Weekdays

Hello everyone. I’m Hamidreza Ahmadi and this podcast is brought to you by Lingophoenix. In this podcast we are going to talk about the days of the week and one particular mistake, that we Iranians make, and probably other societies who follow the same pattern in naming their weekdays. I hear Iranian language learners with low or sometimes high proficiency in English say the phrases “odd days” and “even days”. In this podcast we are going to get to the bottom of it and find out what’s right and what’s not. Guys, if you ever use these phrases, you won’t be understood, unless you speak with an Iranian of course. First of all a clear distinction between our Solar Calendar and the Gregorian Calendar is that the week begins with Saturday in Iran and ends with Friday, but in the Gregorian Calendar it starts with Monday and ends with Sunday. Also, we use numbers for our weekdays except Saturdays and Fridays. However, the ancient Persian calendar has pretty much a similar system of naming the days. In fact, Ancient Iran may be the birthplace of the underlying concept which Romans adopted to name their weekdays. In Mithraism, a religion worshipping the Zoroastrian Izad, Mithra, the god of the sun, is said to be the foundation of it. It’s also worth mentioning that English days of the week have Germanic roots but they share the same approach as Romans in naming their days of the week. In ancient Iran, it is said, that every day was dedicated to a planet. The names of these planets also correspond with a mythological god. Let’s see. Let’s start with Saturday to pay tribute to our own calendar. Saturday is the combination of the words Saturn and day (Satur + day) Saturn is a planet orbiting the Sun and as you might know Saturn is the god of wealth and agriculture. In Ancient Iran, Saturday was called کیوان شید (Keivan + shid). Keivan or Zohal is the Persian name for the planet, Saturn. shid in old Persian meant light. So Kayvanshid means the light of Kayvan. Today, Saturday is Shanbe in Persian which comes from Hebrew Sabbath, Shabbath. In Judaism, Sabbath is the seventh day. The day when God rested after having created the world according to Jewish teachings, of course. That’s why, Saturday is the end of the week for them. They’re tired of work and just want to rest on the Seventh day, like Friday for Muslims. One thing that can be seen in ancient cultures is imitating the acts of Gods believing that Gods would like them more. Also, when Gods do something, it must be good, so why shouldn’t we? That simple. In French, the word samedi refers to Saturday. Samedi also comes from the Hebrew word Sabbath. Sunday is the day of the Sun. In Ancient Iran it was called مهرشید (mehrshid) . Mehrshid celebrates the Sun as the most important celestial body for Earth. The Sun is known by its God, Mehr. An older variation of the word Mehr is Miter and Mithra. Sunday is known today as Yekshanbe (یکشنبه) . Monday, again as its name suggests, is the day of the moon. In Old Farsi, it is مهشید (Mahshid) which means the light or day of the moon. Today we know Monday in Farsi as Doshanbe (دوشنبه). The French use the the Latin word ‘luna’ to refer to the moon. Monday is Lundi to the French. As is clear, we praise the good moon on Mondays. The next day is Tuesday. Tuesday comes from the God tiw, tyr, the god of war and the sky in Norse Mythology. In Iran, our ancestors used to say بهرام شید (bahramshid). Bahram is the Iranian god of War, and also another name for merikh. In Romance languages, it’s recorded as ‘dies Marti’ which means the day of Mars, who is the Roman God of War, and of course it is also another planet in our solar system. In French, Tuesday is Mardi, and (سه شنبه) Seshanbe in Farsi. Wednesday is the day of the Supreme God Odin, AKA Wodan in Norse mythology. چهارشنبه (chaharshanbe) used to be called تیرشید (tirshid). Tir was the God of protecting rain and nature. Ancient Iranians seem to have had a lot of respect for the environment. A tradition that has been long forgotten. Oh, I almost forgot, The planet Atarod, also known as Tir pays tribute to this God. This planet is called Mercury in Romance languages. In French. Wednesday is mercredi, a day that praises the god Mercury. Mercury was the god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, messages, communication , travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves, most of whose qualities Odin is also known for. Thursday is the day of Thor. Everybody knows who Thor is, thanks to Marvel’s ‘Avengers’. Thor is one of the supreme gods in Norse mythology and has the boomerang axe and control of thunder. The Roman equivalent of Thor, when it comes to manipulating lightning, is Jupiter. That’s why the French call Thursday jeudi. Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system, and it is called that, perhaps, to signify the supremacy of its corresponding deity. In ancient Iran Thursday was called اورمزدشید (Ormazd Shid) Ormazd is the supreme Iranian god and gives everyone light. In Persian, the planet, Jupiter is called Moshtari (مشتری) , which is also recognized by other names such as Hormoz, Ormazd, and of course Jupiter. In Modern Persian, Thursday is Panjshanbe (پنجشنبه). Last but not least we have the fairest of days, Friday. or the day of Frigga, wife to Odin. Frigga is the goddess of marriage, and motherhood. Her counterpart in Romance languages is Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Venus, the second planet from the sun, is the brightest natural object in the night-sky and that is perhaps why it’s named that. The French call Friday, Vendredi, which means the day of Venus. Again in our country, جمعه (jome) was once called Nahidshid (ناهید شید) . Nahid is the Iranian Goddess of water. She is tall and slim and represents all that is good; that’s why Gods are so forgiving on Fridays, apparently. Okay, I think it’s about time that we got back to the other point I wanted to make in this podcast. We can’t have odd days and even days in English because as I explained the names of weekdays are all named after gods and planets. Therefore, odd and even are absolutely irrelevant if there are no numbers used in the names of weekdays. So, here a question arises; How do we say roozaye zoj va fard, well, we simply don’t in English. To do that, all you have to do is name the days that you do a particular activity on. For example, I go to English class on Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays. Thank you very much for listening and sitting through this podcast. I sincerely hope that you liked it. Song: Asturias by Albeniz - Transcribed for Tar and performed by Keyvan Saket

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Weekdays is an episode from Lingo Phoenix's Podcasts.

This episode is 00:07:07 long.

This episode was published on Aug 11, 2021.

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