Sunday, March 15, 2015

Days of the week

I was explaining to my youngest granddaughter why the days are called as they are. No problem with Sunday (Sun), Monday (Moon), Wednesday (Woden), Thursday (Thor), Friday (Freya) and Saturday (Saturn), but I was brought up short by Tuesday. Couldn't think who or what that is called after.  Of course, we now have Google, so it was just a couple of clicks to find that the Old English god of war was called Tiu or Tiw and Tuesday is his day.  Interesting that the Roman god of war was Mars, and in most European languages the day bears his name (Mardi, Martedi, Martes and so on). Indeed Gaelic, Welsh and Cornish also name the day after Mars (Dimairt, dydd Mawrth, dy' Meurth).  So there you are.

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