It's all Latin to us...

[rebness]

What started off as a little aside in my previous post became the sort of academic discussion that makes me come over all geeky and very, very happy. So, thanks to the doubly nefarious and splendid input of ozfille, verastar99 and saffronlie, here is more than you ever wanted to know about the naming of the months and the days of the week:

Months of the Year

January -- Janus, the two-headed God o’D00m (I bet he was an Aquarian. Go, us!)
February – After Februa, the Roman festival of purification
March – Mars
April– Aphrodite
May– Maia, the Italian goddess of spring
June– The goddess Juno
July – Julius Caesar
August– Augustus Caesar
September– Seven
October– Eight, duh
November– Nine, ditto
December – Ten, ibid

Days of the Week

English            French            Latin           Nordic

Monday            Lundi               Moon           Moon

Tuesday            Mardi              Mars            Tiw

Wednesday      Mercredi          Mercury       Woden

Thursday          Jeudi                Jupiter           Thor

Friday              Vendredi          Venus           Freya

Saturday          Samedi             Saturn           Saturn

Sunday            Dimanche         "Sun"             Sun

The link with the sun has been broken in French, but Sunday was called dies solis (day of the sun) in Latin.

It is interesting to note that also some Asiatic languages (for example, Hindi, Japanese, and Korean) have a similar relationship between the week days and the planets.

ETA: kyuuketsukirui informs me that Japanese also references the sun for Sunday, and the moon for Monday. Dude!

English has retained the original planets in the names for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. For the four other days, however, the names of Anglo-Saxon or Nordic gods have replaced the Roman gods that gave name to the planets. Thus, Tuesday is named after Tiw, Wednesday is named after Woden, Thursday is named after Thor, and Friday is named after Freya.

And so there we have it. Most informative LJ around, baby!*

*Possibly sheer hyperbole, and a lie, to boot.

Comments

[silverthoughts.livejournal.com]

A lot of the Asian languages are based off the Chinese language. Sort of like Latin for the Asian area. Sunday = Day of the Sun. The rest are just numbers. Monday = First Day of the Week, etc.

The Chinese calendar is based off the changes in the moon but is named with the word Dragon. Example : Dragon Month 1. But since the Western Calendar came into effect in the modern world, they are just named by numbers. Example : January is Month 1, etc.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Latin and Nordic took the cue from Chinese, then? Apparently, the Chinese layout of the week pre-dates that of the Western World, so it seems likely.

[silverthoughts.livejournal.com]

Are the Chinese an older civilization than the Greeks?

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Excuse me whilst I go and ask the divine god Google...

[rebness.livejournal.com]

"By about 430 BC the Greek astronomer Meton […] discovered that 235 lunar months correspond very closely to 19 solar years (the so-called Metonic cycle). Some fifty years later the astronomers of the Persian kings, who used the Babylonian calendar, heard of his discovery and used it to regulate the intercalations. Since 19 years of 12 months amount to 228 months, the additional 7 months were intercalated in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 19. As a result the New Year moved within a period of 27 days around the spring equinox.



Chinese astronomers had established the solar year as 365.25 days and the lunation as 29.5 days well before 1300 BC. Their calendar used 12 lunar months of 29 or 30 days with an intercalation of 7 months of 29 or 30 days over a 19 year cycle (the Metonic cycle). The scientific description of this cycle appeared in Chinese texts between 770 and 476 BC and predates its discovery by Meton by at least 100 years."

And there we have it. ;)

[silverthoughts.livejournal.com]

Well, ain't that cool. The Chinese were also the more closely correct for days in a year and number of days in a month.

Probably the Chinese festivals are so accurate. Like the Autumn Moon Festival really does fall on a full moon. And the Winter Solstice really does fall on the coldest day of the year.

[avariecaita.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you'd know this one ...

Why is each year assigned to an animal? (ie: year of the dragon) And how do they determine that?

[silverthoughts.livejournal.com]

There is supposed to be some tale 12 animals participated in a contest that was set by the gods to see how they would rank in the cycle of life. The contest was for them to cross a river. The ox was the most brave and started to cross the river first. The cat was scared and the rat suggested he jump on the ox's back to get across. The ox agreed but the rat was the most devious by jumping on the back of the ox and shoving the cat off. When they reached the shore, he jumped off and made to the other side before the ox did, placing him first in the cycle of life and the ox, second. The cat never got a place in the cycle of life because he never crossed the river and swore to destroy all descendents of the rat.

So, each of the 12 animals is the order they finished the race. The rat being the first and the pig the last. Since there are 12 animals, there are 12 years in a cycle. Sort of like the modern equivalent to century.

[ozfille]

The fruits of my googling -

Any Chinese year invariably begins with the second new-moon day after the winter solstice. The Chinese New Year's day, therefore, is movable — just as Easter Day, which is also tributary of the moon — and takes place somewhere between January 21 and February 20 according to astronomic circumstances.


The Chinese zodiac is a cycle of twelve Chinese years placed under the signs of the twelve following symbolic animals: Rat, Buffalo (or Ox), Tiger, Cat (or Rabbit or Hare), Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat (or Sheep or Ram), Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig (or Boar).

The Chinese Lunar Calendar names each of the twelve years after an animal. Legend has it that the Lord Buddha summoned all the animals to come to him before he departed from earth. Only twelve came to bid him farewell and as a reward he named a year after each one in the order they arrived. The Chinese believe the animal ruling the year in which a person is born has a profound influence on personality, saying: "This is the animal that hides in your heart."

Chinese years also evolve in cycles of ten years each. Every set of two consecutive years is governed by a Chinese cosmic element. There are five elements in all: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

The rest are just numbers. Monday = First Day of the Week, etc.

Oh, really? That's interesting. I would have assumed it was the same as Japanese.