Every student is familiar with the names of the days of the week, but not everyone thinks about how they arose. Of course, some little why's are persistent in asking their parents and bombarding them with questions like "Why is Wednesday called Wednesday." The task of adults is not only to provide children with complete information on this issue. It is advisable to present it in an interesting and informative form, since studying the topic of the days of the week allows you not only to delve into linguistics, but also to give interested listeners the basics of knowledge in astronomy, history and mythology.
Names of the third day of the week in Slavic languages
When forming the words denoting the days of the week, in the Slavic languages, preference was given to their numerical order. Thus, it is not difficult to understand why the environment is called the environment. This day is the middle of the week. In ancient Russia it wasanother designation of the environment is widespread - the third.
The middle day of the week is called similarly in other modern Slavic languages: “serada” in Belarusian, “sereda” in Ukrainian, středa in Czech, srijeda in Croatian.
Day of the week Wednesday in some foreign languages
In today's world, children learn foreign languages from kindergarten, and most of them easily memorize the days of the week in different languages. It is very important to draw parallels between the names of the days of the week in the native and studied languages. This will help form a holistic picture of the world in a child, develop his ability to generalize information and highlight common patterns in different linguistic phenomena.
For example, in German the third day of the week was named according to the same principle as in Russian. Mittwoch comes from two words: die Mitte, which means "middle", and die Woche, which means "week". In the Finnish word keskeviikko, the name of the day also symbolizes the middle of the week. Of course, having caught this correspondence in their native and studied languages, children will more easily remember the educational material and successfully learn all the names of the days of the week.
In order to firmly remember the names of the days of the week in English and French, you will need to turn to astronomy, history and mythology.
Wednesday - Wednesday in English. The day of the week and, in particular, its translation is easy to remember if you know that the word comes from the name of the supremethe ancient German god Odin, also called Wotan. The image of a traveler, a sage, a connoisseur of secret runic symbols and tales is attributed to him.
When the word "Wednesday" in English (day of the week, third in a row) is learned, it will not be difficult to remember it also in the languages of the Scandinavian group, since they refer to the same god Odin. For example, Wednesday is Onsdag in Norwegian, Danish and Swedish, Woensdag in Dutch.
What the day of the week Wednesday means will become clear after reading its foreign equivalents in modern languages that have a Latin root. We know that Wednesday is mercredi in French, miércoles in Spanish, and mercoledì in Italian. In Latin, Wednesday literally means the day of Mercury (dies Mercurĭi), who in ancient times was one of the most famous Roman gods.
Gods, planets, days of the week…
So, it was not difficult to figure out why Wednesday is called Wednesday in Slavic and some European languages. But it is still not clear why the name of the third day of the week in many European languages is based on the designation of the planet of the solar system and the name of the god Wotan.
The fact is that representatives of ancient civilizations believed that every day is controlled by a certain planet. Each planet corresponded to God, embodied his principle and influenced people's lives especially strongly on the corresponding day of the week. Thus, the ancient Roman god Mercury, the ancient Greek god Hermes and the Scandinavian god Wotan representthe same cosmic and natural force.
Mythology and astrology
For the Romans, Mercury is the winged messenger of the gods, who was allowed to wander between the underworld and the gods seated on Olympus. He served as a mediator and conciliator, brought news, crossed the borders that separate people on earth and gods in the sky. The appearance of Mercury symbolized change and the beginning of a new life period.
Since Mercury is the smallest and fastest planet in the solar system, its planetary principle implies a good reaction, high speed of thought processes, and excellent communication skills. Mercury patronizes learning, gaining knowledge, trade, mediation and healing.
Wednesday is the day of Mercury
So, according to ancient astrologers, Wednesday is ruled by Mercury. What is good to do on this day? On Wednesday, people's ability to understand, reflect and exchange thoughts improves. Therefore, on this day, any communication, conclusion of contracts and agreements is good, travel, study and making contacts with new people are easy.
After it was possible to find out why the environment is called Wednesday and what meaning this day of the week carries, everyone can have an idea about the commonality and a single source of knowledge available in the cultures and linguistic heritage of different peoples. Only by combining disparate facts into a single coherent system, it is possible to fully explain to the child the essence of individual languagephenomena and, in addition, expand the horizons of their own perception of the world.
