If you start with the Babylonians, you learn that today, Sunday, was devoted to worship of the Sun. They then hauled the notion of a seven day week off to Rome, where diēs sōlis - the sun’s day - took hold to kick the whole thing off there. Around the globe, everybody else pretty much signed on with Sunday being the first day. The Persians had Monday as their first day, but they used zero as a number. Pre-Christian Germanic tribes had a female god called Sol who rode a chariot across the sky carrying the sun. This was of course a total knock-off of the Norse idea for Wednesday, but in fairness, things got way confusing with all the pillaging and plundering and ravishing and whatnot. Remember The Commodores’ big song, Easy Like Sunday Morning? Yeah, well, that was not my experience growing up.
© 2024 John Oliver
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