Interestingly, Bulgarian (and by extension probably all Slavic languages) don't follow this model.

(translations based on word roots)

Monday - ponedelnik - "after no work"

Tuesday - vtornik - "second"

Wednesday - sryada - "middle"

Thursday - chetvurtuk - "fourth"

Friday - petuk - "fifth"

Saturday - subota - from Sabath

Sunday - Nedelia - "no work"

Russian is very very similar save for Sunday, which is "voskresenya", which roughly translates to (i think) "the resurrection." "Nedelia" translates to "week," but I've never thought about it as meaning "no work" which it almost also does in Russian.

Knowing Polish and learning Russian had me do a couple of double-takes on days of the week. We call Sunday "niedziela" and the week "tydzień". I guess identifying Sunday with the week makes some sense, and one of the languages just switched it around at some point.

I always thought of "niedziela" as coming from "nie dzielić" / "не делить" / "no dividing/separating", though it doesn't really make sense as name for the day.

Sanskrit (and hence Hindi and Tami;l) largely does. would clarify more but a bit too drunk now to tyep too ciherentyl. sorry. just thought you should know before i forgot in the morning..

What's really interesting is that Portugese is one of the few European languages which doesn't follow this pattern, since at some point someone decided it was heretical to name days after those silly Pagan gods.

So they have:

    * Domingo – Sunday
    * Segunda-feira – Monday
    * Terça-feira – Tuesday
    * Quarta-feira – Wednesday
    * Quinta-feira – Thursday
    * Sexta-feira – Friday
    * Sábado – Saturday

Domingo is the Day of the Lord, Sabado is based on sabbath and the others just get numbers. That's the trouble with monotheism, there's too damn many days and not enough gods.

In greek it is rather similar:

  * Monday -> Δευτέρα ("second")
  * Tuesday -> Τρίτη("third")
  * Wednesday -> Τετάρτη ("fourth")
  * Thursday -> Πέμπτη ("fifth")
  * Friday -> Παρασκευή ("preperation")
  * Saturday -> Σάββατο ("sabbath")
  * Sunday -> Κυριακή ("of the lord)

That version is being used since the time of the Roman Empire, before that, Greeks used the babylonian model that named days after planets -which in turn had been named after gods.

The english names are of germanic/norse descent, again mostly names of gods.

So how many civilizations have _not_ had seven-day weeks?

    Sabado is based on sabbath

All of them except Domingo are also exactly the same in Hebrew ("first-day", "second-day", "third-day", etc).

You beat me to it... I was going to mention that in Spanish, the weekdays are named after Roman gods from Latin. If you find this amazing, then you will be surprised that the month of July is named after Julius Caesar. But what I find truly amazing is that Caesar Salad is named after a guy from Tijuana!!!

And August for Emperor Augustus, January for the roman god Janus (who was actually Zeus), etc

There's a legend that emperor Augustus wanted his month to have 31 days as well, just like Julius, and that's why we have 31 days on both months.

actually, Jupiter is Zeus. I don't think Janus has a counterpart.

ah yeah, the names of the months. September - Siete, October - Ocho, November - Nueve, December - Diez. They would match if it weren't for July and August.

Domingo -> from the Latin 'Dies Dominicus' -> The Lord's day

Lunes -> Luna -> Moon

Tuesday -> Martes -> Marte (Mars)

Miercoles -> Mercurio (Mercury)

Jueves -> Jove -> Jupiter

Viernes -> Venus

Sabado -> Sabbath

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor%C3%ADa:D%C3%ADas_de_la_...

The French I was taught in primary school hinted at most of this too. I'd venture anyone who knew bits of different languages would have probably guessed the roots of the days, atlhough English roots differ from romance roots (Wednesday based on the English god Woden instead of the Roman god Mercury).

* Dimanche * Lundi * Mardi * Mercredi * Jeudi * Vendredi * Samedi

Actually if you know enough about the history of the Norse religion, Odin to Mercury is not a difference. Odin comes from Wotan who started as the messenger of the gods then gained prominence in the pantheon. By Roman times he was co-equal with Tiwaz and had acquired many of his characteristics. By Norse times Thor was still important enough to take the central position in the temple at Uppsala. However Odin was god of wars, aristocracy, and poetry. After Christianity took over, Odin continued to gain importance in the mythology (which was after all continued by poets telling stories for aristocracy) and by the time Snorri Sturluson wrote The Prose Edda was the familiar allfather, king of the gods, etc.

to chime in, Mongolian: 1-dex udur - 1st day (Monday) 2-daxi udur - 2nd day (Tuesday) etc... xagas-sain udur - 1/2 good day (Saturday) *buten-sain udur - full good day (Sunday)

And, according to the following page, the planetary day names eventually made their way to Japan in the first millenium, by way of India and China:

http://www.cjvlang.com/Dow/dowjpn.html

I was always curious about the Friday -> "gold" day -> payday link, but I guess this was a total coincidence. The actual derivation seems to be Friday <- Venus's day -> gold planet's day.

Other parts of the same site are devoted to the European, Chinese, and Vietnamese day name origins:

http://www.cjvlang.com/Dow/index.html#TOP

Sabado = sabbath

Friday = Freyja Norse god more or less equivalent to Venus.

Wednesday = Norse god Woden more commonly known in the US with out the W aka Oden.

The Japanese seem to agree; sun, moon, fire, water, wood, gold, earth. Well, the beginning is similar, anyway...

In Italian it's pretty much the same:

* Domenica (From Latin: dies dominicus -> Lord's day)

* Lunedì (Luna -> Moon)

* Martedì (Marte -> Mars)

* Mercoledì (Mercurio -> Mercury)

* Giovedì (Giove -> Jupiter)

* Venerdì (Venere -> Venus)

* Sabato (Sabbath)

Domingo (Spanish, Portuguese) and Domenica (Italian) probably refer to Dominus, Lord, as Sunday is the Lord's day in the Christian tradition.

The article actually mentions most of them. :)

This is how it goes in Swedish as per our Norse history and heritage:

Monday = Måndag = Månes dag (Máni's day) - Måne, the brother of Sol. "måne" is also Swedish for "moon"

Tuesday = Tisdag = Tyrs dag (Týr's day, son of Oden)

Wednesday = Onsdag = Odens dag (Oden's day)

Thursday = Torsdag = Tors dag (Thor's day)

Friday = Fredag = Frejas dag (Freyja's day) - some say this day is named after Frigg, and some Norse history seem to indicate that Freyja and Frigg are one and the same goddess that somehow got separated as two in literature

Saturday = Lördag = lögardagen, from old, old Swedish "laugr" (water/waterfall), the day on which you bathe

Sunday = Söndag = Sols dag (Sól's day) - "sol" is Swedish for "sun"

Icelandic shares only some and ends up being more like Bulgarian and Portuguese mentioned above - looks like the early Christian influence got the Icelanders too

   Monday: mánudagur = moon day
   Tuesday: þriðjudagur = 3rd day
   Wednesday: miðvikudagur = mid-week day
   Thursday: fimmtudagur = 5th day
   Friday: föstudagur = fasting day
   Saturday: laugardagur = washing day
   Sunday: sunnudagur = sun day

Domingo is from "domini/us", lord or sir, or head of the house (from "doma", home).