Looking at a calendar, we don’t usually pay much attention to the names of the months or the seven days of the week. They’ve just always been that way, and chances are we never felt the need to question their origins. These names, however, especially the ones for the days of the week, have a rich and interesting history.
One of the seven days with the most fascinating background is the seventh day: Sunday. It’s the last day of rest we have before going back to school or work on Monday morning, and a day on which Christians and Catholics worship their god in church. The history behind this name originates with the Anglo-Saxons from Germany in the fifth century.
Around this time, the Anglo-Saxons conquered most of the island of Britain, bringing their culture and beliefs with them. Instead of invisible gods, they worshipped tangible things like the moon, sun, and fire and named their days of the week accordingly. Their old word for Sunday is sunnandæg, which literally translates as “day of the sun.” In pagan times, sun worship was prevalent in Europe, and modern Germanic languages all have their own equivalent of the name “Sunday.” It’s søndag in Danish and Norwegian and söndag in Swedish.
When Christianity began sweeping through the continent, anything pagan was immediately condemned, and a monotheistic belief system was established. Latin-derived languages at the center of the movement adopted “the Lord’s day” for the seventh day instead. As such, Sunday is dimanche in French, domingo in Spanish and Portuguese, and domenica in Italian. However, “Sunday” just stuck with most people, and would eventually make its way into modern English language use.
What Did You Learn?
1. Who is credited with the first known use of the name for the seventh day of the week?
2. What is the main source of the differences between Germanic and Latin versions of “Sunday”?
