This is the 3rd of a 7 part series on the days of the week. culled from various places on the net.
Friday was the day of Frigg (Venus). Saturday for Saturn. And Sunday for, duh, the Sun.
The first day of the week is Sunday. For most Christian denominations this day is considered a holy day, due to the fact that Christ was reported to have risen from the dead on a Sunday. For this reason, since ancient times, it has been designated a "day of rest" mainly for the purpose of contemplation and worship.
Yet the name of Sunday has nothing to do with Christianity, but everything to do with even more ancient religions. The ancient Greeks knew that the sun was the source of life on the planet and they gave it prime importance in their thinking. When the Romans later adopted the seven day week they emphasize their respect for the sun by naming the first day of the week for it..."dies solis" or "day of the sun".
The actual word "Sunday" is derived from the German word "Sonntag" (and they likely got it from the Scandanavians). These folk too placed a great deal of importance on the sun. Some tribes of these Germanic peoples invaded England in the 500's or so. They were known as the Angles and the Saxons. The old English work was "sunnandaeg" and it changed over time to become our current, "Sunday".
In the Jewish law it is the first day of the Hebrew calendar week. In many Christian traditions it is the Christian Sabbath, which replaced the Jewish Shabbat (Saturday). Sunday is considered the first day of the week in many countries, including the United States and Australia, although today some countries such as the United Kingdom regard Sunday as the seventh day, and the last day of the civil week.
Some early Jewish Christians observed the Sabbath on Saturday as specified in the Ten Commandments, but by the first half of the second century an increasing number of Christians would gather for worship on Sunday. Some continued to observe the Sabbath on Saturday, until even the crusader period.
Constsntine settled the matter once and for all on 7 March 321 AD when he decreed that Sunday will be observed as the Roman day of rest.
Interesting fact: Only months beginning on a Sunday will contain a Friday the 13th.
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