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For other uses, seeSaturday (disambiguation).
"Sábado" redirects here. For the Portuguese news magazine, seeSábado (magazine).
Saturnus,Caravaggio,16th century

Saturdayis theday of the weekbetweenFridayandSunday.No later than the2nd century,the Romans named Saturdaydiēs Sāturnī( "Saturn's Day" ) for the planetSaturn,which controlled the firsthourof that day, according toVettius Valens.[1][2]The day's name was introduced intoWest Germanic languagesand is recorded in theLow Germanlanguages such asMiddle Low Germansatersdach,saterdach,Middle Dutchsaterdag(Modern Dutchzaterdag), and Old EnglishSæternesdæġ,SæterndæġorSæterdæġ.[3]

Origins

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See also:Names of the days of the week
Saturday is named after the planet Saturn, which in turn was named after the Roman god Saturn

Between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, theRoman Empiregradually replaced the eight-dayRomannundinal cyclewith the seven-day week. The astrological order of the days was explained byVettius ValensandDio Cassius(andChaucergave the same explanation in hisTreatise on the Astrolabe). According to these authors, it was a principle ofastrologythat the heavenly bodies presided, in succession, over the hours of the day. The association of the weekdays with the respective deities is thus indirect, the days are named for the planets, which were in turn named for the deities.[4]

TheGermanic peoplesadapted the system introduced by the Romans but glossed theirindigenous godsover the Roman deities in a process known asinterpretatio germanica.In the case of Saturday, however, the Roman name wasborroweddirectly by West Germanic peoples, apparently because none of the Germanic gods was considered to be a counterpart of the Roman godSaturn.OtherwiseOld NorseandOld High Germandid not borrow the name of the Roman god (Icelandiclaugardagur,GermanSamstag).

In theEastern Orthodox Church,Saturdays are days on which theTheotokos(Mother of God) andAll Saintsare commemorated, and the day on whichprayers for the deadare especially offered, in remembrance that it was on a Saturday that Jesus lay dead in thetomb.TheOctoechoscontains hymns on these themes, arranged in an eight-week cycle, that are chanted on Saturdays throughout the year. At the end of services on Saturday, thedismissalbegins with the words: "May Christ our True God, through theintercessionsof his most-pure Mother, of the holy, glorious and right victoriousMartyrs,of our reverend and God-bearingFathers…".For the Orthodox, Saturday — with the sole exception ofHoly Saturday— is never a strictfast day.When a Saturday falls during one of the fasting seasons (Great Lent,Nativity Fast,Apostles' Fast,Dormition Fast) the fasting rules are always lessened to an extent. TheGreat Feastof theExaltation of the Crossand theBeheading of St. John the Baptistare normally observed as strict fast days, but if they fall on a Saturday or Sunday, the fast is lessened.

Name and associations

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Today, Saturday has two names in modernStandard German.The first word,Samstag,is always used inAustria,Liechtenstein,and the German-speaking part ofSwitzerland,and generally used in southern and westernGermany.It derives fromOld High Germansambaztac,the first part (sambaz) of which derives fromGreekΣάββατο,sávvatoand this Greek word derives fromHebrewשבת,Shabbat.However, the current German word for Sabbath isSabbat.The second name for Saturday in German isSonnabend,which derives from Old High Germansunnunaband,and is closely related to theOld Englishwordsunnanæfen.It means literally "Sun eve", i.e., "The day before Sunday".Sonnabendis generally used in northern and eastern Germany, and was also the official name for Saturday inEast Germany.Even if these two names are used regionally differently, they are usually understood at least passively in the other part.

In WestFrisianthere are also two words for Saturday. In Wood Frisian it issaterdei,and in Clay Frisian it issneon,derived fromsnjoen,a combination of Old Frisiansunne,meaningsunandjoen,meaning eve.

