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For other uses, see Tuesday (disambiguation).
The god Týr or Tiw, identified with Mars, after whom Tuesday is named.

Tuesday (/ˈtjuːzdeɪ/ ⓘ, /ˈtjuːzdi/, /ˈtuːzdeɪ/ or /ˈtuːzdi/) is a day of the week occurring after Monday and before Wednesday. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the second day of the week, although in some traditions it is the third. The English name is derived from Old English Tiwesdæg and Middle English Tewesday, meaning "Tīw's Day", the day of Tiw or Týr, the god of single combat, victory and heroic glory in Norse mythology. Tiw was equated with Mars in the interpretatio romana, and the name of the day is a translation of Latin dies Martis.

Etymology

The Latin name dies Martis ("day of Mars") is equivalent to the Greek ἡμέρα Ἄρεως. The weekday heptagram, i.e. the association of the days of the seven-day week with the seven classical planets, probably dates to the Hellenistic period.[1] Between the 1st and 3rd centuries, the Roman Empire gradually replaced the eight day Roman nundinal cycle with the seven-day week. The astrological order of the days was explained by Vettius Valens and Dio Cassius. According to these authors, it was a principle of astrology that the heavenly bodies presided, in succession, over the hours of the day.

The name Tuesday derives from the Old English "Tiwesdæg" and literally means "Tiw's Day".[2] Tiw is the Old English form of the Proto-Germanic god *Tîwaz, or Týr in Norse, a god of war and law.[3][4]

In most languages with Latin origins (French, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Romanian, Gallician, Sardinian, Corsican, but not Portuguese), the day is named after Mars, the Roman god of war.

In some Slavic languages the word Tuesday originated from Old Church Slavonic word въторъ meaning "the second" (Serbian: уторак (utorak)). Bulgarian and Russian "Вторник" (Vtornik) is derived from the Bulgarian and Russian adjective for 'Second' - "Втори" (Vtori) or "Второй" (Vtoroi)

In Japanese, the word Tuesday is 火曜日(ka youbi), meaning 'fire day' and is associated with 火星 (kasei): Mars.

In the Indic languages of Pali and Sanskrit, as well as in Thailand, the name of the day is taken from Angaraka ('one who is red in colour')[5] a style (manner of address) for Mangal, the god of war, and for Mars, the red planet.

Religious observances

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Tuesdays are dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. The Octoechos contains hymns on this theme, arranged in an eight-week cycle, that are chanted on Tuesdays throughout the year. At the end of Divine Services on Tuesday, the dismissal begins with the words: "May Christ our True God, through the intercessions of his most-pure Mother, of the honorable and glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John…"

Cultural references

In the Greek world, Tuesday (the day of the week of the Fall of Constantinople) is considered an unlucky day. The same is true in the Spanish-speaking world. For both Greeks and Spanish-speakers, the 13th of the month is considered unlucky if it falls on Tuesday, instead of Friday. In Judaism, on the other hand, Tuesday is considered a particularly lucky day, because in the first chapter of Genesis the paragraph about this day contains the phrase "it was good" twice.

In the Thai solar calendar, the day is named for the Pali word for the planet Mars, which also means "Ashes of the Dead";[6] the color associated with Tuesday is pink.

In the folk rhyme Monday's Child, "Tuesday's child is full of grace".

Astrology

Tuesday is associated with the planet Mars and shares that planet's symbol, ♂. Tuesday is also associated with Uranus.

Common occurrences

United States

Tuesday is the usual day for elections in the United States. Federal elections take place on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November; this date was established by a law of 1845 for presidential elections (specifically for the selection of the Electoral College), and was extended to elections for the House of Representatives in 1875 and for the Senate in 1914. Tuesday was the earliest day of the week which was practical for polling in the early 19th century: citizens might have to travel for a whole day to cast their vote, and would not wish to leave on Sunday which was a day of worship for the great majority of them. However, political scientists today suggest that moving elections to a day such as Sunday might increase voter turnout, as the employed would have an easier time voting.[citation needed]

Named days

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ "It was with the adoption and widespread use of the seven-day week throughout the Hellenistic world of mixed cultures that this heptagram was created." Symbol 29:16
  2. ^ "Tuesday". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
  3. ^ "TIWAZ - The Warrior's Rune". Oswald the Runemaker. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
  4. ^ Stuart Alan. "Tiw (Tyr)". Anglo-Saxon Heathenism. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
  5. ^ Turner, Sir Ralph Lilley (1962). "aṅgāraka 126". A comparative dictionary of the Indo-Aryan languages. London: Oxford University Press. Digital Dictionaries of South Asia, University of Chicago. p. 7. Retrieved 21 February 2010. 126 aṅgāraka 1. Pali 'red like charcoal'; Sanskrit aṅārī. 2. Pali aṅgāraka masculine 'Mars'; Sanskrit aṅāro masculine 'Tuesday'. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |work= at position 54 (help)
  6. ^ "อังคาร angM khaanM". Thai-language.com. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
Sources
  • Grimm, Jacob. 1875–78. Deutsche Mythologie. Fourth ed., curated by Elard Hugo Meyer, 3 vols. Berlin: F. Dümmler. Reprinted Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1965.
  • Media related to Tuesday at Wikimedia Commons
  • The dictionary definition of tuesday at Wiktionary


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