LESSON 52 HOW THE DAYS OF THE WEEK ARE NAMED

HOW THE DAYS OF THE WEEK ARE NAMED

“YOU remember, Arthur, how the months received their names?”

Harry had come home for the holidays. It was a rainy afternoon, and his younger brother was delighted to have a talk with Harry, though to tell the truth, had the weather been fine, Arthur would have preferred a swim or a gallop or a cricket match.

“Perfectly,” replied Arthur. “And I can guess how some of the days of the week are named. Sunday, of course, is named after the sun.”

“True,” answered Harry, “and there are still sun-worshippers [1] on the earth—people who recognise, as we do, that all heat and power come from the sun.

“Sunday was dedicated to the sun, and Monday, of course, is the day of the moon. To our Anglo-Saxon forefathers the two great luminaries [2] in the sky were the sun and the moon; none of the stars appeared to them to be anything like equal in size to the moon, whereas we know that the moon is the smallest of all the heavenly bodies visible to the naked eye.”

“How was Tuesday named?” asked Arthur.

“From Tiw, the Anglo-Saxon god of war. Just as the first month of the old Roman year was named after Mars, the war god of the Romans, so Tiw was placed first of the earthly deities [3] in the honour list of the Anglo-Saxons [4] .

“You might not guess Wednesday. It is Wodin’s day. Wodin, or Odin, as he is sometimes called, was the chief god of the ancient Scandinavians [5] . He was attended by two black men—Hugin, mind, and Munin, memory—the bearers of tidings between him and the people of his subject world. His council chamber was at Asgard.”

“What was that?” asked Arthur.

“According to the Norsemen [6] , it was the garden of the gods, where each god had a separate dwelling. They held intercourse with the other parts of the world by means of the rainbow, which they called the ‘Celestial Bridge.’ Wodin was said to hold his court in ‘Valhalla’ the Heroes’ Hall. It was to this abode that all the warriors slain in battle were said to go. Odin’s wife was called Freya.”

“Is that how we get Friday?” asked Arthur.

“Yes, the sixth day of the week was consecrated to her. It is said to be a day of ill-luck, though that is merely a foolish belief. The followers of the prophet Mohammed [7] call Friday their first day of the week because, as they believe, Adam was created on that day.”

“How about Thursday?” inquired Arthur.

“Odin’s two sons were Balder and Thor. Thor was, in the Norseman’s belief, the god of thunder. The thunder was his wrath, the gathering of black clouds was the drawing down of his angry brows; the fire-bolt from heaven was the all-rending hammer flung from Thor’s hand; he urged his chariot over the mountain- tops—that was the thunder peal; ‘wrathful he blows in his beard’—that was the rushing of the storm-blast before the thunder began.

“Thor was the strongest of the old gods, and it is no wonder that a day was named after him in preference to his brother Balder, who was noted for his beauty but not for his strength.”

“Was Saturday named after another son of Wodin?” asked Arthur.

“Saturday,” said Harry hurriedly (for it was clearing up, and there was the chance of a game after all), “was named after Saturn, one of the oldest deities, the god of Time. He was represented as an old man bearing a sickle.”

“Does everybody have a week of seven days?”

“Oh, no,” rejoined Harry. “The Chinese and Thibetans count only five days, which they name after iron, wood, water, feathers, and earth.”

“Why do we have seven?” said the curious Arthur.

“Why not?” rejoined his brother in a very learned tone, that was meant to be final, and so it proved.

—E. W. H. F.

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[1] sun-worshippers: Parsees living in Persia and India.

[2] luminaries: Bodies that give light, especially the heavenly bodies.

[3] deities: Gods and goddesses.

[4] Anglo-Saxons: The Saxons of England as, distinguished from those of the Continent.

[5] Scandinavians: People of Norway and Sweden.

[6] Norsemen: Men from the North (of Europe).

[7] Mohammed—or Mahomet—(571-632): The great prophet of the Arabs, founder of a religion professed by millions of the human race.