The names of weekdays in Danish sounds all mystical and cool untilâŚ
Søndag (Sunday) Day of The Sun.
Mandag (Monday) Day of The Moon.
Tirsdag (Tuesday) Tyrâs Day, the old half-jotun god of law, order, fairness and combat.
Onsdag (Wednesday) Odinâs Day, the old god king of wisdom, magic and warfare.
Torsdag (Thursday) Thorâs Day, the old god of thunder, rain, strength and battle.
Fredag (Friday) Freyaâs or Freyrâs Day, the old sibling gods of prosperity, wealth, love and peace.
Lørdag (Saturday) Day of Bath, bath dayâŚ
Our ancestors were big into bath time, so I suppose the message here is that self care should be considered sacred and that cleanliness is next to godliness?
On a tangential note, some quick etymological/historic notes:
The modern calendar descends from the Greek calendar, which in turn may descend from the original Babylonian calendar -- there's some evidence that the reason why Greek, Hebrew, and Indian calendars traditionally use a seven-day system is because the Babylonians used a seven-day system. Regardless of who started it, the Greek assigned a weekday to each planet a category that for most ancient peoples included the Sun and Moon.
So to the ancient Greeks, the days where the Sun's Day (hemĂŠra HelĂou), the Moon's Day (hemĂŠra SelĂŠnes), Ares' Day (hemĂŠra Ăreos), Hermes' Day (hemĂŠra Hermou), Zeus' Day (hemĂŠra Dios), Aphrodite's Day (hemĂŠra AphrodĂtes), and Kronos' Day (hemĂŠra KrĂłnou), one for each planet. Among the Romans, where this week displaced an older nine-day system, they were the Sun's Day (dies Solis), Moon's Day (dies Lunae), Mars' Day (dies Martis), Mercury's Day (dies Mercurii), Jupiter's Day (dies Iovis), Venus' Day (dies Veneris), and Saturn's Day (dies Saturni).
Once the Roman week started making its way among the Germanic-speaking peoples of central and northern Europe, the planets'/gods' names were changed to whatever was seen as the best fit. This was done using the interpretatio germanica, a system by which the Germanic cultures had gotten used to equating the Romans' gods with theirs.
Thus, using the Anglo-Saxon/Old English names and their modern descendants as examples, the Sun's Day and Moon's Day stayed the same (SunnandĂŚg and MonandĂŚg, now Sunday and Monday), Mars' Day became Tyw's Day, since they were both gods associated with battle (TiwesdĂŚg, Tuesday), Mercury's Day became Woden's Day, since they were both associated with roadways and travel (WodnesdĂŚg, Wednesday), Jupiter's Day became Thunor's Day, because they were both thunder gods (ĂunresdĂŚg, Thursday), and Venus' Day became Frigg's Day, because they were both associated with womanhood and love (FrÄŤgedĂŚg, Friday -- note here, Frigg, not Freya or Freyr; these names originated among the continental groups and spread to the Norse later, and Freya and Freyr appear to have been more strictly Scandinavian deities; at least, there is no surviving attestation of their worship from outside of the Norse area). The primary hiccup was that there was no good equivalent to Saturn, so that remained as it was (SĂŚterndĂŚg, Saturday). Other languages came up with different terms to fill this gap, such as, indeed, the bathing-day.
Variants of this naming system are found among all Germanic languages today, such as Danish (above), Dutch (Zondag, Maandag, Dinsdag, Woensdag, Donderdag, Vrijdag, Zaterdag), German (Sonntag, Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, Donnerstag, Freitag, Samstag -- note the use of "Mid-Week" in place of the older, now disused, "Wodenstag"), etcetera.
Romance languages, incidentally, use the Latin system for the workdays (e.g., Italian LunedĂŹ, MartedĂŹ, MercoledĂŹ, GiovedĂŹ, VenerdĂŹ, Spanish Lunes, Martes, MiĂŠrcoles, Jueves, Viernes, French Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi, Romanian Luni, MarČi, Miercuri, Joi, Vineri) while the original Saturn's Day and Sun's Day became the Sabbath and the Lord's Day, or dies Domini (e.g., Sabato e Domenica, SĂĄbado y Domingo, Samedi et Dimanche, SâmbÄtÄ Či DuminicÄ).
And now you know!
