descended from Latin: dydd Llun, dydd Mawrth, dydd Mercher, dydd Iau, dydd Gwener, dydd Sadwrn, Sul.

In Irish, the Latin names are used for Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.^[4] Three days are named for the traditional Roman Catholic days of fasting and abstinence. Wednesday is "the first fast": An Chéadaoin; Friday "the fast": An Aoine; leaving Thursday as "the day between two fasts", An Dé idir dhá aoin, contracted to An Déardaoin.

Germanic languages

In English all the days of the week are named after the ruling luminary, with most of the names coming from Germanic deities, such as Wodan (Wednesday) and Thor (Thursday). Sunday and Monday are named directly from the Sun and Moon.

Saturday is the only day named directly after a Roman god, though the Germanic god associated with each day is generally a syncretic calque of the corresponding divinity from the Roman calendar. Other Germanic languages generally follow the same pattern, although the German for Wednesday is Mittwoch (mid-week) and Dutch is the only other with an equivalent to Saturday.

Icelandic is notably divergent, maintaining only the Sun and Moon (sunnudagur and mánudagur respectively), while dispensing with the names of the explicitly heathen gods in favor of a combination of numbered days and days whose names are linked to pious or domestic routine (föstudagur, "Fasting Day" and laugardagur, "Washing Day"). The "washing day" is also used in other North Germanic languages, although the "pagan" names generally are retained.

Indic languages

In the Hindu Calendar followed in South Asia and South-East Asia the days of the week (named after the planets, starting from Sunday) are called bhaanu vaasara (Sun), indu vaasara (Moon), mangal vaasara (Mars), saumya vaasara (Mercury), guru vaasara (Jupiter) bhrigu vaasara (Venus), sthira vaasara (Saturn).

The names of days in Hindi and Marathi are Ravivar (Sunday), Somvar (Monday), Mangalvar (Tuesday), Budhvar (Wednesday), Guruvar (Thursday), Shukravar (Friday) and Shanivar (Saturday)

In the linguistically unrelated South Indian dravidian languages language Tamil the days of the week are also named after the planets, in the same order as in the Romance languages and the Indo-Aryan languages - Thingal (Monday, Moon), Sevvaay (Tuesday, Mars), Puthan (Wednesday, Mercury), Viyaazhan (Thursday, Jupiter), Velli (Friday, Venus), Sani (Saturday, Saturn), Nyayiru (Sunday, Sun).

In the Sino-Tibetan language of Burmese, the days of the week, except for Sunday and Monday, named after the planets, are Sanskrit loan words. In order starting from Sunday, they are: Taninganway (Sino-Tibetan), Taninla (Sino-Tibetan), Inga (from Sanskrit 'Angara', "Mars"), Boddhahu (from Sanksrit 'Budha' "Mercury"), Kyathabaday (from Sanskrit "Vakyasapati"/"Bavahasapati"), Thaukkya (from Sanskrit 'Shukra' and combined with Pali 'Sukka') and Sanay (from Sanskrit "Shani").

Japanese and Korean

In Japanese and Korean, the days of the week are named after the Chinese astrological week, which is based on the Indian luminary week. The Chinese associated the five classical planets with the Five Elements. Notably, the order of the planets follows the Indian week, and not the order of the Chinese elements. (See table below.) For example, the planet Mercury is associated with the element Water, and Wednesday (dies Mercuris) is called "day of water" (suiyoubi, in Sino-Japanese). These names of days of the week were introduced by the end of the first millennium CE to Japan and Korea, but they were not widely used in Japanese or Korean daily life until the late 19th century.

Chinese

In modern Chinese, days of the week are numbered from one to six, except Sunday. Literally, the Chinese term of Sunday means "week day"(星期日 or 星期天). Monday is named literally "week one" in Chinese, Tuesday is "week two", and so on. However, China adopted the Western calendar, putting Sunday at the beginning of the calendar week, and Saturday (星期六, meaning "week six" in Chinese) at the end.^{citation needed}

A second way to refer to weekdays is using the word zhou (週), meaning "cycle." Therefore Sunday is referred to as zhoumo (週末), meaning "cycle's end" and Monday through Saturday is termed accordingly zhouyi (週一） "first of cycle," zhouer (週二 ) "second of cycle," and etc.

Another Chinese numbering system, found sometimes in spoken Chinese of southern languages (i.e. Cantonese/Yue, or Fukinese/Min), refers to Sunday as the "day of worship" (禮拜日 or 禮拜天) and numbers the other days "first [day after] worship" (Monday) through "sixth [day after] worship" (Saturday). The Chinese word used for "worship" is associated with Christian and Muslim worship, and the system's use may be connected with the arrival of Christianity, especially prevalent during in the 18th and 19th centuries in south coastal port cities.

