Introduction
This is an EarthWise exploration of how we mark time. This is not about the ancient monuments and monoliths that might mark time across the landscape. Rather, this post focuses on the names we use for days of the week and months of the year. We use these terms in our busy, daily modern lives, probably without much introspection on what they mean or where they come from. They are words and names.
But there is an interesting and deeper EarthWise journey into these. That is the journey we are taking today. It is not about how ancient civilizations and societies made the decisions on how to divide time, or even that there was the concept of time to divide. That is another interesting path of exploration to take, but that will be for another day.
This post is simply looking at days of the week, and months of the year, and to think about the meaning that is kept within the daily words we use in the modern world.
The origins of the names give us a fascinating insight into the culture and mindset of those who named them. It says something about our modern day usage. We carry on a rather unreflective use of these names. And it is remarkable that out of all the words and practices from the past that these ways of marking and naming time are remnants that have survived. Certainly many other words and practices from the past have been lost.
Survivors out of time and place?
For survivors they are, now perhaps seemingly out of place, cut adrift from their origins, and the names that we use without consideration of meaning, once held a deep and spiritual significance. It is that spiritual significance lost to us in the modern world, and that this post will explore.
Remembering and Forgetting
What is remembered and what is forgotten across time and space is a curious consideration. For instance, the main knowledge that can be gleaned from the people and communities in the eras before that of the Romano-Britain era are largely due to the material cultural remnants left behind. There are striking examples of these throughout the landscape. Consider the famous examples of Stonehenge and Avebury, and the countless smaller monuments of stone circles. There are famous barrows scattered throughout the land. Exactly what they were used for, exactly what their significance was, is to some degree a matter of speculation.
The Roman presence in Britain lasted for about four hundred years. Scant echoes of this time remain in the landscape— a scrap of wall, a barrow, an unearthed mosaic or footprint of a villa, or even whole villages. But somehow Roman Britain seems to have been forgotten in collective memory. It seems literally buried.
A Roman influence on Nordic and Anglo-Saxon naming of days of the week
Yet, the days of the week and months of the year arguably are a remainder and reminder of the Roman presences. There is evidence that the days of the week–Nordic and Anglo-Saxon pantheon of gods and goddesses that they appear to be on the surface– are actually influenced by Roman traditions and reflect those.
Let’s take a quick look at the names of the days of the week:
Sunday– this one seems obvious- a day named for the bright orbit in the sky that is also the supposed focus of many pagan rituals and monuments.
Monday– in contrast to the day of the sun, this is the day of the moon— the bright planet that waxes and wanes in the night sky.
Tuesday– this day honours the god Tyr, a god of war.
Wednesday– this is the day of Odin.
Thursday– this is a day named after yet another god, this one is named for Thor.
Friday– at last there is a goddess honoured in the naming. This is named in honour of the goddess Frig, who is the goddess of love, and spouse to Odin.
Saturday– rounding out the week is an odd name. This honours Saturn, who is a Roman, rather than Anglo-Saxon or Nordic, deity.
Thus, the days of the week in modern English usage have a Roman influence, though subtle, and continue to give homage to a pantheon of pagan gods and goddesses, and two important celestial bodies.
Roman naming of the months of the year
There is no question of the Roman origin of the months of the year. Over time, however, the Romans changed the number of months that they had in the year. At one point there were 10, and then it was expanded to twelve. The names of the months that survive into our modern usage reflect that the Roman calendar once began in March, not January. Names of months survive that reflect their original position in the year. This quote from the British Museum explains the naming and numbering system we see reflected in current month names: “September, October, November and December are named after Roman numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10 – they were originally the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth months of the Roman year.”
But what about those months that are not named for numbers?
March– once seen as the start of the year, this is named for a Roman god, Mars, who is the god of war.
April– this name marks the start of the spring season, derived from Latin words referring to plants beginning to bud.
May– still in keeping with the seasonal observance of spring, this month is named for a Roman goddess who “oversaw the growth of plants.”
June– yet another Roman goddess is honoured in the naming of this month. This is named for the goddess, Juno, who is recognized as the goddess “of marriage and the well-being of women.”
July– this is named to commemorate a human-the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar.
August– this month is named for another Roman human entity, Augustus Caesar.
Thus, in the non-named-for-numbers months, there is a curious mix. Two months honour Roman rulers. The others have unmistaken links to pagan Roman gods.
Why have these names survived?
But the real question is why have these names survived? They are no longer representative of main stream culture or memory in the modern world in which they are used. Yet, without question, these seem to continue in use. What is it about them that has made them endure without alteration?
Even the awkward months of the year– now out of sync with their literal meaning in terms of when they fall– the changing of when a New Year was reckoned was not enough to dislodge the now mis-numbered and mis-named months.
So why have these awkward Roman origin namings of tracking time survived?
That is something that is more difficult to answer, and there are no ready answers. Changes from the Julian to Gregorian calendar would have provided a chance to also update month names and week day names– but it did not. Even though the calendar changed, the names remained as they had been.
Certainly over time the Christian church absorbed Pagan holidays into its calendar, renaming them to suit its Christian presentation.
But this does not explain why the months of the year and days of the week retain an admittedly pagan focus.
Conclusion
And so we are left with something of a mystery. A story untold, unfinished–of how this remnants of pagan belief remain a part of everyday vocabulary and reckoning of time. Why they have been very persistent across time and space, even as calendars changed. Is there a deeper story here, about an ancient memory that refuses to fade, that is deeply ingrained in blood and bone, that is part of our human consciouness?
And this bridges an interesting question which we will explore in further posts. What other remnants of a pagan past hide in plain sight in our modern culture? What do they tell us about ourselves, that they remain, present and hidden all at once? Is it the everyday, unthinking useage about week day and monthly names that allows their survival? Or is it something more? Come along for more explorations on our EarthWise journeys.
Learn more about these subtle whispers from the past and what they tell us of the EarthWise relationships then and now.