MONDAY

　　In mythology ,, the moon was the wife of the sun , and so had to have her day in the week , which in Old English was Monandag , or “moon day ,” a translation of the Latin lunae dies ,”day of the moon .” In the superstitious England of theose times people believed that the phases of the moon affected crops and disthe potency medicine , and they were sure too that bacon killed on the old of the moon would shrivel in the pan .

　　TUESDAY

　　In Norse mythology there was a god named Tyr . A wolf spirit called Fenrir was troubling the world and Tyr volunteered to bind him . He used a chain made of strange substances , the footstep of a cat , the beards of women , the roots of stones , the breath of fishes . Tyr put his hand in Fenrir’s mouth and bound him , but his hand , in the , was bitten off . In Old English the god’s name Tyr appears as Tiw . He was really a Germanic deity , one very much like Mars , the Roman god of war , and his name gave us the Old English word Tiwesdag ,”the day of Tiw ,” OUR Tuesday , which is a rendering of the Latin dies martis , “day of Mars .”

　　WEDNESDAY

　　In Old English Wednesday was spelled Wodnesdag , which was the day of the great Germanic god Woden , who corresponded to the Roman divinity Mercury . Both were swift in movement and noted for their eloquence . Woden was the father of Tyr ,who gave us the name Tuesday , and was the god of storms . He welcomed brave warriors to the heaven of Valhalla and treated them to the pleasures that they most loved on earth . He also slew Chaos and created earth from his body , his flesh making the dry land , his bones the mountains , his blood the sea , his Mercurii dies , the “day of Mercury ,” and the French took this over as Mercredi , their name for Wednesday .

　　THURSDAY

　　Thor was the strongest and bravest of the Norse deities , and corresponded in the heavenly hierarchy to the Roman god Jupiter , who also handled the lightning bolts . Thor , you see , was the god of thunder which he made with a chariot drawn by he-goats across the sky .Thor owned a massive hammer which the giant Thrym once stole from him and refused to give up unless Freya , the goddess of love , would marry him . Thor dressed up in her clothes wheedled the hammer from Thrym , and then slugged his host . It was the name of this same Thor that formed the Old English word thuresdag , or Thursday , “the day of Thor ,” which equals the Roman dies jives , or “day of Jupiter .”

　　FRIDAY

　　In Old English , Friday was frigedag , the day of the Norse goddess Frigg , wife of Woden and the goddess Venus , and her day , Friday , was like the Latin dies Veneris , or “day of Venus .”Wednesday and Thursday had been named for her husband Woden and her son Thor , so Friday was assigned to her as appeasement . The Norsemen regarded Friday as their luxky day , but not so the Christians since the Crucifixion took place on Friday .