Monday

Monday is the day of the week between

Sunday

and Tuesday. According to the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 8601 standard, it is the first

day

of the

week

and in countries that adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is the second day of the week.
The name of Monday is derived from Old English ''Mōnandæg'' and Middle English ''Monenday'', originally a translation of

Latin

''dies lunae'' "day of the

Moon

".

Names

The names of the day of the week were coined in the

Roman era

, in Greek and Latin, in the case of Monday as
ἡμέρᾱ Σελήνης, ''diēs Lūnae'' "day of the Moon".

Many languages use terms either directly derived from these names, or loan-translations based on them.
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 has cognates in other

Germanic languages

, including Old Frisian ''mōnadeig'', Middle Low German and Middle Dutch ''mānendag, mānendach'' (modern Dutch ''Maandag''), Old High German ''mānetag'' (modern

German

''Montag''), and Old Norse ''mánadagr'' (Swedish and Norwegian nynorsk ''måndag'', Icelandic ''mánudagur''. Danish and Norwegian bokmål ''mandag''). The Germanic term is a Germanic interpretation of

Latin

''lunae dies'' ("day of the moon").Barnhart (1995:485).

Japanese

and Korean share the same ancient

Chinese words

'月曜日' (

Hiragana

:げつようび,

translit.

''getsuyо̄bi'',

Hangul

:월요일) for Monday which means "day of the moon".
In many Indo-Aryan languages, the word for Monday is ''Somavāra'' or ''Chandravāra'',

Sanskrit

loan-translations of "Monday".

In some cases, the "ecclesiastical" names are used, a tradition of numbering the days of the week in order to avoid the "pagan" connotation of the planetary names, and to keep with the biblical name, in which Monday is the "second day" (Hebrew יום שני, Greek Δευτέρα ἡμέρα (''Deutéra hēméra''), Latin ''feria secunda, Arabic الأثنين'' ).
In many

Slavic languages

the name of the day translates to "after Sunday/holiday". Russian ''понедельник'' (''ponyedyelnik'') literally translated, Monday means "next to the week", по "next to" or "on" недельник "(the) week" Croatian and Bosnian ''ponedjeljak'', Serbian ''понедељак'' (''ponedeljak''), Ukrainian ''понеділок'' (''ponedilok''),

Bulgarian

''понеделник'' (''ponedelnik''), Polish ''poniedziałek'', Czech ''pondělí'', Slovak ''pondelok'', Slovenian ''ponedeljek''. In Turkish it is called ''pazartesi'', which also means "after Sunday".

Arrangement in the week

Historically, the Greco-Roman week began with Sunday (''dies solis''), and Monday (''dies lunae'') was the second day of the week.
It is still the custom to refer to Monday as ''feria secunda'' in the

liturgical calendar

of the

Catholic Church

.
Quakers also traditionally referred to Monday as "Second Day". The

Portuguese

and the Greek (Eastern Orthodox Church) also retain the ecclesiastical tradition (Portuguese ''segunda-feira'', Greek ''Δευτέρα'' "''deutéra''" "second"). Likewise, the Modern Hebrew name for Monday is ''yom-sheni'' (יום שני).

While in North America Sunday is the first day of the week, Europeans commonly consider Monday as the first day of the week and the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization places Monday as the first day of the week in its ISO 8601 standard. Monday is ''xīngqīyī (星期一)'' in Chinese, meaning "day one of the week". Modern Western culture usually looks at Monday as the beginning of the workweek.

Religious observances

Christianity

In the Eastern Orthodox Church Mondays are days on which the Angels are commemorated. The Octoechos (liturgy), Octoechos contains hymns on this theme, arranged in an eight-week cycle, that are chanted on Mondays throughout the year. At the end of Divine Services on Monday, the dismissal (liturgy), dismissal begins with the words: "May Christ our True God, through the intercession, s of his most-pure Theotokos, Mother, of the honorable, Bodiless Powers (i.e., the angels) of Heaven…". In many Eastern monastery, monasteries Mondays are observed as Fasting#Eastern Orthodoxy, fast days; because Mondays are dedicated to the angels, and monks strive to live an angelic life. In these monasteries, the monks abstain from meat, fowl, dairy products, fish, wine and oil (if a feast day occurs on a Monday, fish, wine and oil may be allowed, depending upon the particular feast).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spend one evening per week called Family Home Evening (FHE) or Family Night usually Monday, that families are encouraged to spend together in study, prayer and other family activities. Many businesses owned by Latter-Day Saints close early on Mondays so they and their customers are able to spend more time with their families.

Islam

In Islam, Mondays are one of the days in a week in which Muslims are encouraged to do Fasting in Islam#Days of voluntary fasting, voluntary fasting, the other being Thursdays. There are a number of Hadith which narrated of prophet Muhammad fasting on these days.

According to the same Hadith, Prophet Muhammad was born on Monday. It is also narrated that he received his Muhammad's first revelation, first revelation (which would later become the Qur'an) on Monday.

Judaism

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

In Judaism, a small portion of the weekly Parashah in Torah is read in public on Monday and Thursday mornings, as a supplement for the Saturday reading). Special penitential prayers are recited on Monday unless there is a special occasion for happiness which cancels them. According to the Mishna and Talmud, these traditions are due to Monday and Thursday being "the market days" when people gathered from the towns to the city.

A tradition of Ashkenazi Jews to voluntarily fast on the first consecutive Monday Thursday and Monday of the Hebrew month is prevalent among the ultra-orthodox.

In Hebrew, Monday is called "Yom Shayne," meaning literally "Second Day" following the biblical reference to the sabbath day as the "Seventh-day" and the tradition of that day being on Saturday. It has been established that the phonetic and cultural link between the planet Saturn, Saturday and the Sabbath day is of ancient Mesopotamian origin.

Cultural references

A number of popular songs in Western culture feature Monday, often as a day of depression, anxiety, avolition, hysteria, or melancholy (mostly because of its association with the first day of the workweek). For example, "Monday, Monday" (1966) from the Mamas & the Papas, "Rainy Days and Mondays" (1971) from the The Carpenters, Carpenters, "I Don't Like Mondays" (1979) from the The Boomtown Rats, Boomtown Rats, Monday, Monday, Monday (2002) from Tegan and Sara, and "Manic Monday" (1986) from the The Bangles, Bangles (written by Prince (musician), Prince).

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

The popular comic strip character Garfield (character), Garfield by Jim Davis is well known for his disdain for Mondays.

In the United Kingdom, more people commit suicide in England and Wales on Mondays than other days of the week; more people in the country in general call in sick; and more people worldwide surf the web.

In July 2002, the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers announced that it would rename its consultancy practice "Monday", and would spend $110 million over the next year to establish the brand. When IBM acquired the consultancy three months later it chose not to retain the new name.

Named days

* Big Monday
* Black Monday
* Blue Monday (date), Blue Monday
* Clean Monday (Ash Monday)
* Cyber Monday
* Easter Monday, also Bright Monday or Wet Monday
* First Monday
* Handsel Monday
* Lundi Gras
* Mad Monday
* Miracle Monday
* Plough Monday
* Shrove Monday
* Weather Market Monday, the day when commodity markets add or subtract weather premium
* Wet Monday
* Whit Monday

See also

* Monday Club
* Monday demonstration (disambiguation), Monday demonstrations
* ''Monday Night Football''
* WWE Raw, ''Monday Night Raw''
* ''WCW Monday Nitro''
* Monday Night Wars
* Saint Monday

Notes

References

* Robert Barnhart, Barnhart, Robert K. (1995). ''The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology''. Harper Collins.

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