In traditional Chinese calenders, days may still be referred to by their association with the sun, moon, and the Chinese elements of fire, water, wood, metal, and earth.

Cross-linguistic overview

The (suggested) purpose of these tables is to show how far different languages preserve the associations with the associated celestial bodies of ancient times and the Church's numbering of the days. (That is, not to list the names in "every" language: Wiktionary entries for the day names offer such lists – click on the links in the header row.)

Planetary

Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Celestial Body & Astronomical symbol	Sun	Moon	Mars	Mercury	Jupiter	Venus	Saturn
Latin	dies Solis	dies Lunae	dies Martis	dies Mercurĭi	dies Jovis	dies Venĕris	dies Saturni
Italian	domenica (1)	lunedì	martedì	mercoledì	giovedì	venerdì	sabato (2)
Spanish	domingo (1)	lunes	martes	miércoles	jueves	viernes	sábado (2)
Romanian	duminică (1)	luni	marţi	miercuri	joi	vineri	sâmbătă (2)
French	dimanche (1)	lundi	mardi	mercredi	jeudi	vendredi	samedi (2)
Galician	domingo (1)	luns	martes	mércores	xoves	venres	sábado (2)
Catalan	diumenge (1)	dilluns	dimarts	dimecres	dijous	divendres	dissabte (2)
Interlingua	Dominica (1)	Lunedi	Martedi	Mercuridi	Jovedi	Venerdi	Sabbato (2)
Ido	Sundio	Lundio	Mardio	Merkurdio	Jovdio	Venerdio	Saturdio (2)
Esperanto	dimanĉo (1)	lundo	mardo	merkredo	ĵaŭdo	vendredo	sabato (2)
Welsh	Dydd Sul	Dydd Llun	Dydd Mawrth	Dydd Mercher	Dydd Iau	Dydd Gwener	Dydd Sadwrn
Cornish	Dy Sul	Dy Lun	Dy Meurth	Dy Mergher	Dy Yow	Dy Gwener	Dy Sadorn
Breton	Disul	Dilun	Dimeurzh	Dimerc’her	Diriaou	Digwener	Disadorn
Irish	An Domhnach (1) Dé Domhnaigh	An Luan Dé Luain	An Mháirt Dé Máirt	An Chéadaoin Dé Céadaoin first fast	An Déardaoin Déardaoin day between two fasts	An Aoine Dé hAoine fast	An Satharn Dé Sathairn
Scots Gaelic	Di-Dòmhnaich (1)	Di-Luain	Di-Màirt	Di-Ciadain	Di-Ardaoin	Di-Haoine	Di-Sàthairne
Manx	Jedoonee (1)	Jelune	Jemayrt	Jecrean	Jerdrein	Jeheiney	Jesarn
West Frisian	Snein	Moandei	Tiisdei	Woansdei	Tongersdei	Freed	Sneon (8) or Saterdei
Old English	Sunnandæg sun's day	Mōnandæg	Tiwesdæg Tiw's day	Wodnesdæg Woden's day	Þunresdæg Thunor's day	Frigesdæg Frige's day	Sæternesdæg
Old High German	Sunnuntag	Mānetag	Zeistag Ziu's day	Wodanstag Wodan's day	Donerestag Donar's day	Friatag Freia's day	Sambaztag (2)
German	Sonntag	Montag	Dienstag	Mittwoch (3)	Donnerstag	Freitag	Samstag (2) or Sonnabend (8)
Dutch	zondag Sun day	maandag Moon day	dinsdag Thing day	woensdag Woden's day	donderdag Donar's day	vrijdag Freia day	zaterdag
Old Norse	Sunnundagr Sunna's day	Mánandagr	Tysdagr Tyr's day	Óðensdagr Odin's day	Þorsdagr Thor's day	Friádagr Freyja's day	Laugardagr (4)
Norwegian, Bokmål	søndag	mandag	tirsdag	onsdag	torsdag	fredag	lørdag (4)
Norwegian, Nynorsk	sundag	måndag	tysdag	onsdag	torsdag	fredag	laurdag (4)
Danish	søndag	mandag	tirsdag	onsdag	torsdag	fredag	lørdag (4)
Swedish	söndag	måndag	tisdag	onsdag	torsdag	fredag	lördag (4)
Finnish	sunnuntai	maanantai	tiistai	keskiviikko (3)	torstai	perjantai	lauantai (4)
Albanian	E diel	E hënë	E martë	E mërkurë	E enjte	E premte	E shtunë
Tagalog	Linggo (1)	Lunes	Martes	Miyerkules	Huwebes	Biyernes	Sabado (2)
