April 06th, 2020

I have heard reports from lots  of people that with this whole stay at home quarantine thing, some folks are losing track of time. Literally unsure of what day of the week is underway at any particular moment. 
I get it.

We all have routines.  Monday is that day that I__________  (fill in the blank).  It's different for everyone of course.  But for most of us, the routine stays pretty much the same every week.   
Even for retirees like me,  there are specific tasks on specific days of course: Laundry on Monday, Pilates Class on Tuesday, Museum on Wednesday and on and on for every day of the week. But it's not quite such a hard line.  If I don't get the grocery shopping done on Tuesday, then I'll do it Wednesday (I speak of the old days of course). 

Now, however, while in quarantine, the only thing on that list left to me is Laundry - because laundry is like cockroaches.  It never dies.   I don't have to be at a specific place at a specific time.  And yes, the days have begun to blur together.

Please note that I have two photo-a-day calendars  pictured above.  Those two calendars are the only way I know what each day is anymore. Every single morning, shortly after I get up, I tear off yesterday and reveal the new day and date.  Thank goodness.

So as a kindness to you, and frankly an assurance to me, let it therefore be known that:

Today is Monday, April 6th.  

Good to know.

Traditionally, in my life, my Monday attitude wasn't, "Yuck Monday' it was more, "Yay, Monday!"  I always felt like a Monday was the start of a new week.  And another chance to do it right.

But I was wrong.

Monday is NOT the start of a new week.  Monday is the Second Day of the New week.  What?  Did you know this?  I absolutely did not.  In Canada, Japan and the USA, Sunday, not Monday, is the beginning of every week.  Shocker!

The actual name: "  Monday"  gets its name from the Anglo-Saxon word "mondandaeg" which translates to "the moon's day." The second day of the week in Nordic cultures was devoted to worshipping the goddess of the moon. Girls born on Mondays were given the name Mona in Ancient Britain, as it was the Old English word for moon.

Why those wacky old Norsemen chose to worship the moon goddess on that particular day every week is a mystery.   Suffice it to say that in the paraphrased words of Jean Luc Picard, 'they made it so".  

But looking that up got me curious about the rest of the week.   What else do I not know about the days of the week??  So to further educate us all.  Here you go:

The name Tuesday comes from a Middle English word, Tiwesday. ... This was named after the Nordic god Tyr. Tyr was the God of War, like the Roman war god Mars, and Greek god Ares. In Latin, Tuesday is called Martis dies which means "Mars's Day.  So I suppose if you are cranky on Tuesdays, it is totally justified.

The name Wednesday actually derives from two mighty but distinct gods. The Old English word for Wednesday indicates that the day was named for the Germanic god Woden. In Romance languages, the name is derived from the Roman god Mercury. (For example, Wednesday is mercredi in French and miercuri in Romanian.)  Why it is spelled the way it is I do not know.  It just looks wrong.   I have no idea why Wednesday Adams was named Wednesday although I suspect it had something to do with a play on the name of a certain very popular (and polar opposite) actress of the day, Tuesday Weld.

The English word Thursday is named after the Norse god of thunder, Thor. Thursday means Thor's day in Old English. Thor is represented riding a chariot drawn by goats and wielding his hammer. In most languages with Latin origins, the day is named after the god and planet Jupiter.  So I suppose we should feel extra powerful on Thursdays.  Or wield magical hammers.  One or the other.

The name Friday comes from the Old English Frīġedæġ, meaning the "day of Frige", a result of an old convention associating the Germanic goddess Frigg with the Roman goddess Venus, with whom the day is associated in many different cultures.  Venus the Goddess of Love representing Friday.  Everyone loves Friday. Even a bad Friday.  Because the next day is Saturday!   Makes perfect sense to me!

Saturday is named after the Roman god and planet Saturn. Saturday is the only day of the week that retained its Roman origin in English. Saturn is the Roman and Italic god of agriculture and the consort of Ops, So  I suppose we are supposed to do yard work or garden work on Saturday. Or go to a Farm Market? Oh wait, Grocery Shopping!  I get it now.

The name Sunday, the day of the Sun, is derived from Hellenistic astrology, where the seven planets, known in English as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon, each had an hour of the day assigned to them, and the planet which was regent during the first hour of any day of the week gave its name . Obviously, that would be the Sun.  Now we all know that the sun is actually not a planet. Okay.  But since the sun is the biggest, baddest, most incredible thing in our galaxy, I'm cool with it being number one.  You?

And now you know.