90,866
edits
use definition list style / add images
No edit summary |
(use definition list style / add images) |
||
| Line 3: | Line 3: | ||
Today, there are eight names for the days of the week in standard German, Sonntag, Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, Donnerstag, Freitag, and Samstag or Sonnabend. Dialects have other names, but we will not concern ourselves with those names. However, in old records, scribes often used symbols to indicate the days of the week instead of writing the entire name. These symbols are not abbreviations and each has other uses, such as representing metals and planets (hence, their association with the days of the week). The symbols, which in this case are taken from Bavaria around 1715, are: | Today, there are eight names for the days of the week in standard German, Sonntag, Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, Donnerstag, Freitag, and Samstag or Sonnabend. Dialects have other names, but we will not concern ourselves with those names. However, in old records, scribes often used symbols to indicate the days of the week instead of writing the entire name. These symbols are not abbreviations and each has other uses, such as representing metals and planets (hence, their association with the days of the week). The symbols, which in this case are taken from Bavaria around 1715, are: | ||
; Sonntag [[File:Sun symbol.png|15px|Sun]]: This is simply a circle with a dot in the middle and represents the sun. | |||
; Montag [[File:Moon symbol crescent.png|15px|Moon]]: The crescent obviously represents the moon. | |||
; Dienstag [[File:Mars symbol.png|15px|Mars]]: This symbol represents the Roman god of war, Mars/Germanic Tiw, and is also the symbol for ‘male.’ | |||
; Mittwoch [[File:Mercury symbol.png|15px|Mercury]]: This rather interesting looking symbol represents Roman Mercury/Germanic Wodin. It looks like the symbol for Friday with horns on the top. | |||
; Donnerstag [[File:Jupiter symbol.png|15px|Jupiter]]: The symbol for Thursday stands for Roman Jupiter/Germanic Thor | |||
; Freitag [[File:Venus symbol.png|15px|Venus]]: This symbol, a cross with a circle on top represents Roman Venus/Germanic Frigg and is the also the symbol for ‘female.’ | |||
; Samstag [[File:Saturn symbol.png|15px|Saturn]]: This symbol represents the Roman god Saturn. | |||
So, you might read [[]] d 29ten Oktober, which means ‘Sonntag, den 29. Oktober.’ | So, you might read [[File:Sun symbol.png|15px|Sun]] d 29ten Oktober, which means ‘Sonntag, den 29. Oktober.’ | ||
Click here for a [http://www.dglenn.org/defs/daysymbols.html detailed explanation with illustrations ]and here for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planet computer-generated illustrations] of these weekday symbols or here for the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week-day_names origin of the names of the week days]. | |||