Wednesday
Encyclopedia
Wednesday is a day of the week in the Gregorian calendar
. According to international standard ISO 8601
, it is the third day of the week. This day is between Tuesday
and Thursday
. The name is derived from Old English Wōdnesdæg and Middle English
Wednesdei, "day of Wodanaz
", ultimately a calque
of dies Mercurii "day of Mercury
."
Wednesday is in the middle of the common Western 5-day workweek
that starts on Monday and finishes on Friday. Also, when Sunday is taken as the first of every week, Wednesday is the day in the middle.
The name Wednesday continues Middle English
Wednesdei. Old English
still had wōdnesdæg, which would be continued as *Wodnesday (but Old Frisian
has an attested wednesdei).
By the early 13th century, the i-mutated
form was introduced unetymologically.
The name is a calque
of the Latin dies Mercurii "day of Mercury
", reflecting the fact that the Germanic god Woden
(Wodanaz
or Odin
) during the Roman era
was interpreted as "Germanic Mercury".
The Latin name dates to the late 2nd or early 3rd century. It is a calque of Greek , a term first attested, together with the system of naming the seven weekdays after the seven classical planets, in the Anthologiarum by Vettius Valens
(ca. AD 170).
The Latin name is reflected directly in the weekday name in Romance languages
: mercredi (French), mercoledì (Italian), miércoles (Spanish), miercuri (Romanian), dimecres (Catalan), Marcuri or Mercuri (Corsican), dies Mercurii (Latin).
The German
name for the day, Mittwoch (literally: "mid-week"), replaced the former name Wodanstag ("Wodan's day") in the tenth century. Most Slavic languages
follow this pattern and use derivations of "the middle" (Bulgarian
сряда sryada, Croatian
srijeda, Czech
středa, Macedonian
среда sreda, Polish
środa, Russian
среда sredá, Serbian
среда/sreda or cриједа/srijeda, Slovak
streda, Slovene sreda, Ukrainian
середа sereda). The Finnish
name is Keskiviikko ("middle of the week"), as is the Icelandic
name: Miðvikudagur, and the Faroese
name: Mikudagur ("Mid-week day"),. Some dialects of Faroese have Ónsdagur, though, which shares etymology with Wednesday.Danish, Dansk Onsdag, ("Ons-dag" = Odens/Odins dag/day, same in Swedish).wednesday is called 'budhwar in hindi.
Portuguese
uses the word quarta-feira, meaning "fourth day". While in Greek the word is Tetarti (Τετάρτη) meaning simply "fourth." Similarly, Arabic
أربعاء means "fourth", Hebrew רביעי means "fourth" and Persian
چهارشنبه means "fourth day." Yet the name for the day in Estonian
is (kolmapäev) meaning "third day), in Lithuanian
, (trečiadienis), and in Mandarin Chinese, 星期三 (xīngqīsān), means "day three", as Sunday is unnumbered.
places the creation of the Sun
and Moon
on "the fourth day" of the divine workweek.
Quakers
traditionally refer to Wednesday as "Fourth Day" to avoid the pagan
associations that exist with the name "Wednesday".
The Eastern Orthodox Church
observes Wednesday (as well as Friday) as a fast day
throughout the year (with the exception of several fast-free periods during the year). Fasting on Wednesday and Fridays entails abstinence
from meat
or meat products (i.e., four-footed animals), poultry
and dairy products. Unless a feast day occurs on a Friday, the Orthodox also abstain from fish
, from using oil in their cooking and from alcoholic beverages (there is some debate over whether abstention from oil involves all cooking oil
or only olive oil
). For the Orthodox, Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year commemorate the betrayal of Jesus (Wednesday) and the Crucifixion of Christ (Friday). There are hymns in the Octoekhos
which reflect this liturgically. These include special Theotokia
(hymn
s to the Mother of God) called Stavrotheotokia ("Cross-Theotokia"). The dismissal
at the end of services on Wednesday begins with these words: "May Christ our true God, through the power of the precious and life-giving cross...."
In Irish
and Scottish Gaelic, the name for Wednesday also refers to fasting, as it is Dé Céadaoin in Irish Gaelic and Di-Ciadain in Scottish Gaelic, which comes from aoine, "fasting" and means "first day of fasting".
In American culture many Catholic
and Protestant churches and some Jewish synagogues schedule study or prayer meetings on Wednesday nights. The sports calendar in many American public schools reflects this, reserving Mondays and Thursdays for girls' games and Tuesdays and Fridays for boys' games while generally avoiding events on Wednesday evening.
slang
. In some parts of Australia and the United Kingdom Wednesday afternoon is known as Philosophers Afternoon.