In theWestphaliandialects ofLow Saxon,inEast Frisian Low Saxonand in theSaterland Frisian language,Saturday is calledSatertag,also akin toDutchzaterdag,which has the same linguistic roots as the English wordSaturday.It was formerly thought that the English name referred to a deity namedSæterewho was venerated by the pre-Christian peoples of north-western Germany, some of whom were the ancestors of theAnglo-Saxons.Sætere was identified as either a god associated with theharvestof possibleSlavorigin,[5]or another name forLoki[6]a complex deity associated with both good and evil; this latter suggestion may be due toJacob Grimm.[7]However, modern dictionaries derive the name fromSaturn.[8][9][10][11]

In mostlanguages of India,Saturday isShanivāra,vārameaning day, based onShani,theHindugod manifested in the planetSaturn.SomeHindusfast on Saturdays to reverse the ill effects of Shani as well as pray to and worship the deityHanuman.[12][13]In theThai solar calendarofThailand,the day is named from thePaliword for Saturn, and thecolorassociated with Saturday ispurple.[citation needed]InPakistan,Saturday isHafta,meaning the week. In Eastern Indian languages like Bengali Saturday is calledশনিবার,Shonibarmeaning Saturn's Day and is the first day of the Bengali Week in theBengali calendar. InIslamic countries,Fridays are considered as the last or penultimate day of the week and are holidays along withThursdaysor Saturdays; Saturday is calledسبت,Sabt(cognate toSabbath) and it is the first day of the week in manyArab countriesbut the Last Day in other Islamic countries such asIndonesia,Malaysia,Brunei,Central Asian countries.

InJapanese,the word Saturday isThổ diệu nhật,doyōbi,meaning 'soil day' and is associated withThổ tinh,dosei:Saturn (the planet), literally meaning "soil star". Similarly, inKoreanthe word Saturday is토요일,tho yo il,also meaning earth day. The element Earth was associated with the planet Saturn in Chinese astrology and philosophy.

The modernMāoriname for Saturday,rāhoroi,literally means "washing-day" – a vestige of earlycolonizedlife when Māori converts would set aside time on the Saturday to wash their whites forChurchon Sunday.[14]A common alternative Māori name for Saturday is the transliterationhātarei.

Quakerstraditionally referred to Saturday as "Seventh Day", eschewing the "pagan"origin of the name.[15]

InScandinaviancountries, Saturday is calledlördag,lørdag,orlaurdag,the name being derived from the old wordlaugr/laug(henceIcelandicnameLaugardagur), meaning bath, thusLördagequates to bath-day. This is due to theVikingpractice of bathing on Saturdays.[16]The rootslör,laugarand so forth are cognate to the English wordlye,in the sense of detergent. TheFinnishandEstoniannames for the day,lauantaiandlaupäev,respectively, are also derived from this term.

Position in the week

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See also:Gregorian calendar

The international standardISO 8601sets Saturday as the sixth day of the week.[17]The threeAbrahamic religions(Judaism,Christianity,andIslam) regard Saturday as the seventhday of the week.As a result, many refused the ISO 8601 standards and continue to use Saturday as their seventh day.

Saturday Sabbath

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See also:Shabbat,Sabbath in seventh-day churches,andSabbath in Christianity

ForJews,Messianics,Seventh Day BaptistsandSeventh-day Adventists,the seventh day of the week, known asShabbat(orSabbathfor Seventh-day Adventists), stretches from sundown Friday to nightfall Saturday and is the day of rest.Roman CatholicandEastern Orthodoxchurches distinguish between Saturday (Sabbath) and theLord's Day(Sunday). Other Protestant groups, such as Seventh-day Adventists, hold that the Lord's Day is the Sabbath, according to the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:8), and not Sunday.

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.

— Exodus 20:10 King James Version

Holy Saturday

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Christian religious observance in theHoly Week,beforeEaster Sunday.

Catholic liturgy and devotions on each Saturday

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In the Catholic Church, Saturday is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.[18]

In the Catholic devotion of theHoly Rosary,the Joyful Mysteries are meditated on Saturday and also on Monday throughout the year.

Astrology

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Main article:Saturn (astrology)

Inastrology,Saturn is associated with Saturday, its planet's symbol,and the astrological signsCapricornandAquarius.

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Regional customs

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Slang

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  • The amount of criminal activities that take place on Saturday nights has led to the expression, "Saturday night special",apejorativeslangterm used in the United States and Canada for any inexpensive handgun.

