Names of the days of the week: Difference between revisions

Emperor [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] adopted the seven-day week for official use in 321 CEAD, making the Day of the Sun ({{lang|la|dies Solis}}, "Sunday") a legal holiday.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schaff |first=Philip |url=https://archive.org/details/historychristia01schagoog |title=History of the Christian Church Vol. III |date=1884 |publisher=T&T Clark |location=Edinburgh |page=[https://archive.org/details/historychristia01schagoog/page/n299 380] |access-date=15 March 2019}}</ref>

In the international standard [[ISO 8601]], Monday is treated as the first day of the week, but in many countries it's is counted as the second day of the week.

Between the first and third centuries CEAD, the [[Roman Empire]] gradually replaced the eight-day Roman nundinal cycle with the seven-day week. The earliest evidence for this new system is a Pompeiian graffito referring to 6 February (''ante diem viii idus Februarias'') of the year 60 CEAD as ''dies solis'' ("Sunday").<ref>''Nerone Caesare Augusto Cosso Lentuol Cossil fil. Cos. VIII idus Febr(u)arius dies solis, luna XIIIIX nun(dinae) Cumis, V (idus Februarias) nun(dinae) Pompeis''. Robert Hannah, "Time in Written Spaces", in: Peter Keegan, Gareth Sears, Ray Laurence (eds.), ''Written Space in the Latin West, 200 BCEBC to 300 CEAD'', A&C Black, 2013,

[https://books.google.com/books?id=PeVLAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 p. 89].</ref> Another early witness is a reference to a lost treatise by [[Plutarch]], written in about 100 CEAD, which addressed the question of: "Why are the days named after the planets reckoned in a different order from the 'actual' order?"<ref>E. G. Richards, ''Mapping Time, the Calendar and History'', Oxford 1999. p. 269</ref> The treatise is lost, but the answer to the question is known; see [[planetary hours]].{{fact|date=May 2023}}

By the fourth century CEAD, it was in wide use throughout the Empire. {{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}

The date of the introduction of this system is not known exactly, but it must have happened later than CE100 200AD but before the introduction of Christianity during the 6th to 7th centuries, i.e., during the final phase or soon after the collapse of the [[Western Roman Empire]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grimm |first=Jacob |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I2WhHX2peKEC&pg=PA123 |title=Teutonic Mythology |publisher=Courier Corporation |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-486-43546-6 |pages=122–123}}</ref> This period is later than the [[Common Germanic]] stage, but still during the phase of undifferentiated [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]]. The names of the days of the week in [[North Germanic languages]] were not [[calque]]d from Latin directly, but taken from the West Germanic names.

[[Hindu astrology]] uses the concept of days under the regency of a planet{{clarify|date=October 2021}} under the term ''vāsara/vāra'', the days of the week being called [[Sūrya|sūrya-/ravi''-'']]'', [[Soma (drink)|chandra-/soma-]], [[maṅgala]]-, [[budha]]-, [[Brihaspati|guru-/bṛhaspati-]], [[śukra]]-,'' and ''[[śani]]-vāsara''. ''śukrá'' is a name of Venus (regarded as a son of [[Bhṛgu]]); ''[[guru]]'' is here a title of [[Bṛhaspati]], and hence of Jupiter; ''budha'' "Mercury" is regarded as a son of ''Soma'', that is, the Moon.<ref>Monier-Williams, ''Sanskrit-English Dictionary'' (1899), s.v. ''vāsara''.</ref> Knowledge of [[Greek astrology]] existed since about the 2nd century BCEBC{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}, but references to the ''vāsara'' occur somewhat later, during the [[Gupta period]] (''[[Yājñavalkya Smṛti]]'', c. 3rd to 5th century CEAD), that is, at roughly the same period or before the system was introduced in the Roman Empire.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

| {{lang|bn|রবিবার/সূর্যবার}}<br>{{transliteration|bn|RabibārRobibar/SūryabārŚurjobar}}

