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]

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.