Thursday is theday of the week betweenWednesday andFriday. According to theISO 8601 international standard, it is the fourth day of the week.[1] In countries which adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is the fifth day of the week.[2]
The name is derived fromOld Englishþunresdæg andMiddle EnglishThuresday. It was named after the Old English godThunor.[3]Thunor andThor are derived from the name of the Germanic god of thunder, *Thunraz, equivalent toJupiter in theinterpretatio romana.
In most Romance languages, the day is named after the Roman godJupiter, who was the god of sky and thunder. In Latin, the day was known asIovis Dies, "Jupiter's Day". In Latin, the genitive or possessive case of Jupiter wasIovis/Jovis and thus in most Romance languages it became the word for Thursday[4]:Italiangiovedì,Spanishjueves,Frenchjeudi,Sardinianjòvia,Catalandijous,Galicianxoves andRomanianjoi. This is also reflected in thep-CelticWelshdydd Iau.
Most Germanic languages name the day after the Germanic thunder god:Torsdag inDanish,Norwegian, andSwedish,Hósdagur/Tórsdagur inFaroese,Donnerstag inGerman orDonderdag inDutch. Finnish and Northern Sami, both non-Germanic (Uralic) languages, uses the borrowing "Torstai" and "Duorastat". In the extinctPolabian Slavic language, it wasperündan,Perun being the Slavic equivalent of Thor.[5]
Greek uses a number for this day: ΠέμπτηPémpti "fifth," as doesPortuguese:quinta-feira "fifth day,"Hebrew:יום חמישי (Yom Khamishi – day fifth) often written'יום ה ("Yom Hey" – 5th letter Hey day), andArabic:يوم الخميس ("Yaum al-Khamīs" – fifth day). Rooted from Arabic, theIndonesian word for Thursday is "Kamis", similarly "Khamis" inMalaysian and "Kemis" inJavanese.
InCatholicliturgy, Thursday is referred to inLatin asferia quinta.Portuguese, unlike otherRomance languages, uses the wordquinta-feira, meaning "fifth day of liturgical celebration", that comes from the Latinferia quinta used in religious texts where it was not allowed to consecrate days to pagan gods.
Icelandic also uses the termfifth day (Fimmtudagur).
In thePersian language, Thursday is referred to aspanj-shanbeh, meaning 5th day of the week.
Vietnamese refers to Thursday asThứ năm (literally means "day five").
Quakers traditionally referred to Thursday as "Fifth Day" eschewing thepagan origin of the English name "Thursday".[8]
In theChristian tradition,Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday is the Thursday beforeEaster — the day on which theLast Supper occurred. Also known asSheer Thursday in the United Kingdom, it is traditionally a day of cleaning and giving out Maundy money there. Holy Thursday is part ofHoly Week.
InJudaism, Thursdays are considered auspicious days for fasting. TheDidache warned earlyChristians not to fast on Thursdays to avoidJudaizing, and suggested Fridays instead.
In Judaism theTorah is read in public on Thursday mornings, and special penitential prayers are said on Thursday, unless there is a special occasion for happiness which cancels them.
FormalDruze worship is confined to weekly meeting on Thursday evenings, during which all members of community gather together to discuss local issues before those not initiated into the secrets of the faith (the juhhāl, or the ignorant) are dismissed, and those who are "uqqāl" or "enlightened" (those few initiated in the Druze holy books) remain to read and study theirholy scriptures.[12]
InIndonesia,[15] andMalaysia,[16] in a week,batik clothing is usually worn on Thursday, especially at education and civil servant institutions.
ForThai Buddhist, Thursday is considered the "Teacher's Day", and it is believed that one should begin one's education on this auspicious day. Thai students still pay homages to their teachers in specific ceremony always held on a selected Thursday. And graduation day in Thai universities, which can vary depending on each university, almost always will be held on a Thursday.
In Australia, most cinema movies premieres are held on Thursdays. Also, most Australians are paid on a Thursday, either weekly or fortnightly. Shopping malls see this as an opportunity to open longer than usual, generally until 9 pm, as most pay cheques are cleared by Thursday morning.
In Norway, Thursday has also traditionally been the day when most shops and malls are open later than on the other weekdays, although the majority of shopping malls now are open until 8 pm or 9 pm every weekday.
In the USSR of the 1970s and 1980s Thursday was the "Fish Day" (Russian:Рыбный день,Rybny den), when the nation'sfoodservice establishments were supposed to serve fish (rather than meat) dishes.[18]
For college and university students, Thursday is sometimes referred to as the new Friday. There are often fewer or sometimes no classes on Fridays and more opportunities to hold parties on Thursday night and sleep in on Friday. As a consequence, some call Thursday "thirstday" or "thirsty Thursday".[19]
In theUnited Kingdom, allgeneral elections since 1935 have been held on a Thursday, and this has become a tradition, although not a requirement of the law — which merely states that an election may be held on any day "except Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Good Friday, bank holidays in any part of the United Kingdom and any day appointed for public thanksgiving and mourning".[20]
Additionally, local elections are usually held on the first Thursday in May.[21][22]
TheElectoral Administration Act 2006 removedMaundy Thursday as an excluded day on the electoral timetable, therefore an election can now be held on Maundy Thursday; prior to this elections were sometimes scheduled on the Tuesday before as an alternative.
The titular day inSweet Thursday (1954) (the sequel toJohn Steinbeck's novelCannery Row (1945)), the author explains, is the day after Lousy Wednesday and the day before Waiting Friday.
InThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy byDouglas Adams, the characterArthur Dent says: "This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays". A few minutes later the planetEarth is destroyed. In another Douglas Adams book,The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (1988), one of the characters says to the character Thor, after whom the day was named: "I'm not used to spending the evening with someone who's got a whole day named after them".
According toNostradamus' prediction (Century 1, Quatrain 50), a powerful (but otherwise unidentified) leader who will threaten "the East" will be born of threewater signs and takes Thursday as his feast day.[25]
Thursday Afternoon is a 1985 album by the British ambient musicianBrian Eno consisting of one 60-minute-long composition. It is the rearranged soundtrack to a video production of the same title made in 1984.
^"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."
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