Facts About Monday

Monday (pronounced /ˈmʌndeɪ, ˈmʌndi/) is the day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. According to international standard ISO 8601 it is the first day of the week. It is derived from Old English Mōnandæg and Middle English Monenday, which means "moon day".

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Etymology

A depiction of Máni, the personified moon, and his sister Sól, the personified sun, from Norse mythology (1895) by Lorenz Frølich.The English noun Monday derived sometime before 1200 from monedæi, which itself developed from Old English (around 1000) mōnandæg and mōndæg (literally meaning "moon's day"), which is cognate to other Germanic languages, including Old Frisian mōnadeig, Middle Low German and Middle Dutch mānendach (modern Dutch Maandag), Old High German mānetag (modern German Montag), and Old Norse mánadagr (Swedish and Norwegian nynorsk måndag. Danish and Norwegian bokmål mandag). The Germanic term is a Germanic interpretation of Latin lunae dies ("day of the moon").

In many Slavic languages the name of the day eschews pagan tradition and translates as "after Sunday/holiday" (Russian понедельник (poniediélnik), Bulgarian понеделник (ponedelnik), Polish poniedzialek, Czech "pondeli". In Turkish it is called "pazartesi", which means the day after Sunday. In most Indic languages, the word for Monday is dervied from Sanskrit Sōmavāra. Japanese and Korean share the same ancient Chinese words '月曜日' (Hiragana:げつようび, Hangul:월요일) for Monday which means day of the moon.

Position in the week

The international ISO 8601 standard places Monday as the first day of the week, and this is widely used on calendars in Europe and in international business. Monday is xingqi yi (星期一) in Chinese, meaning "day one of the week". Its name in Georgian and Syriac means "first day". Modern western culture usually looks at Monday as the beginning of the workweek, as it is typically Monday when adults go back to work and children go back to school after the weekend.

Jewish and some Christian traditions place Sunday as the first day of the week, and Monday is thus the second day of the week. This is the standard format in the United States, Canada, and Japan. Quakers traditionally refer to Monday as "Second Day" eschewing the pagan origin of the English name "Monday". For similar reasons the official liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church refers to Monday as the second celebration day - Feria II. The Portuguese and the Greek (Eastern Orthodox Church) name for Monday reflects this, as do all the days' names except Saturday and Sunday: the Portuguese word for Monday is segunda-feira and the Greek word is deutéra (Δευτέρα). Likewise the Hebrew name for Monday is yom-sheni (יום שני).

Religious observances

In Judaism and Islam Mondays are considered auspicious days for fasting. The Didache warned early Christians not to fast on Mondays to avoid Judaizing, and suggests Wednesdays instead.

In Judaism the Torah is read in public on Monday mornings, one of three days the Torah is read each week (the other two days being Thursday and Saturday). Special penitential prayers are recited on Monday, unless there is a special occasion for happiness which cancels them.

Cultural references

• In the folk rhyme, "Monday's child is fair of face".

• In Thailand, the color associated with Monday is yellow, see Thai solar calendar.

• A number of songs feature Monday, often as a day of depression, anxiety, or melancholy. For example, "Monday, Monday" (1966) from the Mamas & the Papas, "Rainy Days and Mondays" (1971) from the Carpenters, "I Don't Like Mondays" (1979) from the Boomtown Rats, and "Manic Monday" (1986) from the Bangles.

• There is a band named the Happy Mondays and an American pop punk band Hey Monday.

• In the Garfield comics and shows, the title character hates Mondays, and is frequently harmed during them.

• 2005,Monday was the most popular day to commit suicide, call in sick, and surf the web in the Netherlands. 2009, Wednesday,

• During July 2002, the consulting firm of PriceWaterhouseCoopers Consulting announced that it would re-name itself to Monday, and spend $110 million over the next year to establish that brand.

• In the film Office Space (1999), character Nina says to Peter "sounds like someone's got a case of the Mondays" suggesting Peter is not in a good mood.

Monday in different languages

See article at wikipedia Week-day names.

Astrology

Monday aligns with the celestial body, the Moon, and the astrological sign of Cancer.

Named days

• Big Monday

• Black Monday

• Blue Monday

• Clean Monday (Ash Monday)

• Cyber Monday

• Easter Monday also Bright Monday or Wet Monday

• First Monday

• Handsel Monday

• Lundi Gras

• Miracle Monday

• Plough Monday

• Shrove Monday

• Weather Market Monday. The day when commodity markets add or subtract weather premium.

• Wet Monday

• Whit Monday

• Meatless Mondays - Every Month

Meatless Monday is a public health awareness campaign promoting meatless, low-fat meals once a week as part of a goal to reduce the saturated fat in American diets by 15% by the year 2010."

You may also want to Research:

Monday Club / Monday demonstrations / Monday Night Football

Monday Night Wars / Monday Night Raw / Saint Monday

Categories:

• Days of the week

• Fasting

Reference

• Barnhart, Robert K. (1995).

The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology.

Harper Collins.

ISBN 0-06-270084-7

Resources: This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses some material from Wikipedia/article monday/and other related pages.