| {{lang|bn|সোমবার/চন্দ্রবার}}<br>{{transliteration|bn|SomabārŚōmbar/Chandrabār}}

| {{lang|bn|মঙ্গলবার}}<br>{{transliteration|bn|MangalbārMoṅgolbar}}

| {{lang|bn|বুধবার}}<br>{{transliteration|bn|BudhabārBudhbar}}

| {{lang|bn|বৃহস্পতিবার/গুরুবার}}<br>{{transliteration|bn|BrihaspatibārBrihośpotibar/Gurubār}}

| {{lang|bn|শুক্রবার/জুম্মাবার}}<br>{{transliteration|bn|ShukrabārŚukrobar/Jummabar}}{{ref label|GATHER|♀4|♀4}}

| {{lang|bn|শনিবার}}<br>{{transliteration|bn|ShanibārŚonibar}}

The Chinese had apparently adopted the seven-day week from the Hellenistic system by the 4th century CEAD, although by which route is not entirely clear. It was again transmitted to China in the 8th century CEAD by Manichaeans, via the country of [[Kangju|Kang]] (a Central Asian polity near [[Samarkand]]).<ref>The Chinese encyclopaedia ''[[Cihai]]'' (辭海) under the entry for "seven luminaries calendar" (七曜曆, ''qī yào lì'') has:

"method of recording days according to the seven luminaries [七曜 ''qī yào'']. China normally observes the following order: Sun, Mon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. Seven days make one week, which is repeated in a cycle. Originated in ancient Babylon (or ancient Egypt according to one theory). Used by the Romans at the time of the 1st century CEAD, later transmitted to other countries. This method existed in China in the 4th century CEAD. It was also transmitted to China by Manichaeans in the 8th century CEAD from the country of Kang (康) in Central Asia" (translation after [http://www.cjvlang.com/Dow/dowjpn.html Bathrobe's Days of the Week in Chinese, Japanese & Vietnamese, plus Mongolian and Buryat] (cjvlang.com)</ref>

The 4th-century CEAD date, according to the ''[[Cihai]]'' encyclopedia,{{year needed|date=April 2015}} is due to a reference to Fan Ning (范寧), an astrologer of the [[Jin dynasty (265–420)|Jin dynasty]]. The renewed adoption from Manichaeans in the 8th century CEAD ([[Tang dynasty]]) is documented with the writings of the Chinese Buddhist monk [[Yijing (monk)|Yijing]] and the Ceylonese Buddhist monk [[Amoghavajra|Bu Kong]].

| [[:zh:星期日曜日|星期日曜日]]<br />''XīngqīrìRìyàorì''

| [[:zh:星期一月曜日|星期一月曜日]]<br />''XīngqīyīYuèyàorì''

| [[:zh:星期二火曜日|星期二火曜日]]<br />''XīngqīèrHuǒyàorì''

| [[:zh:星期三水曜日|星期三水曜日]]<br />''XīngqīsānShuǐyàorì''

| [[:zh:星期四木曜日|星期四木曜日]]<br />''XīngqīsìMùyàorì''

| [[:zh:星期五金曜日|星期五金曜日]]<br />''XīngqīwǔJīnyàorì''

| [[:zh:星期六土曜日|星期六土曜日]]<br />''XīngqīliùTǔyàorì''

Colloquially, the week is also known as the "PrayerWorship" ({{zh|p=Lǐbài|s=礼拜|t=禮拜}}), with the names of the days of the week formed accordingly. This is also dominant in certain regional varieties of Chinese.

| {{lang|zh|[[:zh:星期日|週日/週天]]}}<br />{{transliteration|zh|Zhōurì}} (or {{transliteration|zh|Zhōutiān}}, rarely uesdused)

* [[Akan Calendar#Nnawɔtwe|Akan names of the seven-day week, known as ''Nawotwe''Nnawɔtwe]]