Names of the days of the week
Summary
In a vast number of languages, the names given to the seven days of the week are derived from the names of the seven classical planets which were in turn named after contemporary Hellenistic deities. This system was introduced by the Sumerians and later adopted by the Babylonians from whom the Roman Empire adopted the system during late antiquity. In some other languages, the days are named after corresponding deities of the regional culture. The seven-day week was adopted in early Christianity from the Hebrew calendar, and gradually replaced the Roman internundinum. Eight-day and seven-day weeks existed side-by-side until the Emperor Constantine made the seven-day week official in AD 321; thereafter, the seven-day week spread throughout the Roman Empire and eventually through Christian cultures around the world.
Originally created by Ant
12/14/2004, 6:38:34 PM
Modified
6/3/2026, 1:44:30 PM
Recent revisions
Less NA-centric intro
/* East Asian tradition */ removing brackets around 'hanyu pinyin' that are unclear / do not facilitate reading
/* East Asian tradition */ +reworking bit about post-1911 Chinese weekdays being named "after the luminaries implicitly with the numbers" -- the top of the table has Sunday as 1, but now Monday is 1 instead.
Corrected some of the wikt: links
Removed a duplicated link
Undid revision [[Special:Diff/1353048961|1353048961]] by [[Special:Contributions/~2026-27769-76|~2026-27769-76]] ([[User talk:~2026-27769-76|talk]]) Note may not be the best place for etymology
/* Romance languages */
[[Wikipedia:OABOT|Open access bot]]: url-access=subscription updated in citation with #oabot.
/* Days numbered from Monday */
restore sentence messed up by 71.205.93.4
per [[:zh-yue:七政]] and [[Classical planet]]
does not redirect here
/* top */ | Altered page. | [[:en:WP:UCB|Use this tool]]. [[:en:WP:DBUG|Report bugs]]. | #UCB_Gadget
/* top */+link
/* top */fixed link
/* Days numbered from Sunday */ Add word-break opportunity after slash ([[MOS:SLASH]])
/* In languages of the Indian subcontinent */ Tag non-English text with {{transliteration}} and {{lang}} ([[MOS:LANG]]); Add word-break opportunity after slash ([[MOS:SLASH]])
That doesn't appear to be used as a reference
added source
