Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Wednesdays

What can I say about Wednesdays?  Well, this Wednesday I'm going to have lunch with my friend John Snow at the Schnitzel Hub.  And in the evening I'm going to see a documentary at the Bloor about some silent films they found in the Yukon in good condition. (I would have seen it a few weeks ago, but I misplaced my glasses.)

How did Wednesday get it's name?  Well, the days of the week were originally in the Roman calendar, and named after Roman gods, except that Sunday and Monday were named for the sun and the moon.  The English names came from our words for sun and moon, and the Saxon gods equivalent to these Roman gods. (Except that Saturn had no Saxon equivalent, so it stayed Saturday.)

The Latin equivalents of Wednesday and Thursday were named for Mercury the messenger god and  Jupiter, the chief god and thunder god, respectively.  This made an interesting challenge for the Saxons.  Their Jupiter equivalent could have been chief god Odin or thunder god Thor.  But Odin was a better fit for Mercury because he sent birds all over with messages. (Hence the saying "A little bird told me"!) So Wednesday's named for Odin and Thursday for Thor.

My apologies for showing off my knowledge--I just couldn't think of anything personal to write about Wednesday!

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