Wednesday
The title of this article is ambiguous. For other meanings, see Wednesday (disambiguation).
Wednesday is the third day of the week according to international standardized counting (ISO 8601), and the fourth (and thus the middle) according to Jewish, Christian and Islamic counting.
The name is documented or in use since the 10th century, among others in the form Old High German mittiwehha (written in Old High German texts by Notker and Otfrid) and refers to the Christian-Jewish counting of the days of the week. With it, Christian missionary work in the German-speaking world avoided allusion to pre-Christian deities, which were preserved in foreign-language terminology: In English, the term Wednesday points to the god Wodan (Old English woden, hence wodnesdæg); in Dutch woensdag and in Low German Wunsdag, the word for Wednesday also has this origin. Wodan is equated in some sources with Mercurius, correspondingly in Latin Dies Mercurii (Day of Mercurius). The latter lives on in French mercredi, Romanian miercuri, Ital. mercoledì, Spanish miércoles and Alb. e mërkurë.
Besides German, Icelandic (otherwise Scandinavian but Onsdag after Odin/Wodan), Finnish and most Slavic languages derive the name for Wednesday from the word Mitte in the respective language. Thus it is called, among others, Isl. miðvikudagur, Finn. keskiviikko, Russian and Serb. среда (sreda), Polish środa, Slovak. streda and borrowed from it Hungarian szerda. The genus of the word Wednesday was originally feminine.
Wednesday was considered an unlucky day in popular belief. He was the wedding day for silent weddings (for example, for "fallen girls"). According to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, Wednesday was the day when Judas Iscariot sold the Jesus Christ. Therefore, Wednesday is usually a day of fasting in the Orthodox Church, as well as Friday.
See also
- Ash Wednesday
- Mountain feast (metaphor)
