Wednesday


Wednesday is the day of the week between Tuesday and Thursday. According to international standard ISO 8601 it is the third day of the week. In countries that have Friday as their holiday and in some Muslim countries, Wednesday would be the fifth day of the week. In countries that use the Sunday-first convention and in the Jewish Hebrew calendar Wednesday is defined as the fourth day of the week. The name is derived from Old English Wōdnesdæg and Middle English Wednesdei, "day of Woden", reflecting the religion practiced by the Anglo-Saxons, a variation of the Norse god Odin. In some other languages, such as the French mercredi or Italian mercoledì, the day's name is a calque of dies Mercurii "day of Mercury".
Wednesday is in the middle of the common Western five-day workweek that starts on Monday and finishes on Friday.

Etymology

The name :wikt:Wednesday|Wednesday continues Middle English Wednesdei. Old English still had wōdnesdæg, which would be continued as *Wodnesday .
By the early 13th century, the i-mutated form was introduced unetymologically.
The name is a calque of the Latin dies Mercurii "day of Mercury", reflecting the fact that the Germanic god Woden during the Roman era was interpreted as "Germanic Mercury".
The Latin name dates to the late 2nd or early 3rd century. It is a calque of Greek ἡμέρα Ἕρμου, a term first attested, together with the system of naming the seven weekdays after the seven classical planets, in the Anthologiarum by Vettius Valens.
The Latin name is reflected directly in the weekday name in most modern Romance languages: Mércuris, mercredi, mercoledì, miércoles, miercuri, dimecres, Marcuri or Mercuri, Mèrcore. In Welsh it is Dydd Mercher, meaning Mercury's Day.
The Dutch name for the day, woensdag, has the same etymology as English Wednesday; it comes from Middle Dutch wodenesdag, woedensdag.
The German name for the day, Mittwoch, replaced the former name Wodenstag in the 10th century.
Most Slavic languages follow this pattern and use derivations of "the middle".
The Finnish name is Keskiviikko, as is the Icelandic name: Miðvikudagur, and the Faroese name: Mikudagur. Some dialects of Faroese have Ónsdagur, though, which shares etymology with Wednesday. Danish, Norwegian, Swedish Onsdag,.
In Japanese, the word for Wednesday is 水曜日, meaning 'water day' and is associated with 水星 : Mercury, literally meaning "water star". Similarly, in Korean the word Wednesday is 수요일, also meaning water day.
In most of the languages of India, the word for Wednesday is Budhavāra — vāra meaning day and Budha being the planet Mercury.
In Armenian, Georgian , Turkish, and Tajik languages the word literally means as "four from Saturday" originating from Persian.
Portuguese uses the word quarta-feira, meaning "fourth day", while in Greek the word is Tetarti meaning simply "fourth". Similarly, Arabic أربعاء means "fourth", Hebrew רביעי means "fourth", and Persian چهارشنبه means "fourth day". Yet the name for the day in Estonian kolmapäev, Lithuanian trečiadienis, and Latvian trešdiena means "third day" while in Mandarin Chinese 星期三, means "day three", as Sunday is unnumbered.

Religious observances

The Creation narrative in the Hebrew Bible places the creation of the Sun and Moon on "the fourth day" of the divine workweek.
Quakers traditionally referred to Wednesday as "Fourth Day" to avoid the pagan associations with the name "Wednesday", or in keeping with the practice of treating each day as equally divine.
The Eastern Orthodox Church observes Wednesday as a fast day throughout the year. Fasting on Wednesday and Fridays entails abstinence from meat or meat products, poultry and dairy products. Unless a feast day occurs on a Wednesday, the Orthodox also abstain from fish, from using oil in their cooking and from alcoholic beverages. For the Orthodox, Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year commemorate the betrayal of Jesus and the Crucifixion of Christ. There are hymns in the Octoekhos which reflect this liturgically. These include special Theotokia called Stavrotheotokia. The dismissal at the end of services on Wednesday begins with these words: "May Christ our true God, through the power of the precious and life-giving cross...."
In Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the name for Wednesday also refers to fasting, as it is Dé Céadaoin in Irish Gaelic and Di-Ciadain in Scottish Gaelic, which comes from chéad, "first" and aoine, "fasting" which means "first day of fasting".
In American culture many Catholic and Protestant churches schedule study or prayer meetings on Wednesday nights. The sports calendar in many American public schools reflects this, reserving Mondays and Thursdays for girls' games and Tuesdays and Fridays for boys' games while generally avoiding events on Wednesday evening.
In the Catholic devotion of the Holy Rosary, the glorious mysteries are meditated on Wednesday and also Sunday throughout the year.
Wednesday is the day of the week devoted by the Catholic tradition to St. Joseph.

Cultural usage

In Hindu mythology, Budha is the god of Mercury, mid-week Wednesday, and of Merchants and merchandise. According to the Thai solar calendar, the color associated with Wednesday is green.
In the folk rhyme "Wednesday's child is full of woe", reciting the days of the week, Solomon Grundy was 'Married on Wednesday.' In Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, the disagreeable nature of the weather is attributed to it being "Winds-Day". In Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar Wednesday is the day when the sun shines grey. Wednesday Friday Addams is a member of the fictional family The Addams Family. Her name is derived from the idea that Wednesday's child is full of woe. Additionally, Wednesday sometimes appears as a character's name in literary works. These include Thursday's fictions by Richard James Allen and Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods. In the 1945 John Steinbeck novel Sweet Thursday, the titular day is preceded by "Lousy Wednesday".
Wednesday is sometimes informally referred to as "" in North America, a reference to the fact that Wednesday is the middle day—or "hump"—of a typical work week.

Astrology

The astrological sign of the planet Mercury, ☿, represents Wednesday—Dies Mercurii to the Romans, it had similar names in Latin-derived languages, such as the Italian mercoledì, the French mercredi, and the Spanish miércoles. In English, this became "Woden's Day", since the Roman god Mercury was identified by Woden in Northern Europe and it is especially aligned by the astrological signs of Gemini and Virgo. Wednesday is one of the only three days aside from Neptune and Pluto to be associated by another planet, which is Uranus.

Named days