Seven-day week

The origin of the seven-day week. Artificial units of time, consisting of several( three, five, seven, etc.) days, are found in many ancient peoples. In particular, the ancient Romans and the Etruscans counted the days of "eight days" - trading weeks, in which the days were denoted by letters from A to H, seven days of that week were workers, the eighth - the market. These market days became also days of festivities.

But already with the famous Jewish historian Josephus Flavius ​​(37th century AD 100) we read: "There is not a single city, Greek or barbaric, and not a single people that our custom of refraining fromwork on the seventh day. "Where did this seven-day week come from?

The custom of measuring the time of a seven-day week came to us from Ancient Babylon and, apparently, is associated with a change in the phases of the Moon. In fact, the duration of the synodic month is 29.53 days, and people saw the moon in the sky for about 28 days: seven days the Moon phase continues from the narrow sickle to the first quarter, about the same number - from the first quarter to the full moon, etc.

But observations of the starry sky gave one more confirmation of the "singularity" of the number seven. At one time, the ancient Babylonian astronomers discovered that, in addition to fixed stars, seven "wandering" lights were seen in the sky, which were later called planets( from the Greek word "planetes",

which means "wandering").It was assumed that these luminaries circulate around the Earth and that their distances from it increase in this order: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In ancient Babylon, astrology arose - the belief that planets influence the destinies of individuals and entire nations. Comparing certain events in the lives of people with the position of the planets in the starry sky, astrologers believed that the same event would come again if this arrangement of the stars were repeated. The very number seven - the number of planets - became sacred for the Babylonians and for many other ancient peoples.

Names of the days of the week. Dividing the day for 24 hours, the ancient Babylonian astrologers made up the notion that every hour of the day is under the auspices of a certain planet that "rules" it. The account of the clock was started from Saturday: the first hour was "controlled" by Saturn, the second by Jupiter, the third by Mars, the fourth by the Sun, the fifth by Venus, the sixth by Mercury and the seventh by Luna. After that, the cycle was repeated again, so that on the 8th, 15th and 22nd hours Saturn controlled, 9th, 16th and 23rd - Jupiter, etc. As a result, it turned out that the first hourthe next day, Sunday, the Sun "controlled", the first hour of the third day - the Moon, the fourth - Mars, the fifth - Mercury, the sixth - Jupiter and the seventh - Venus. Accordingly, the days of the week received their names. Consecutive change of these names astrologers depicted inscribed in a circle with a seven-pointed star, in the tops of which the names of the days of the week, planets and their symbols were usually put( Fig.).

Fig. Astrological image of the change of the days of the week

These names of the days of the week were taken by the names of the gods to the Romans, and then to the calendars of many peoples of Western Europe. In Latin, French and English, they look like this:

Russian	Latin	Translation c Latin	French	English
Monday	Dies Lunae	day moon	Lundi	Monday
Tuesday	Dies Martis	day Mars	Mardi	Tuesday
Wednesday	Dies Mercurii	day Mercury	Mercredi	Wednesday
Thursday	Dies Jovis	day of Jupiter	Jeudi	Thursday
Friday	Dies Veneris	day of Venus	Vendredi	Friday
Saturday	Dies Saturni	day of Saturn	Samedi	Saturday
Risen	Dies Solis	Day of the Sun	Dimanche	Sunday

The "differences" in English are explained by the fact that the names for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were taken from Scandinavian mythology, in which Tiu is a god similar to Mars, Bodan-Mercury, Thor - Jupiter and Freyja - Venus. In French, the name of Sunday means "the day of the Lord."The names of the planets are used to denote the days of the week and many peoples of Asia.

In many languages, some days of the week( and sometimes all) are "numbered": in Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Arabic, Greek, Chinese, etc. However, if, for example, in the languages ​​of the Baltic peoples and Chinese on Monday corresponds to the "first day", Tuesday - "second day", then in Greek, Georgian, Armenian, Arabic, Monday corresponds to the day with number 2, Tuesday - day number 3, etc. Such a numbering of days originates also in Ancient Babylon. The day of Saturn among the Babylonians was considered unhappy;on that day it was prescribed not to engage in any business, and he himself was called "Shabbat" - rest. At the same time he was transferred to the end of the week. The name passed into Jewish, Arabic, Slavonic, some Western European languages. In many countries, the day of rest is postponed, but the account of the days is still kept from Saturday. So, for Muslims, the day of rest( the last day of the week) coincides with our Friday, but the name "first day" in Arabic refers to Sunday.