Sanskrit	भानुवासरम् Bhaanu day (Sun)	इन्दुवासरम् Indu day (Moon)	भौमवासरम् Bhauma day (Mars)	सौम्यवासरम् Saumya day (Mercury)	गुरूवासरम Guru day (Jupiter)	भ्रगुवासरम् Bhrgu day (Venus)	स्थिरवासरम् Sthira day (Saturn)
Hindi	रविवार Ravivār (Sun day)	सोमवार Somavār (Moon day)	मंगलवार Mangalavār (Mars day)	बुधवार Budhavār (Mercury day)	गुरूवार Guruvār (Jupiter day)	शुक्रवार Shukravār (Venus day)	शनिवार Shanivār (Saturn day)
Bengali	রবিবার Robibar (Sun day)	সোমবার Shombar (Moon day)	মঙ্গলবার Monggolbar (Mars day)	বুধবার Budhbar (Mercury day)	বৃহস্পতিবার Brihôshpotibar (Jupiter day)	শুক্রবার Shukrobar (Venus day)	শনিবার Shonibar (Saturn day)
Burmese	တနင်္ဂနွေ Taninganway (Tananganve)	တနင်္လာ Taninla (Tanangla)	အင်္ဂါ Inga (Angga)	ဗုဒ္ဓဟူး Boddhahu (night time is considered a new day, "ရာဟူး" rahu)	ကြာသာပတေး Kyathabaday (Krasapate)	သောကြာ Thaukkya (Saukra)	စနေ Sanay (Cane)
Gujarati	રવિવાર Ravivār	સોમવાર Somavār	મંગળવાર Mangalavār	બુધવાર Budhavār	ગુરૂવાર Guruvār	શુક્રવાર Shukravār	શનિવાર Shanivār
Maldivian	އާދީއްތަ Aadheettha	ހޯމަ Homa	އަންގާރަ Angaara	ބުދަ Budha	ބުރާސްފަތި Buraasfathi	ހުކުރު Hukuru	ހޮނިހިރު Honihiru
Tamil	ஞாயிற்று கிழமை Nyāyitru day	திங்கட் கிழமை Thingat day	செவ்வாய்க் கிழமை Sevvāi day	புதன்க் கிழமை Budhan day	வியாழக் கிழமை Vyāzha day	வெள்ளிக் கிழமை Velli day	சனிக் கிழமை Shani day
Telugu	Aadi day	Soma day	Mangala day	Budha day	Bestha/Guru/Lakshmi day	Shukra day	Shani day
Kannada	ಭಾನುವಾರ Bhanu Vaara	ಸೋಮವಾರ Soma Vaara	ಮಂಗಳವಾರದ Mangala Vaara	ಬುಧವಾರ Budha Vaara	ಗುರುವಾರ Guru Vaara	ಶುಕ್ರವಾರ Shukra Vaara	ಶನಿವಾರ Shani Vaara
Thai	วันอาทิตย์ (Sun day) (Colour: Red)	วันจันทร์ (Moon day) (Colour: Yellow)	วันอังคาร (Mars (planet) day) (Colour: Pink)	วันพุธ (Mercury (planet) day) (Colour: Green)	วันพฤหัสบดี (Jupiter (planet) day) (Colour: Orange)	วันศุกร์ (Venus (planet) day) (Colour: Blue)	วันเสาร์ (Saturn (planet) day) (Colour: Purple)
Modern Chinese	星期日	星期一	星期二	星期三	星期四	星期五	星期六
Old Chinese (5)	日曜日 (Sun's day)	月曜日 (Moon's day)	火曜日 (Fire planet day) (Mars)	水曜日 (Water planet day) (Mercury)	木曜日 (Wood planet day) (Jupiter)	金曜日 (Metal planet day) (Venus)	土曜日 (Earth planet day) (Saturn)
Japanese (5)	日曜日 にちようび (Sun's day)	月曜日 げつようび (Moon's day)	火曜日 かようび (Fire planet day) (Mars)	水曜日 すいようび (Water planet day) (Mercury)	木曜日 もくようび (Wood planet day) (Jupiter)	金曜日 きんようび (Metal planet day) (Venus)	土曜日 どようび (Earth planet day) (Saturn)
Korean (5)	일요일 (Sun's day)	월요일 (Moon's day)	화요일 (Fire planet day) (Mars)	수요일 (Water planet day) (Mercury)	목요일 (Wood planet day) (Jupiter)	금요일 (Metal planet day) (Venus)	토요일 (Earth planet day) (Saturn)
Tibetan	gza' nyi ma (Sun's day)	gza' zla ba (Moon's day)	gza' mig mar (Fire planet day) (Mars)	gza' lhag pa (Water planet day) (Mercury)	gza' phur bu (Wood planet day) (Jupiter)	gza' pa sangs (Metal planet day) (Venus)	gza' spen pa (Earth planet day) (Saturn)
Mongolian (arga)	ням nyam (planet Sun)	даваа davaa (planet Moon)	мягмар myagmar (planet Mars)	лхагва lkhagva (planet Mercury)	пүрэв pürev (planet Jupiter)	баасан baasan (planet Venus)	бямба byamba (planet Saturn)
Mongolian (bilig)	адъяа adiya (planet Sun)	сумъяа sumiya (planet Moon)	ангараг angarag (planet Mars)	буд bud (planet Mercury)	бархабадь barhasbadi (planet Jupiter)	сугар sugar (planet Venus)	санчир sanchir (planet Saturn)
Indonesia	Minggu	Senin	Selasa	Rabu	Kamis	Jumat	Sabtu

