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The god Woden, after whom 'Wednesday' was named. "Odin, the Wanderer" 1886 by Georg von Rosen (1843-1923)
Wednesday is the third day of the week in most western countries and the fourth day of the week in the Judeo-Christian calendar, between Tuesday and Thursday. The name comes from the Middle English Wednes dei, which is from Old English Wēdnes dæg, meaning the day of the Germanic god Woden (Wodan) who was a god of the Anglo-Saxons in England until about the 7th century. Wēdnes dæg is like the Old Norse Oğinsdagr ("Odin's day"), which is an early translation of the Latin dies Mercurii ("Mercury's day"). Though Mercury (the messenger of the gods) and Woden (the king of the Germanic gods) are not equivalent in most regards.

When Sunday is taken as the first of the week, the day in the middle of each week is Wednesday. Arising from this, the German name for Wednesday has been Mittwoch (literally: "mid-week") since the 10th Century, having displaced the former name: Wodanstag ("Wodan's day"). The Finnish name is similar: Keskiviikko (literally: "middle of the week") as is the Icelandic name: Miğvikudagur ("Mid-week day").

According to the Hebrew Bible, Wednesday is the day when the Sun and Moon were created.

Wednesday is also in the middle of the common Western 5-day working week that starts on Monday and finishes on Friday.

In Romance languages it is derived from the name of the Roman god Mercury: mercredi (French), mercoledì (Italian), miércoles (Spanish), miercuri (Romanian), dimecres (Catalan), dies Mercurii (Latin). Similarly, the Hindi name for Wednesday, Budhvar is derived from the Vedic name for Mercury, Budh. Russian does not use pagan names but instead uses sredá, meaning "middle," similar to the German Mittwoch. Likewise, Portuguese uses the word quarta-feira, meaning "fourth day."

An English language idiom for Wednesday is "hump day", a reference to making it through to the middle of the work week as getting "over the hump". It is also informally referred to as "the peak of the week". Another popular tradition in the United States is to wear a sweater vest on this mid-week business day. This has led Wednesday to be referred to as Vestday.

Quakers traditionally refer to Wednesday as "Fourth Day", eschewing the pagan origin of the name "Wednesday". Most eastern languages also use a name with this meaning, for much the same reason. Extremely faithful Orthodox Christians observe a vegetarian / fish-only fast on Wednesdays (and Fridays) in some countries such as Greece.

According to the Thai solar calendar, the color associated with Wednesday is green.

Wednesday in Popular Culture

Astrological Sign

The astrological sign of the planet Mercury represents Wednesday -- Dies Mercurii to the Romans, with similar names in Latin-derived languages, such as the French Mercredi and the Spanish Miércoles. In English, this became "Woden's Day", since the Roman god Mercury was identified with Woden in northern Europe.

Named days

  • Ash Wednesday, the first day of Roman Catholic Lent, occurs forty days before Easter, not counting Sundays.
  • Spy Wednesday is an old name given to the Wednesday immediately preceding Easter, in allusion to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot.

References



Days of the week
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
day (symbol: d) is a unit of time equivalent to 24 hours. It is not an SI unit but it is accepted for use with SI.[1] The SI unit of time is the second. The term comes from the Old English dæg.

Definitions

The day has several definitions.
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week is a unit of time longer than a day and shorter than a month. In most modern calendars, including the Gregorian calendar, the week is a period of seven days.

The week as indicator of market day


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Tuesday is the day of the week between Monday and Wednesday. The name comes from Middle English Twisday, from Old English Tiwes dæg, named after the Nordic god Tyr, who was the equivalent of the Roman war god Mars.
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Thursday is the fourth day of the week in most western countries and the fifth day of the week in the Judeo-Christian calendar, falling between Wednesday and Friday. In countries that adopt the Sunday-first convention, it is considered the fifth day of the week.
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Middle English}}}
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: enm
ISO 639-3: enm

Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066
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Old English/Anglo-Saxon}}}
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: ang
ISO 639-3: ang Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon[1], Englisc
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Germanic paganism refers to the religious traditions of the Germanic peoples preceding Christianization. The best documented of the Germanic Pagan religions is 10th and 11th century Norse paganism.
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Odin series
Origins
  • Wōdanaz
Regional traditions
  • Odin
  • Woden
Other
  • Odin's names
  • Odin's sons This is the article about the belief in Odin among West Germanic peoples, for other uses see Woden (disambiguation),

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Anglo-Saxon is the collective term usually used to describe the ethnically and linguistically related peoples living in the south and east of the island of Great Britain (modern Great Britain/United Kingdom) from around the early 5th century AD to the Norman conquest of 1066.
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Motto
Dieu et mon droit   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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The 7th century is the period from 601 to 700 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era.

Overview

During this century, the Eastern Roman Empire continued suffering setbacks, which increased after the 630s, when the Arab prophet Muhammad militantly
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Old Norse}}} 
Writing system: Runic, later Latin alphabet.
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: non
ISO 639-3: non

Old Norse
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Odin series
Origins
  • Wōdanaz
Regional traditions
  • Odin
  • Woden
Other
  • Odin's names
  • Odin's sons

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Latin}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
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Mercury (IPA: /ˈmɜːkjəri/, Latin: Mercurius listen   (help info )
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German language (Deutsch, ] (help info ) ) is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages.
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Finnish ( suomi   (help info ) , or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (91.
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Icelandic}}} 
Writing system: Latin (Icelandic variant) 
Official status
Official language of:  Iceland
Regulated by: Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
Language codes
ISO 639-1: is
ISO 639-2: ice (B) 
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Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to books of the Bible, originally written in Hebrew, of uncontroversial canonicity. More precisely, it refers to a collection of specific ancient documents viewed as an organic corpus.
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The Sun

Observation data
Mean distance
from Earth 1.4961011 m
(8.31 min at light speed)
Visual brightness (V) −26.74m [1]
Absolute magnitude 4.
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Moon  

The Moon as seen by an observer on Earth
Orbital characteristics
Periapsis: 363,104 km
0.0024 AU
Apoapsis: 405,696 km
0.0027 AU
Semi-major axis: 384,399 km
0.
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Mercury (IPA: /ˈmɜːkjəri/, Latin: Mercurius listen   (help info )
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Hindi}}} 
Writing system: Devanagari script 
Official status
Official language of:  India
 Fiji (as Hindustani)
Regulated by: Central Hindi Directorate (only in India)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-1: hi
ISO 639-2:
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Vedic Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language, the language of the Vedas, the oldest shruti texts of Hinduism. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian, attested during the period between roughly 1700 BCE (early Rigveda) and 600
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Russian}}} 
Writing system: Cyrillic (Russian variant)  
Official status
Official language of:  Abkhazia (Georgia)
 Belarus
 Commonwealth of Independent States (working)
 Crimea (de facto; Ukraine)
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German language (Deutsch, ] (help info ) ) is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages.
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Portuguese}}} 
Writing system: Latin alphabet (Portuguese variant) 
Official status
Official language of: Angola
Brazil
Cape Verde
East Timor
Equatorial Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Macau (PRC)
Mozambique
Portugal
São Tomé and Príncipe
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English}}} 
Writing system: Latin (English variant) 
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng  
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An idiom is an expression (i.e., term or phrase) whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use.
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sleeveless sweater (known as a tank top in the United Kingdom and as a sweater vest in North America) is an item of knitwear that is similar to a sweater, but without sleeves. They have been popular in the 20th century, particularly in the 1970s in the UK.
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