DAYS AND MONTHS IN GERMAN
The days of the week are part of the basic vocabulary taught in each language, as are the months of the year. However, it has never been explained to us either where the days of the week or the months of the year come from or why they are called that. This would help us understand some questions that come to our minds such as: Why is the weekend only two days long? Why are the last four months of the year so similar?
Each language has its whys, although many of them share meaning. Languages that come from Latin and German, such as Spanish , French , English and German name the days of the week according to the main gods, stars and planets that represented their divinities. Now we will see the name of the days of the week and the months of the year in German and their meanings.
DAYS OF THE WEEK = DIE WOCHENTAGE
As I have already mentioned, the days of the week in German are related to the main gods, stars and planets that represented their divinities. The days of the week are considered to be male, so they will all go accompanied by the article der.
MONTAG → It is the day of the Moon (MOND = Moon, TAG = Day).
DIENSTAG → Donar day , the god of tempest and war.
MITTWOCH → It is the middle of the week (MITT = Half, WOCHE = week).
DONNERSTAG → Donner's Day, also called Thor by Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians.
FREITAG → This day is dedicated to the goddess Freyja.
SAMSTAG → Derived from the Hebrew word Shabbat , which was the Jewish day of rest and the last day of the week.
SONNTAG → Sunday was considered the first day of the week, hence, Wednesday was called ‘ MITTWOCH’. This day is dedicated to the sun (SONNE = Sun, TAG = Day).
If you want to know more about the days of the week in other languages , I recommend that you click here , you will be surprised by the great similarity there are between languages such as Mandarin Chinese and Arabic.
MONTHS OF THE YEAR = DIE MONATE
On the other hand, we also have the months of the year or ' die Monate' , which take names of some gods , Roman emperors and even their position in the Roman calendar. In addition, they are also considered to be male, so they all have the particle 'der' in front of them . Without further ado, let's look at the months of the year in German and what they mean:
JANUAR
→ It comes from the Roman god Janus , considered the god of the beginning and the end. This was represented with two faces, one of them could look to the past and the other to the future.
FEBRUAR
→ According to Roman tradition, this month guilt was cleaned and offerings were made to the dead. Thus, Februar comes from februare which means "clean" .
MÄRZ
→ This month takes the name of the Roman god of war, Mars. It was the first month of the Roman calendar , after the arrival of Julius Caesar , which introduced the Julian calendar, became the third month after January and February.
APRIL
→ It comes from the Latin Aprilis, which means "to open" . This name was given because it is the time when nature blooms.
MAI UND JUNI
→ Maia was the Roman goddess of fertility , and she owes the name of May.
→ June is also dedicated to a goddess, in this case to Juno , the goddess of marriage and wife of Jupiter.
JULI UND AUGUST
→ In the Roman calendar, July was the fifth month of the year, hence it was called Quintilis . However, after the Julian calendar was introduced, Julius Caesar gave his name to this month , becoming "July".
→ The Roman Emperor Augustus Octavian , like Julius Caesar, wanted to have his own month, so he called Sextilis August . In addition, took one day away from February so that his month had 31 days , just like July.
SEPTEMBER, OKTOBER, NOVEMBER UND DEZEMBER
→ The Roman calendar had 10 months , to which January and February were added . When changing from the Roman calendar to the Julian calendar, the Roman emperors Julius Caesar and Augustus Octavian changed the name of the months with the same name, but those that follow, from September to December, kept the name based on their position in the Roman calendar. Septimus, octavus, nonus and decimus.
Muy curioso Alfonso!!!!!