Yay - one of my passions is history so when in Maths when Trevor starting asking about the origins of certain principles (why we use 60 for time etc), I was entranced. We started out in ancient Babylonia and how they influenced the measurements we use today.
He asked us to look at the reason we use some words in relation to time and I immediately went on a hunt. Here's what I found (I found the information from two videos on Youtube by psychetruth):
In the romantic languages such as French the names for the week come from the Roman Gods while in the English language they come from the Norse Gods.
Sunday is named after the Sun. Throughout history it has widely been considered that it is actually the first day of the week and has changed to the last in recent years.
Monday is named after the Moon.
Tuesday is named after the Norse God Tyr. The God of combat and heroic glory (the God of War). He is often depicted as having one arm after loosing one in a attack by a wolf. The symbol for Tyr is an upright arrow.
Wednesday is named after the God Woden or Odin. Odin is considered the main God or king of the Norse Gods.
Thursday is named after the God Thor. Thor is the God of Thunder and wields a hammer. In the romantic languages the God is Zeus who also wields thunder and is based on the planet Jupiter.
Friday is Freya’s day. She is the Norse God of love and beauty. In the romantic languages the day is based on the goddess Venus. Friday is considered the day of love. Freya is often depicted as being blond with blue eyes.
Saturday is the only day to maintain it’s original Roman name. It is based on the God Saturn and means Saturn’s day. Saturn in Greek mythology is Kronos king of the titans who was the father of Zeus and many of the other Gods.
January comes from Janus Roman God for doors, openings, sunrises and sunset. Where one a door opening represents the beginning and a door closing represents an ending. Janus statues is portrayed as having two faces one confronting the past and one facing the future. Since Janus is the God of beginnings and endings it is appropriate for it to be called January because it is the month where one year ends and the other begins. Since Janus is the God of doors it is also where we get the word for Janitor as they are the caretakers of hallways and doors.
February comes from a Latin word meaning purification (Februum) because on February 15th the Romans would celebrate a festival of the forgiveness for the sins which is a purification ritual.
March comes from Mars the Roman God of War. He was the most prominent of the military Roman gods worshipped by Romans legions, he was considered second in importance only to Jupiter.
The meaning of April is disputed, some people believe it comes from the Roman month Acrilis which comes from the Latin word to open like the opening of flowers or the beginning of spring and some believe it comes from the goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
May comes from Maia, the Roman Goddess of fertility. Just like February was named after a festival, the Romans had a festival in May after Maia naming the month after her.
June comes from the Roman goddess Juno who was married to Jupiter the king of all gods. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman empire she was called Regina meaning meaning queen.
July was named after Julius Caesar who was born in this month.
August was named for Augustus Caesar who conquered Alexandria in this month.
In our calendar we have twelve months while in the Roman only had ten months with September being the 7th month. So September was named after the Latin word Septem meaning seven.
So if September is the 7th month then October is the 8th month. Octo is the Latin word for eight which is where we also get the word for Octopus and octagon
November comes from the word Novem the Latin word for nine which is the ninth Roman month.
December comes from the Latin word Decem meaning ten, the tenth Roman month. It is also where we get the word decimal.
As I get more information i'll add to this post and hopefully get a view of the history behind the things we use in our normal day-to-day lives.
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