The Pagan’s Sunday
Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In the Judaeo-Christian tradition it is the first day of the week. Since the second half of the 20th century it has often been counted as the seventh day of the week. In Slavic languages Sunday (undividable day – referencing seven) is both the first and seventh days of the week. It is first because Wednesday is literally the “middle” of the week, while it is seventh because Tuesday, Thursday and Friday are literally the “second”, “fourth” and “fifth” days of the week. It is named after Sunne, German goddess of the sun, which is where the word “sun” also derives its name.
Sunday is considered a holiday in most countries of the world and as part of the weekend. Only countries influenced by Islamic (or Jewish) culture often have Friday (or Saturday) as a weekly holiday instead.
The Gregorian calendar repeats every 400 years, and no century starts on a Sunday. The Jewish New Year never falls on a Sunday. Any month beginning on a Sunday will contain a Friday the 13th.
In Thailand, the color associated with Sunday is red.
The name Sunday
The Sun was assigned to this day in pre-Christian Egyptian culture. (See T. Slater’s article “Sunday” in the 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia.) In Ptolemaic Egyptian astrology, the seven planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon, had an hour of the day assigned to each in that order, but the planet which was “regent” during the first hour of any day of the week gave its name to that day. The Egyptian form of the seven-day week spread to Rome during the first and second century when the Roman names of the planets were given to each successive day.
Germanic-speaking nations apparently adopted the seven-day week from the Romans, so that the Roman dies Solis became Sunday (German, Sonntag), likely in reference to the Germanic sun goddess Sol.
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