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 Empire gradually replaced the eight-dayRomannundinal cycle with the seven-day week. The astrological order of the days was explained byVettius Valens andDio Cassius (andChaucer gave the same explanation in hisTreatise on the Astrolabe). According to these authors, it was a principle ofastrology that 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 peoples adapted the system introduced by the Romans but glossed theirindigenous gods over the Roman deities in a process known asinterpretatio germanica. In the case of Saturday, however, the Roman name wasborrowed directly by West Germanic peoples, apparently because none of the Germanic gods was considered to be a counterpart of the Roman godSaturn.[5] OtherwiseOld Norse andOld High German did not borrow the name of the Roman god (Icelandiclaugardagur, GermanSamstag).
In theEastern Orthodox Church, Saturdays are days on which theTheotokos (Mother of God) andAll Saints are commemorated, and the day on whichprayers for the dead are especially offered, in remembrance that it was on a Saturday that Jesus lay dead in thetomb. TheOctoechos contains 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, thedismissal begins with the words: "May Christ our True God, through theintercessions of 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 Feast of theExaltation of the Cross and theBeheading of St. John the Baptist are normally observed as strict fast days, but if they fall on a Saturday or Sunday, the fast is lessened.
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,sávvato and 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 English wordsunnanæfen. It means literally "Sun eve", i.e., "The day before Sunday".Sonnabend is 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 WestFrisian there are also two words for Saturday. In Wood Frisian it issaterdei, and in Clay Frisian it issneon, derived fromsnjoen, a combination of Old Frisiansunne, meaningsun andjoen, meaning eve.
In theWestphalian dialects ofLow Saxon, inEast Frisian Low Saxon and 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 namedSætere who 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 theharvest of possibleSlav origin,[6] or another name forLoki[7] a complex deity associated with both good and evil; this latter suggestion may be due toJacob Grimm.[8] Regardless,modern dictionaries derive the name fromSaturn.[9][10][11][12]
In mostlanguages of India, Saturday isShanivāra,vāra meaning day, based onShani, theHindu god manifested in the planetSaturn. SomeHindus fast on Saturdays to reverse the ill effects of Shani as well as pray to and worship the deityHanuman.[13][14] In theThai solar calendar ofThailand, the day is named from thePali word for Saturn, and thecolor associated with Saturday ispurple.[15] InPakistan, Saturday isHafta, meaning the week. In Eastern Indian languages like Bengali Saturday is calledশনিবার,Shonibar meaning 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 withThursdays or Saturdays; Saturday is calledسبت,Sabt (cognate toSabbath) and it is the first day of the week in manyArab countries but the Last Day in other Islamic countries such asIndonesia,Malaysia,Brunei,Central Asian countries.
InJapanese, the word Saturday is土曜日,doyōbi, meaning 'soil day' and is associated with土星,dosei: Saturn (the planet), literally meaning "soil star". Similarly, inKorean the 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 modernMāori name for Saturday,rāhoroi, literally means "washing-day" – a vestige of earlycolonized life when Māori converts would set aside time on the Saturday to wash their whites forChurch on Sunday.[16] A common alternative Māori name for Saturday is the transliterationhātarei.
Quakers traditionally referred to Saturday as "Seventh Day", eschewing the "pagan" origin of the name.[17]
InScandinavian countries, Saturday is calledlördag,lørdag, orlaurdag, the name being derived from the old wordlaugr/laug (henceIcelandic nameLaugardagur), meaning bath, thusLördag equates to bath-day. This is due to theViking practice of bathing on Saturdays.[18] The rootslör,laugar and so forth are cognate to the English wordlye, in the sense of detergent. TheFinnish andEstonian names for the day,lauantai andlaupäev, respectively, are also derived from this term.
The international standardISO 8601 sets Saturday as the sixth day of the week.[19] 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.
ForJews,Messianics,Seventh Day Baptists andSeventh-day Adventists, the seventh day of the week, known asShabbat (orSabbath for Seventh-day Adventists), stretches from sundown Friday to nightfall Saturday and is the day of rest.Roman Catholic andEastern Orthodox churches 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.
InAustralia, elections must take place on a Saturday.[21]
InIsrael, Saturday is the officialday of rest,[22] on which all government offices and most businesses, including some public transportation, are closed.
InNepal, Saturday is the last day of the week and is the only official weekly holiday.[23]
InNew Zealand, Saturday is the only day on which elections can be held.[24]
The amount of criminal activities that take place on Saturday nights has led to the expression, "Saturday night special", apejorativeslang term used in the United States and Canada for any inexpensive handgun.
The association of Saturday night with comedy shows on television lent its name to the filmMr. Saturday Night, starringBilly Crystal.
It is common for clubs, bars and restaurants to be open later on Saturday night than on other nights. Thus "Saturday Night" has come to imply the party scene, and has lent its name to the filmsSaturday Night Fever, which showcasedNew Yorkdiscotheques,Uptown Saturday Night, as well as many songs (see below).
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 theBalkans that someone born on Saturday could see a vampire when it was otherwise invisible, and that such people were particularly apt to becomevampire hunters.[27][28] Accordingly, in this context, people born on Saturday were specially designated assabbatianoí inGreek[29] andsâbotnichavi inBulgarian;[28] the term has been rendered in English as "Sabbatarians".[29]
TheNigerian popular song "Bobo Waro Fero Satodeh" ("Everybody Loves Saturday Night") became internationally famous in the 1950s and was sung translated into many languages[30]
Saturday morning is a notable television time block aimed at children while generally airing animatedcartoons, although in the United States, this has generally been phased out due to American television regulationsrequiring educational content be aired, along with Saturday outside activities for children[citation needed]
Saturday night is also a popular time slot for comedy shows on television in the US. The most famous of these isSaturday Night Live, a sketch comedy show that has aired on NBC nearly every week since 1975. Other notable examples includeSaturday Night Live with Howard Cosell.
The Grand Final of the popular pan-European TV show,Eurovision Song Contest, has always aired on a Saturday in May.
Saturday evenings are a time slot in theUnited Kingdom, devoted to popular TV shows such asStrictly Come Dancing,The Voice UK, andThe X Factor. Many family game shows, for exampleTotal Wipeout andHole in the Wall, also air on a Saturday evening.
Saturday night is a popular time forprofessional wrestling on television in the United States.WCW Saturday Night ran weekly under various titles between 1971 and 2000.WWE ranSaturday Night's Main Event television specials between 1985 and 1992, with a second run coming between 2006 and 2008.AEW Collision has run weekly since 2023.
^"Guide to Quaker Calendar Names". Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Retrieved30 March 2017.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."
^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)
^Mildner, Anders (26 January 2014)."Godis är inget vi skojar om" [Candy is nothing we joke about].Sydsvenskan (in Swedish). Malmö, Sweden. Retrieved19 February 2019.
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