Numerical

Notes

1. In Ecclesiastical Latin, the Romance languages, Greek, and the Gaelic languages, Sunday is named after the "Lord", because it is the day of the Resurrection of Jesus.
2. The Romance languages, Old High German and German, and the Slavic languages have words for Saturday that are derived from the Hebrew Sabbath, via late Greek Sabbaton.
3. German and Finnish call Wednesday, prosaically, "mid-week"; Estonian Kesknädal is equivalent, with "Third day" (kolmapäev) also used; Icelandic and Faroese uses "Mid-week day"; Polish, Russian, etc. have "Middle".
4. Old Norse, Swedish (and other North Germanic languages), and Finnish and Estonian (Finnic languages) call Saturday "Washday" or "Bathday", as it was the traditional day for washing and bathing.
5. The Japanese names are the same as the traditional way days of week were named in Chinese. The Korean names are also the same but written in Hangul.
6. Icelandic sunnudagur and mánudagur are astronomical, persisting presumably because they make no explicit reference to pagan gods.
7. See Lithuanian calendar.
8. An alternative naming for Saturday, used in Friesland and the northern parts of Germany, is derived from Sun-eve, the day before the day of the sun (parallel to "Christmas Eve", for example). Northern dialects of German use Sonnabend. In Frisian Sneon (sinnejûn) is used.

Astrology

The following text needs to be harmonized with text in the article Week. (See Wikipedia:Summary style.)

Between the 1st and 3rd centuries the Roman Empire gradually replaced the eight day Roman nundinal cycle with the seven-day week. The astrological order of the days was explained by Vettius Valens and Dio Cassius (and Chaucer gave the same explanation in his Treatise on the Astrolabe). According to these authors, it was a principle of astrology that the heavenly bodies presided, in succession, over the hours of the day. The Ptolemaic system asserts that the order of the heavenly bodies, from the farthest to the closest to the Earth, is: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. (This order was first established by the Greek Stoics.)

In astrological theory, not only the days of the week, but the hours of the day are dominated by the seven luminaries. If the first hour of a day is dominated by Saturn (), then the second hour is dominated by Jupiter (), the third by Mars (), and so on, so that the sequence of planets repeats every seven hours. Therefore, the twenty-fifth hour, which is the first hour of the following day, is dominated by the Sun; the forty-ninth hour, which is the first hour of the next day, by the Moon. Thus, if a day is labelled by the planet which dominates its first hour, then Saturn's day is followed by the Sun's day, which is followed by the Moon's day, and so forth, as shown below.

According to Vettius Valens, the first hour of the day began at sunset, which follows Greek and Babylonian convention. He also states that the light and dark halves of the day were presided over by the heavenly bodies of the first hour of each half. This is confirmed by a Pompeian graffito which calls 6 February 60 a Sunday, even though by modern reckoning it is a Wednesday. Thus this graffito used the daylight naming convention of Valens whereas the nighttime naming convention of Valens agrees with the modern astrological reckoning, which names the day after the ruler of the first daylight hour.

These two overlapping weeks continued to be used by Alexandrian Christians during the fourth century, but the days in both were simply numbered 1–7. Although names of gods were not used, the week beginning on Wednesday was named in Greek ton theon ([day] of the gods), as used by the late fourth-century editor of the