Arts, entertainment, and media

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Comics and periodicals

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Films

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Folk rhymes and folklore

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  • In the folk rhymeMonday's Child,"Saturday's child works hard for a living".
  • In another rhyme reciting the days of the week,Solomon Grundy"Died on Saturday".
  • In folklore, Saturday was the preferred day to huntvampires,because on that day they were restricted to their coffins. It was also believed in theBalkansthat someone born on Saturday could see a vampire when it was otherwise invisible, and that such people were particularly apt to becomevampire hunters.[25][26]Accordingly, in this context, people born on Saturday were specially designated assabbatianoíinGreek[27]andsâbotnichaviinBulgarian;[26]the term has been rendered in English as "Sabbatarians".[27]

Music

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Groups
Songs

Television

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Video games

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Sports

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See also

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References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toSaturday.
Wikiquote has quotations related toSaturday.
Look upSaturdayin Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  1. ^Falk, Michael (June 1999),"Astronomical Names for the Days of the Week",Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada,93:122–133,Bibcode:1999JRASC..93..122F
  2. ^Vettius Valens(2010) [150–175],Anthologies(PDF),translated by Riley, Mark, Sacramento State, pp. 11–12
  3. ^Hoad, TF, ed. (1993).The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology.Oxford University Press. p.418a.ISBN0-19-283098-8.
  4. ^Richmond, B. (1956).Time Measurement and Calendar Construction.Brill Archive.
  5. ^Palgrave, Francis,History of the Anglo-Saxons(1876), William Tegg & Co., London p.43
  6. ^Couzens, Reginald C.,The Stories of the Months and Days(1923), ch.22
  7. ^Grimm, Jacob,Teutonic Mythology(1835), translated by James Steven Stallybrass in 1882 fromDeutsche Mythologie,George Bell, London, p. 247.
  8. ^"Saturday", Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition (2008).
  9. ^"Saturday",Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2013).
  10. ^"Saturday",American Heritage Dictionary, Fifth Edition (2011).
  11. ^"Saturday".Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed 2013.
  12. ^"Hindu Fasting".
  13. ^"Weekly Rituals in the Practice of Hinduism".
  14. ^Rāhoroi - Saturday,Kupu o te Rā
  15. ^"Guide to Quaker Calendar Names".Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).Retrieved30 March2017.In the 20th Century, many Friends began accepting use of the common date names, feeling that any pagan meaning has been forgotten. The numerical names continue to be used, however, in many documents and more formal situations. "
  16. ^Wolf, Kirsten, 1959– (2018).The Vikings: facts and fictions.Mueller-Vollmer, Tristan. Santa Barbara, California.ISBN9781440862984.OCLC1035771932.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. ^"ISO 8601-1:2019(en) Date and time — Representations for information interchange — Part 1: Basic rules".www.iso.org.Retrieved2024-05-14.
  18. ^"Aleteia".
  19. ^"Electoral Act 1992, s.100–101".www6.austlii.edu.au.1992.Retrieved19 February2019.
  20. ^"Basic Law: Israel – the Nation State of the Jewish People"(PDF).knesset.gov.il.19 July 2018. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 27 February 2019.Retrieved19 February2019.
  21. ^"Holidays in Nepal".bharatonline.com.Retrieved19 February2019.
  22. ^"Electoral Act 1993, section 139(1)(b)".www.legislation.govt.nz.1993.Retrieved19 February2019.
  23. ^Mildner, Anders (26 January 2014)."Godis är inget vi skojar om"[Candy is nothing we joke about].Sydsvenskan(in Swedish). Malmö, Sweden.Retrieved19 February2019.
  24. ^"State of Louisiana Election Code, §402. Dates of primary and general elections"(PDF).www.sos.la.gov.2018. pp. 91–93.Retrieved19 February2019.
  25. ^McClelland, Bruce A. (2006).Slayers and Their Vampires: A Cultural History of Killing the Dead.University of Michigan.pp. 62–79.ISBN978-0-472-06923-1.
  26. ^abДимитрова, Иваничка (1983)."Българска народна митология"(in Bulgarian). Archived from the original on 2016-03-08.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  27. ^abAbbott, George F. (1903)."Macedonian Folklore".Nature.69(1780): 221–222.Bibcode:1903Natur..69Q.125..doi:10.1038/069125a0.S2CID3987217.InSummers, Montague (2008) [1929].The Vampire: His Kith and Kin.Forgotten Books. p. 36.ISBN9781605065663.
  28. ^Silverman, Jerry (1993).Songs That Made History Around the World.Mel Bay. p. 62.ISBN978-1-56222-585-8.Retrieved2012-07-30.
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