What is the Origin of the Seven-Day Week?

It is a tradition which came along with Noah and the seven others who survived the Deluge.

 

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Good grief. Wont that make 8?

 

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Greek:
(Sunday) Kyriaki (Lord's day),
(Monday) Deftera (Second ),
(Tuesday) Triti (Third),
(Wednesday) Tetarti (Fourth),
(Thursday) Pempti (Fifth),
(Friday) Paraskevi (Creation), Probably refering to creation of Adam
(Saturday) Savato (Sabbath), Probably a transliteration of the Hebrew name

 

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A logical reason for the 7 day week could be that the ancients simply divided the lunar month into quarters (for whatever reason) and came up with an average of 7 days. Then again, it could be that 7 is supposed to be a lucky or holy number.

 

Nick, it was a tradition from the pre-Deluge world, you know, the six days of creation, and God rested on the seventh.

 

Mathman:

Yes, but in the Indo-European pantheon, Odin and Jupiter are not one in the same. Jupiter is a form of Dyeus, like Tyr. Odin is not, but took Tyr's place of prominence.

Walter L. Wagner:

Tyr is God of justice, courage, and warfare.

Friday is Freyja, the Goddess of beauty.

The reason why English has it relates to the fact that the Anglo-Saxons were Germanic heathens.

 

The Germanic days of the week:

Sunday - Sonne's Day
Monday - Mona's Day (the moon Goddess)
Tuesday - Tyr's Day
Wednesday - Odin's day
Thursday - Thor's Day
Friday - Freyja's Day
Saturday - Saturn's day, although the original was associated with a Germanic syncretic deity relating back to Saturn, as opposed to our obvious reference to the Roman Saturn.

 

Jupiter is Iapeter, Iafeth, Japheth, and Tyr could be Tiras, a son of Japheth. Tyras is a town at the mouth of the Dniester River.

 

No he isn't.

Jupiter is Dyeus, Father Sky.

Tyr is Dyeus, Father Sky.

Do not betray my primordial ancestors' religion, Caananite thief.

 

Jupiter could be Janus, Dyeus, a guy who looked back from the Deluge, and looked forward after it.

I'm of mostly Dutch-Scottish ancestry, so I'm down with northern Euro ancient history.

 

Dyeus and Janus, as far as I am aware, are not cognates.

Janus derives from "ianus" doorway and relates back to ei in INdo-European roots. Dyeus doesn't. It relates back to "Sky Father".

 

"Doorway Noah."

 

Noah does not mean doorway. It means "rest".

 

Nus, Nu, Mannus, all names for Noah, so doorway (ia) - Noah (nus), Ianus, Janus, doorway of Noah.

 

Manu means "man". Moreover, "nus"/nu" does not have anything to do with Noah, it has to do with "fish", and that is only in Phonecian, not in Latin and Greek, although Greek uses nu for the 13th letter (as the Greek alphabet has connections with the Phonecian script).

Ie/ianus does not mean "Doorway fish". -Nus is the masc. acc. pl. 4 ending. http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/lookit.pl?latin=Janus

 

I was always taught that it was due to the lunar cycle. The average lunar month is 29.53 days, divided by four. This makes a lot a sense because the average person can only memorize between 5 to 9 digits, average 7. It would be very difficult for any human culture to base their communal activities strictly on a 29.5 day cycle. Not only would it be harder to recall what to do when and where on what day, but then you'd have to throw in a leap day every other month. I'm sure it predates semitic culture and has much more to do with the origins of agricultural communal life in general and planning daily/weekly activities. Can you imagine a father telling his son that he needs to start picking the grapes 25 days from now, rather than saying "the day after tomorrow" or 4 days from now.

 

Just a guess:
Hunter-gatherers may have divided the lunar cycle into four stages: 1st: moonlit hunting, 2nd: return to home camp, 3rd: moonless resting, 4th: return to hunting grounds. A days rest and preparation prior to each stage accounting for weekends.

 

That's an excellent observation leading to a conclusion that it probably pre-dates agricultural societies. Most carnivores are nocturnal and I can clearly imagine the group discussing preparations for the upcoming full-moon hunting week.

 

In Indian (Hindu),

Sun = Ravi= Sunday =Ravivar
Moon = Som = Monday = Somvar
Mars = Mangal = Tuesday = Mangalvar
Mercury = Budh = Wednesday = Budhvar
Jupiter = Guru/Brihaspati = Thursday = Guruvar/Brihaspativar
Venus = Shukr = Friday = Shukravar
Saturn = Shani = Saturday = Shanivar

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