Saturday

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The god Saturn, after whom Saturday is named.
The god Saturn, after whom Saturday is named.

Saturday is the sixth or seventh day of the week, between Friday and Sunday. It retains its Roman origin in English which is of the Roman god of agriculture Saturn. It has been called dies Saturni ("Saturn's Day"), through which form it entered into Old English as Sæternesdæg and evolved into its current form. Many of the other days of the week have names derived from Saxon gods of Northern Europe in Old English.

In India, Saturday is Shanivar. It is based on Shani, the Vedic God manifested in the planet Saturn.

In Europe, for several decades many people have considered Saturday the sixth (penultimate) day of the week, and Sunday the last. Ironically Saturday is (in accordance to the Gage Canadian dictionary) the seventh day of the week[1]. This current European labour-orientated convention has been formalized by ISO 8601. However, the three monotheist religions are in agreement that Saturday is the last day of the week. In Islamic countries, Fridays are holidays, however they are considered as the sixth day of the week.

In many countries where Sundays are holidays, Saturday is part of the weekend, and is traditionally a day of relaxation. Many parties are held on Saturdays, because it precedes Sunday, another day of rest. It is common for clubs, bars and restaurants to be open later on Saturday night than on other nights.

In Jewish tradition Saturday is the Shabbat. Christianity adopted this tradition in terms of the Sabbath. Thus, in many languages the Saturday is named after the Sabbath. Eastern Orthodox churches distinguish between the Sabbath (Saturday) and the Lord's Day (Sunday). Roman Catholics put so little emphasis on that distinction that many among them follow – at least in colloquial language – the Protestant practice of calling Sunday the sabbath. Quakers traditionally refer to Saturday as "Seventh Day" eschewing the "pagan" origin of the name.

In Scandinavian countries, Saturday is called Lördag or Löverdag etc., the name being derived from the old word laugr (hence Icelandic name Laugardagur), meaning bath, thus Lördag equates to bath-day. This is due to the Viking usage of bathing on Saturdays.

Today, Saturday is officially called Samstag in all German-speaking countries, however, there are two names for this day in modern Standard German. Samstag is always used in Austria, Liechtenstein, the German speaking part of Switzerland and generally used in southern and western Germany. It derives from Old High German sambaztac, which itself derives from Greek Σάββατο, and this Greek word derives from Hebrew שבת (Shabbat). However, the current German word for sabbath is Sabbat. The second name for Saturday in German is Sonnabend, which derives from Old High German sunnunaband, and is closely related to the Old English word sunnanæfen. It means literally "Sun eve", i.e. "The day before Sunday". Sonnabend is generally used in northern and eastern Germany, and was also the official name for Saturday in East Germany. In the Westphalian dialects of Low Saxon, in East Frisian Low Saxon and in the Frisian language, Saturday is called Satertag, also akin to Dutch Zaterdag, which has the same linguistic roots as the English word Saturday.

Similarly, the Romance languages follow the Greek usage, so that their word for "Saturday" is also a variation on "Sabbath": the Italian is sabato, the French is samedi, the Spanish is sábado, and the Portuguese is sabado.

Saturday is the usual day for elections in Australia and the only day in New Zealand on which elections can be held, and also the preferred election day in the US state of Louisiana.

The modern Maori name for it, Rahoroi, means "washing-day".

Saturday songs include:

  1. ^ Scargill et al. "Gage Canadian dictionary." Toronto: Gage Educational Publishing Company, 1983
Days of the week
Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday
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