If you ever wondered where the days of the week come from, its from the Norsk gods, who in turn represent planets like roman and greek gods. “Sky gods” where often planets and constellations. Most interesting is the Jewish holyday Sabbath, which relates to SATURday Which relates to SATURNday and even to SATIRday…
Read the full article here: http://nineplanets.org/days.html
Days of the Week
The seven-day system we use is based on the ancient astrological notion that the seven known celestial bodies influence what happens on Earth and that each of these celestial bodies controls the first hour of the day named after it. This system was brought into Hellenistic Egypt from Mesopotamia, where astrology had been practiced for millennia and where seven had always been a propitious number. In A.D. 321 the Emperor Constantine the Great grafted this astrological system onto the Roman calendar, made the first day of this new week a day of rest and worship for all, and imposed the following sequence and names to the days of the week. This new Roman system was adopted with modifications throughout most of western Europe: in the Germanic languages, such as Old English, the names of four of the Roman gods were converted into those of the corresponding Germanic gods:
Celestial Germanic modern modern
Body Latin god English Italian
------- -------- -------- --------- ----------
Sun Solis Sunday domenica
Moon Lunae Monday lunedì
Mars Martis Tiu Tuesday martedì
Mercury Mercurii Wodan Wednesday mercoledì
Jupiter Jovis Donar Thursday giovedì
Venus Veneris Freya Friday venerdì
Saturn Saturni Saturday sabato
Monday = Moonday = Moon
Tuesday = Tyrday = Mars
Wednesday = Wodan day = Mercury
Thursday = Thor Day (or Donar) Thunder day = Jupiter (hence him allways seen with the lightning bolts, planetary plasma perhaps)
Friday = Freyaday = Venus
Saturday = Saturn day
Sunday = Sun day
The Latin names for the weekdays survive in the modern Romance languages (though the weekend day names have been altered). Also, Japanese words for the days of the week also correspond indirectly to the same planets.
However, Prof. Neves of Universidade Nova de Lisboa informs me that there are remarkable exceptions: at least in Hebrew, in Greek, in Arabic, and in Portuguese (and in languages that were informed by those, like the Timorese Tetum), the days of the week are numbered. Sunday is number one (or day of the Lord in Portuguese – Domingo- and in Greek -Kiriaki). Friday is number six (except in Arabic, which calls it Day of the Gatthering) and all 4 languages call Sabbath (Sabado,as-Sabt, etc) to Saturday.
Months
Two of the English month names are also have planetary connections: January is named for Janus and March is named for Mars.
More origins from mythology:
