Wednesday Facts and Trivia

The word ‘Wednesday’ was derived from:

• Old English ‘wodnesdaeg’ – Woden’s day
• Latin ‘dies Mercurii’ – day of Mercury
• Ancient Greek ‘hemera Hermu’ – day of Hermes

Woden is the chief Anglo -Saxon / Teutonic god and the leader of the wild hunt. Mercury is the Roman god of commerce, travel, thievery, eloquence and science. Hermes is the Greek god of commerce, invention, cunning, theft, patron of travellers and rogues, and the guide to the underworld.

Another Common Name

Wednesday is sometimes referred to as ‘hump day’ in American / English slang. The working week is conceived as a hill with the middle of the week (Wednesday) representing the highest point, thus the ‘hump’ in the week. This has often been a cause of much amusement to many who are not familiar with this phrase.

Health and Colour

As Wednesday represents the planet Mercury, primarily green in colour, the ancient system of health care called Ayurveda which centres on holistic health recommends wearing green and planting trees on this day of the week.

Songs

Songs named after Wednesday include:

• Wednesday – Rene Lopez
• Wednesday – Tori Amos
• Waiting For Wednesday – Lisa Loeb
• Wednesday Morning 3AM – Simon and Garfunkel
• Wednesday’s Child’ – Emiliana Torrini

Books

If you were born on a Wednesday the nursery rhyme of Mother Goose states that you would be ‘full of woe’, and fiction books with Wednesday in the title include:

• Wednesday’s Child – Peter Robinson
• The Wednesday Sisters – Meg Waite Clayton
• The Wednesday Wars – Gary D Schmidt

Religion

• ‘Ash Wednesday’ is the first day of Roman Catholic, Lent, which occurs forty days before Easter, excluding Sundays
• ‘Holy Wednesday’, which is sometimes called ‘Spy Wednesday’ in relation to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, is the Wednesday preceding Easter
• In American culture many Catholic and Protestant churches, and some Jewish synagogues schedule study or prayer meetings on Wednesday nights
• The Eastern Orthodox Church observes Wednesday as a fast day throughout the year, and in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the name for Wednesday also refers to Fasting

Sport

‘Sheffield Wednesday Football Club’ is a professional football club based in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.

Theatre and Film

‘Wednesday’s Child’ is the title of a play in the series, Kraft Television Theatre (season 1, episode 15) broadcast on January 21, 1954, and ‘Wednesday’s Child’ is the title of a 1999 film.

Television

‘Wednesday’s Child’ is a weekly television program sponsored by the Freddie Mac Foundation that also profiles older children who are up for adoption.

.

© Copyright J M Lennox. All Rights Reserved.