Week Day Symbols: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 11:51, 20 August 2025

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 documents, 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). These images are from a church book in Bavaria from around 1715. The symbols are:

Sonntag

This is simply a circle with a dot in the middle and represents the sun.

Montag

The crescent represents the moon.

Dienstag

This symbol represents the Roman god of war, Mars/Germanic Tiw, and is also the symbol for "male."

Mittwoch

This rather interesting looking symbol represents Roman Mercury/Germanic Woden. It looks like the symbol for Friday with horns on the top.

Donnerstag

The symbol for Thursday stands for Roman Jupiter/Germanic Thor.

Freitag

This symbol, a cross with a circle on top represents Roman Venus/Germanic Frigg and is also the symbol for "female."

Samstag/Sonnabend

This symbol represents the Roman god Saturn.

So, you might read d 29ten Oktober, which means "Sonntag, den 29. Oktober."

Images used by kind permission:

Zentralarchiv der Evangelischen Kirche der Pfalz, Abt. 45 Kirchenbücher: Ebernburg Nr. 1, 1681-1798.
Central Archives of the Evangelical Church of Palatine, Division 45 church books: Ebernburg No. 1, 1681-1798.

Click here for a detailed explanation with illustrations and here for computer-generated illustrations of these weekday symbols or here for the origin of the names of the week days.

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-Images of the symbols are forthcoming.
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+| link1=[[Germany Genealogy|Germany]]
+| link2=[[Germany Languages|Languages]]
+| link3=
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+| link5=[[Week Day Symbols]]
+}}
-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:
-<br>Sonntag [[]]&nbsp;This is simply a circle with a dot in the middle and represents the sun.<br>Montag [[]]&nbsp;The crescent obviously represents the moon.<br>Dienstag[[]] This symbol represents the Roman god of war, Mars/ Germanic Tiw, and is also the symbol&nbsp;for ‘male.’<br>Mittwoch [[]] This rather interesting looking symbol represents Roman Mercury/Germanic Wodin. It looks like the symbol for Friday with horns on the top.<br>Donnerstag [[]]&nbsp;The symbol for Thursday stands for Roman Jupiter/Germanic Thor<br>Freitag [[]]&nbsp;This symbol, a cross with a circle on top (the extra little hook on the upper right part on the left photo is not part of the symbol), represents Roman Venus/Germanic Frigg and is the also the symbol for ‘female.’<br>Samstag [[]]&nbsp;This symbol represents the Roman god Saturn.
+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 documents, 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).&nbsp; These images are from a church book in Bavaria from around 1715. The symbols are:
-So, you might read [[]] d 29ten Oktober, which means ‘Sonntag, den 29. Oktober.’
+;Sonntag&nbsp; [[Image:Sund xx.JPG|54x58px|Sund xx.JPG]]&nbsp;&nbsp;
+{{Block indent|This is simply a circle with a dot in the middle and represents the sun. }}
+;Montag&nbsp;&nbsp;[[Image:Mon xx.JPG|56x58px|Mon xx.JPG]]
+{{Block indent|The crescent represents the moon. }}
+;Dienstag&nbsp;&nbsp; [[Image:Tues xx.JPG|66x68px|Tues xx.JPG]]
+{{Block indent|This symbol represents the Roman god of war, Mars/Germanic Tiw, and is also the symbol for "male." }}
+;Mittwoch&nbsp;&nbsp; [[Image:Wedn xx.JPG|60x66px|Wedn xx.JPG]]
+{{Block indent|This rather interesting looking symbol represents Roman Mercury/Germanic Woden. It looks like the symbol for Friday with horns on the top. }}
+;Donnerstag&nbsp;&nbsp; [[Image:Thursday xx.JPG|60x66px|Thursday xx.JPG]]
+{{Block indent|The symbol for Thursday stands for Roman Jupiter/Germanic Thor. }}
+;Freitag [[Image:Frid xx.JPG|52x74px|Frid xx.JPG]]&nbsp;
+{{Block indent|This symbol, a cross with a circle on top represents Roman Venus/Germanic Frigg and is also the symbol for "female." }}
+;Samstag/Sonnabend&nbsp; [[Image:Satur xx.JPG|54x68px|Satur xx.JPG]]
+{{Block indent|This symbol represents the Roman god Saturn.}}
-<br>Click here for a detailed explanation and computer-generated illustrations of these weekday symbols [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planet en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planet ]or here for the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week-day_names origin of the names of the week days].
+So, you might read [[Image:Sun symbol.png|15px|Sun]] d 29ten Oktober, which means "Sonntag, den 29. Oktober."
+Images used by kind permission:
+Zentralarchiv der Evangelischen Kirche der Pfalz, Abt. 45 Kirchenbücher: Ebernburg Nr. 1, 1681-1798.<br>Central Archives of the Evangelical Church of Palatine, Division 45 church books: Ebernburg No. 1, 1681-1798.
+<br>
+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].
+[[Category:Germany Language and Handwriting]] [[Category:Language and Handwriting]]