A WEEK FULL OF DAYS

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 a living
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is fair and wise, and good and gay .

We use the names of the weekdays every day. But where did these names come from? And why are there seven days in a week?

Let's take the second question first. The week is a Babylonian invention. It is seven days because they knew of seven wanderers amongst the 'fixed stars' in the sky. These were the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets that can be seen with the naked eye - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. And so they named the days of the week after these seven celestial objects, but not in that order. The order went Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn. And in some countries derivations of these names still exist. Take France for instance. Dimanche, Lundi (from the Latin 'Luna'), Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi. Where Dimanche comes from I haven't a clue, but the others do bear some resemblance.

But what of the names for the days that we use in England. Sunday and Monday are obviously the Sun's day and the Moon's Day. But what of the rest. It turns out that they are named after a mixture of ferocious gods of war and gentle goddesses, all, except one, worshipped by northern people. Gods like Tiw, for instance. Tiw or Tiu, as he was known by the Anglo-Saxons, or Tyr, as he was known to the Norsemen, was a god of war and guided warriors who worshipped him. He lived on a high mountain and whenever a believer died in battle he would come down to Earth with a group of beautiful women and take him to paradise. To honour Tiw, the people named a day of the week after him. They named the day Tiwesdaeg, which became Tuesday in English.

There was one god whom the people of the North believed held power over all the other gods - the Norse god Woden, known by the English as Odin. Legend tells that Woden wanted more than anything to be wise, so he travelled the world in a quest for wisdom. In order to receive the gifts of wisdom and knowledge he was required to give one of his eyes. After doing so, he wore a large hat with a floppy brim to cover his missing eye. As Woden travelled he carried two blackbirds perched upon his shoulders. They acted as his spies and at night they flew down to Earth to gather information on the people, reporting back to their master each morning. Woden always knew all the happenings on the Earth and many things had to be done in secret for fear of his disapproval. The people named a day of the week after him to honour him. This day, Wodnesdaeg, which became Wednesday in English, which must be the only word in the English language with a silent 'D'.

Thunder and lightning must seem terrible things to people who do not understand the physics of them, The people of northern Europe couldn't understand what they were. In their wisdom, they decided the flashing light and loud rumbling must be caused by an angry god. But this god needed a name so they called him Thor, although the Romans called him Jove and the Greeks knew him as Zeus. When the thunder rolled, they claimed Thor was angry and was throwing his large hammer across the sky and this caused the lightning to dance in a fit of rage. While Thor was throwing his temper tantrums he rode across the sky in a chariot pulled by two goats, and it was the wheels of this chariot which made the sound of the thunder. The people were so in awe of Thor that they gave him his own day, Thuresdaeg, which we now call Thursday.

As already mentioned, the most powerful god was Woden or Odin, and he was married to a kind and beautiful goddess who was the patroness of love, marriage and fertility. She sat on her throne next to Odin (or Woden) and together they watched the happenings all over the world. Her name - Frigg or Frigga, or even Freyja. The people loved her so much they named a day after her, calling it Frigedaeg, which became Friday.

Long ago in the days of the great Roman Empire, a god named Saturn ruled over the farmlands. According to the people, Saturn was the god of agriculture. He controlled the weather and could make it good if he was happy or make it bad if he was angry. Saturn decided how much rainfall each village would get during the year. If the inhabitants did not please him they might not get any rain at all and their crops would be ruined. Before planting time, a Roman farmer would ask Saturn to give him good weather for his crops. They believed they must sacrifice an animal in order to please him. If the god accepted this sacrifice he would then make the weather nice for the farmers. In order to score extra points with Saturn the people named a day of the week after him - "Saturni dies", or "day of Saturn", which became known as Saturday.

So there you have it. Seven days, all named after two celestial bodies and five ancient gods and goddesses. But if you had had the responsibility of giving names to the days, what would you have called them.

Just in case anyone is interested, I was born on a Tuesday, and I leave it up to you to come to your own conclusions.

BILL HUTCHINGS