Where did the day and month names came from?

Question

WHERE did the names for days and months came from? and WHAT do they all mean? WHY was 7 days called a "week", 4 weeks a "month", 12 months a "year"? who decided to choose those numbers for each? both scrientific and religious answers are ok as long as i get plausible ideas:)

Answer 1

January

- Named after the Roman god of beginnings and endings Janus (the month Januarius).

February

- The name comes either from the old-Italian god Februus or else from februa, signifying the festivals of purification celebrated in Rome during this month.

March

- This is the first month of the Roman year. It is named after the Roman god of war, Mars.

April

- Called Aprilis, from aperire, "to open". Possible because it is the month in which the buds begin to open.

May

- The third month of the Roman calendar. The name probably comes from Maiesta, the Roman goddess of honor and reverence.

June

- The fourth month was named in honor of Juno. However, the name might also come from iuniores (young men; juniors) as opposed to maiores (grown men; majors) for May, the two months being dedicated to young and old men.

July

- It was the month in which Julius Caesar was born, and named Julius in his honor in 44 BCE, the year of his assassination. Also called Quintilis (fifth month).

August

- Originally this month was called Sextilis (from sextus, "six"), but the name was later changed in honor of the first of the Roman emperors, Augustus (because several fortunate events of his life occurred during this month).

September

- The name comes from septem, "seven".

October

- The name comes from octo, "eight"

November

- The name comes from novem, "nine".

December

- The name comes from decem, "ten".



...

Sunday

- The name comes from the Latin dies solis, meaning "sun's day": the name of a pagan Roman holiday. It is also called Dominica (Latin), the Day of God. The Romance languages, languages derived from the ancient Latin language (such as French, Spanish, and Italian), retain the root.

Monday

- The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon monandaeg, "the moon's day". This second day was sacred to the goddess of the moon.

Tuesday

- This day was named after the Norse god Tyr. The Romans named this day after their war-god Mars: dies Martis.

Wednesday

- The day named to honor Wodan (Odin).

The Romans called it dies Mercurii, after their god Mercury.

Thursday

- The day named after the Norse god Thor. In the Norse languages this day is called Torsdag.

The Romans named this day dies Jovis ("Jove's Day"), after Jove or Jupiter, their most important god.

Friday

- The day in honor of the Norse goddess Frigg.

In Old High German this day was called frigedag.

To the Romans this day was sacred to the goddess Venus, and was known as dies veneris.

Saturday

- This day was called dies Saturni, "Saturn's Day", by the ancient Romans in honor of Saturn. In Anglo-Saxon: sater daeg.

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The origin of the seven-day week is the religious significance that was placed on the seventh day by ancient cultures, including the Babylonian and Jewish civilizations.



month origin: before 900; Middle English; Old English mōnath; cognate with Old High German mānōd, Old Norse mānathr. < period of the moon

Answer 2

I assume that you mean the English names using the Gregorian calendar. Other calendar systems use different names for days and months, also the months are of different lengths. Also if the days and months using the Gregorian calendar are it a different language, say German the names are different. Such as Saturday is Samstag.

The 7 day week comes from the Babylonians who celebrated a holy day every 7 days. A month is based on the lunar cycle, there are approximately 4 "weeks" of 7 days each, actually 29.53 days. Because there is and extra day and a half every lunar cycle the various calender systems have came up with ways of resetting the calender to the lunar cycle, such as months of various lengths and with the Gregorian calendar a extra day every 4 years.

Answer 3

the christian calender we are using today is originally began in the roman empire days. there was the julian calender, but in the 16th century a new calender that was based on the julian one came out - the gregorian, which we use it today. Julius Caesar set the months lenght and their names

the gregorian calender base on the rotation of earth around the sun, and that takes 365.25 days. there're also the hebrew calender, that base on the son and the moon (in this calender there are 354-5 days in a regular year) and the islamic that base only on the moon.

in the ancient world different cultures made their own division of periodic days, it could be 5,6,9,11 and so on, but the week idea (7 days) somehow arrived to rome, probably from babylon. in judaism and christianity there's a faith that god created the world in 6 days, and rested in the 7th.

Answer 4

The idea of the week came from the fact that there were seven "planets" observable to the naked eye. Sun, moon, mercury, venus, mars, jupiter, saturn.



The idea of the month ("Moon-th") came from observing the way the moon's phases went through cycles.



The idea of the year - fairly obviously - came from observing the way the seasons tended to repeat themselves.



As for naming - that depends on the language.



The Romans named the names of the week after the planets (which, in turn, they mostly named after gods). Monday is still Moon-day (cf French Lune/Lundi); Tuesday was named after Mars (French Mardi), Wednesday after Mercury (Mercredi); Thursday after Jupiter (aka Jove: French Jeudi); Friday after Venus (Venvredi); Saturday was Saturn-day, Sunday - well, obvious.



In English, Tuesday to Friday were later re-named after Norse gods Tyr, Odin (aka Wotan), Thor and Freya respectively.



Months - again the Roman influence is to the fore here. January for Janus - the god of doorways, always depicted with two faces; etc. July is named after Julius Caesar, who re-organised the calendar; August after Augustus Caesar who re-organised it again. September to December mean seventh to tenth months, and are a hangover as the Roman calendar once began with March.