Where do the names of the days of the week come from?

TRANSCRIPT

So, "Sunday", the main religious day in the Christian world, but before Christianity in the pagan times, Sunday-obviously, "sun"-was named after the sun. Sun's Day. Because, obviously, you look up into the sky and the sun is the brightest thing there, and it keeps you warm and all of that, so everyone knew the sun was very important for human life to survive, so they named the first day of the week after the sun. Sun's Day. And just to make a link, here, with the German language because we share a lot of similar words with the German language: "Sonntag", so in German as well, the sun... The word for "sun" in German is in the name of the German word for Sunday. Okay. Right, so that's Sunday, Sun's Day, the day dedicated to the sun.

Next day: "Monday". It's not totally obvious, but it's named after the moon. Moon. "Mon", "moon", so there's a little moon. And again, because the sun, most important and then after that you look up in the sky at night and you see the moon, so it's like the second most important thing that you see. So, Moon's Day, Monday. And in German: "Montag", so that's the moon in German. But also, the example from French because in French the word for "moon" is "lune", "la lune", so in French, again, the day is named after the moon and it's called "lundi". So even in French, which has a different word, it's still connected with the moon. Okay. Right, so that's the sun and the moon for the first two days of the week.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. "Tuesday" is named after one of the pagan gods called Tiu, T-i-u. Tiu's Day. Okay? And he came from the sort of North European group of gods. Okay? And Tiu was the god of war. He represented war or... And the god of the sky, generally. And the link, here, with the Southern European gods which come mostly from the Roman gods. So, the French name for Tuesday, and the French words come from the southern group of gods, the Roman god of war is Mars. Okay? Like the planet... There's also a link with the planets, and that's the red planet, Mars. So, in French, Tuesday is called "mardi" because it's linked to Mars. So, in the northern group of gods we have Tiu's Day and he's the god of war, and in the southern group of gods we have mardi, Mars, and Mars is also the god of war in the Southern European gods. Okay. Whoops, sorry. Right.

Moving on: "Wednesday", which is always a tricky one to spell, difficult to spell. It's Wed-nes-day, but we pronounce it: "Wensday". That's named after Woden. Woden's Day. Okay? And Woden was the sort of chief god in charge of all the other gods. He was the top god. Woden's Day. Okay. In the southern group of gods, in French, Wednesday is "mercredi", which is named after Mercury. But in this case, Mercury is not the equivalent of Woden. So, sorry, that's a bit not very... Anyway, that's the way it goes. We can't change it. "mercredi" in French is named after Mercury, who was the messenger god. Okay. And again, there's a planet named after Mercury as well. So, anyway, Northern European, Woden's Day. Wednesday. Right.

[jorgevelazquez]

She's one of the best teacher I' ve ever seen. You study pronuonciation but also learn from history and culture that is amazing

[Hit-First-And-Hit-Hard]

I've been teaching English for dozens of years and didn't know the origins of the names of the week. Your video was most useful in that sense. Thank you!

[lenientanna]

Oh my gosh she is a great teacher its like she's the type of old people that you have to respect no matter what !! i would bow to her

[kyara]

Why this video have dislikes? She's an amazing teacher.

[SuperShortsFactory]

She is definitely a wonderful teacher!

[ninaat]

I wish you were my history teacher. i can listen to you all day without getting bored ❤️.Thank you for such a great lesson

[behmog]

So nice to see an original and genuinely natural teacher. Surprisingly, whatever you teach is perfectly stored in my mind as a person whose life has been full of digitalized contents. I appreciate your teachings and please keep going on with new lessons for us.

[danygalvao]

Hello! I'm Daniela and I'm from Arujá, São Paulo, Brazil. This teacher is amazing. Love her so much.
Days of the week in Portuguese:
Domingo: Sunday (Domingos is a name of Man here)
Segunda: female word for second: Monday
Terça: Tuesday
Quarta: female word for fourth: Wednesday
Quinta: female word for fifth: Thursday
Sexta: female word for sixth: Friday
Sábado: Saturday
That's it! :)

[Гай-НижникДзвениславаПавлівна]

Hello, Gill! I from Ukraine. I'm eleventh years old. I would never have guessed that the names of the days of week have names of pagan gods!!! Thank you so much for the interesting information! Your channel is amazing!

[leysibres]

Thank you so much, lovely Lady!
In Italian, the names of the days are as follows:
Lunedì = Monday
Martedì = Tuesday
Mercoledì = Wednesday
Giovedì = Thursday
Venerdì = Friday
Sabato = Saturday
Domenica = Sunday

[MacSherry]

She a grand teacher…got us all talking and thinking. Thanks everyone!

[fasttwitchmedia]

62 year old English speaking guy here in the U.S. and I never knew this until now. I love your presentations. You are awesome and lovely.

[ElenaGrauV]

You're one of the best english teachers of the world ! And thank you very much for your vídeos ! Greetings from Venezuela!

[nicolaobr]

I´m a teacher of English in Brazil and I simply learn a lot with you Gill. You are GREAT.

[angorali]

1:21 Sunday
2:43 Monday
3:55 Tuesday
5:37 Wednesday
6:57 Thursday
8:44 Friday
9:54 Saturday

[rahulagarwal]

That's exactly the kind of teacher one would need during their childhood.... Explanatory, logical and confident...

[hakanistan]

Hello everybody! I would like to explain the days of the week in Turkish 🇹🇷🇬🇧

Sunday : Pazar ( I think this word comes from Persian which means “Bazaar” )
Monday : Pazartesi ( it means “the day after bazaar” )
Tuesday : Salı
Wednesday : Çarşamba ( it means “4th day” in Persian )
Thursday : Perşembe ( it means “5th day” in Persian )
Friday : Cuma ( it means “meeting” in Arabic )
Saturday : Cumartesi ( it means “the day after Cuma” )

And also the first day of the week is Monday in Turkey.

[ilonakatalindako-tolman]

I loved meeting you🥰 my 1st English teacher in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the English Culture school was with my very loving teacher who looked just like you do and in a very large classroom with all kinds of pictures and names and so much more. But the most touching way was her very loving way, smile face and who looked at me in such loving way that I just loved learning. English became my loving companion in such a way that in a wonderful surprise I was invited to teach just as I finished my program ...and I still do...50 years 💫🥰💝

[चंद्रकांतकुमार-णथ]

In Hindi:
Ravivaar (Surya/sun day)
Somavaar ( Moon day)
Mangalvaar ( Mars day)
Budhvaar (Mercury day)
Brihaspativaar ( Jupiter day)
Shukravaar ( Venus day)
Shanivaar ( Saturn day)

[devjanichakraborty]

Ma'am Gill,
You are a very polite and soft spoken person and a great source of inspiration to us ! You are a very dedicated professor of English language but absolutely free from any kind of airs and that is really a fascinating part of your personality and I love learning whatever you teach on eng.Vid ! This lesson on the days of the week had been quite interesting as I know a little bit of French on a very primary level, so it was easier for me to understand ! All my best wishes to you and keep on teaching in your innovative style !
Thank you so much, Ma'am Gill ! 😃