In some nations, the numbering of days turned out to be very curious. So, in the Georgian language( almost like the saying "he has seven Fridays in a week") it turned out. .. five Saturdays. In addition to the Sabbath - Sabbath, there are "second Saturday"( orshabati) - Monday, "third Saturday"( samshabati) -treading, "fourth Saturday"( okhshabati) - Wednesday, "fifth Saturday"( khutshabati) - Thursday. Friday and Sunday are called respectively "paraskevi" and "queer" similarly to the names in the Greek language( paraskeun, kuriyake).The first word means "cooking"( meaning the preparation for the Sabbath rest day, later it was associated with the name of St. Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa), the second means "the day of the Lord."(In passing, we note that here we are talking about the Greek name, established under the influence of Christianity, earlier the Greeks referred to Sunday as "first in the week.")

In the Persian calendar of Saturdays in the week, even six: shambe, yek-shambe( "the first Saturday") - Sunday, before-shambe( "second Saturday") - Monday, se-shambe( "third Saturday") - Tuesday, Chekhara-Shamba( "the fourth Saturday") - Wednesday, pend-shambe( "fifth Saturday") -Thursday. The day corresponding to Friday is called "joma"( "day of connection" - a sacred day for Muslims).

The Persian names of the days of the week have spread widely. They are borrowed by many peoples of our country( in Azerbaijan, Bashkiria, Central Asia, etc.).

Some days of the week are also numbered in the Slavic languages, but the days are spent by these nations "after Sunday".(Note that the decision to celebrate Sunday was taken by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 321. He ordered that "all judges. .. as well as all craftsmen on a revered day of the Sun rested", but due to the vitality of traditions the last day of the week was still considered Saturday.) Sometime Sunday the Slavic peoples called the week( the day in which they rest from their affairs, do nothing).This name was preserved in all Slavic languages, except Russian;the names of the remaining days of the same, as seen from tablets

Russian	Ukrainian	Polish	Czech	Bulgarian
Monday	Ponedilokk	Poniedzialek	Pondelek	Ponedelnik
Tuesday	Bivtopok	Wtorek	Uterek	Tuesday
Wednesday	Sereda	Sroda	Streda	succession
Thursday	Fourth	Czwartek	Ctvrtek	Thursday	Friday	Pigtek	Patek	Petak
Saturday	Saturday	Sobota	Sobota	Saving
Sunday Nedilja	Niedziela	Nedele	Week

In Russian, the name of the day passed to the whole seven-day week( the week, as it was once called).Thus, Monday is "(the first) day after the week"( cf.: "pm" means "afternoon time"), Tuesday is the second day, Thursday is the fourth day, Friday is the fifth day, and Wednesday was really the middle day. It is curious that in the Old Slavonic language there is also a more ancient name - the third one.

The last day of the week was considered Saturday in England. This is confirmed by the words from the book of Galfrid Monmouth( XII century): "We honor the godfathers-Saturn, Jupiter and others ruling the world, but in particular Mercury, which in his language we call Voden. Our ancestors dedicated to him the fourth day of the week, which is now called in his name, vodenesay. After him, we honor the goddess, the most powerful of all, and bearing the name of Freyja, whom our forefathers dedicated the sixth day of the week, and by her name we call him the friedee. "

In conclusion, we note that the seven-day week spread in the Roman Empire under the Emperor Augustus( 63 BC - 14 AD) in connection with the Romans' enthusiasm for astrology. In particular, wall images of the seven gods of the week are found in Pompeii. The very wide distribution and "vitality" of the time interval of seven days is connected, apparently, with the presence of certain psychophysiological rhythms of the human organism of the corresponding duration.