In Hindu mythology, Budha
(not to be confused with Buddha) is the god of Mercury (planet)
, mid-week Wednesday
, and of Merchants and merchandise. According to the Thai
solar calendar
, the color associated with Wednesday is green.
In the folk rhyme
, "Wednesday's child is full of woe". In another rhyme reciting the days of the week, Solomon Grundy
was 'Married on Wednesday.' In Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
, the disagreeable nature of the weather is attributed to it being "Winds-Day" (a play on "Wednesday"). In Richard Brautigan
's In Watermelon Sugar
Wednesday is the day when the sun shines grey.
Wednesday sometimes appears as a character's name in literary works. These include Thursday's fictions by Richard James Allen
and Neil Gaiman
's novel American Gods
. In the 1945 John Steinbeck
novel Sweet Thursday
, the titular day is preceded by "Lousy Wednesday".
A song titled "Wednesday's Song" is on the 2004 album Shadows Collide with People
by John Frusciante
, "Wednesday" is the title of a song on musician Tori Amos
' "Scarlet's Walk
" album.
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a professional football club based in Sheffield
, Yorkshire
, England.
Wednesday Friday Addams
is a member of the fictional family The Addams Family
.
of the planet Mercury
, ☿, represents Wednesday — Dies Mercurii to the Romans, with similar names in Latin-derived languages, such as the Italian
mercoledì (dì means "day"), 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
.
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
. According to international standard ISO 8601
ISO 8601
ISO 8601 Data elements and interchange formats – Information interchange – Representation of dates and times is an international standard covering the exchange of date and time-related data. It was issued by the International Organization for Standardization and was first published in 1988...
, it is the third day of the week. This day is between Tuesday
Tuesday
Tuesday 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....
and Thursday
Thursday
Thursday is the fourth day of the week according to the ISO 8601 international standard adopted in most western countries. In countries that use the Sunday-first convention and in the Judeo-Christian calendar it is the fifth day of the week. It falls between Wednesday and Friday...
. The name is derived from Old English Wōdnesdæg and Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
Wednesdei, "day of Wodanaz
Wodanaz
or is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of a god of Germanic paganism, known as in Norse mythology, in Old English, or in Old High German and in Lombardic...
", ultimately a calque
Calque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
of dies Mercurii "day of Mercury
Mercury (mythology)
Mercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...
."
Wednesday is in the middle of the common Western 5-day workweek
Workweek
The workweek and weekend are those complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest respectively. The legal working week , or workweek , is the part of the seven-day week devoted to labor. In most Western countries it is Monday to Friday. The weekend comprises the two traditionally...
that starts on Monday and finishes on Friday. Also, when Sunday is taken as the first of every week, Wednesday is the day in the middle.
Etymology
- See Week-day namesWeek-day namesThe names of the days of the week from the Roman period have been both named after the seven planets of classical astronomy and numbered, beginning with Monday. In Slavic languages, a numbering system was adopted, but beginning with Monday. There was an even older tradition of names in Ancient...
for more on naming conventions.
The name Wednesday continues Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
Wednesdei. Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
still had wōdnesdæg, which would be continued as *Wodnesday (but Old Frisian
Old Frisian
Old Frisian is a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries in the area between the Rhine and Weser on the European North Sea coast. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland also spoke Old Frisian but no medieval texts of this area are known...
has an attested wednesdei).
By the early 13th century, the i-mutated
I-mutation
I-mutation is an important type of sound change, more precisely a category of regressive metaphony, in which a back vowel is fronted, and/or a front vowel is raised, if the following syllable contains /i/, /ī/ or /j/ I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or...
form was introduced unetymologically.
The name is a calque
Calque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
of the Latin dies Mercurii "day of Mercury
Mercury (mythology)
Mercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...
", reflecting the fact that the Germanic god Woden
Woden
Woden or Wodan is a major deity of Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic polytheism. Together with his Norse counterpart Odin, Woden represents a development of the Proto-Germanic god *Wōdanaz....
(Wodanaz
Wodanaz
or is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of a god of Germanic paganism, known as in Norse mythology, in Old English, or in Old High German and in Lombardic...
or Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
) during the Roman era
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
was interpreted as "Germanic Mercury".
The Latin name dates to the late 2nd or early 3rd century. It is a calque of Greek , a term first attested, together with the system of naming the seven weekdays after the seven classical planets, in the Anthologiarum by Vettius Valens
Vettius Valens
Vettius Valens was a 2nd-century Hellenistic astrologer, a somewhat younger contemporary of Claudius Ptolemy.Valens' major work is the Anthology, ten volumes in Greek written roughly within the period 150 to 175. The Anthology is the longest and most detailed treatise on astrology which has...
(ca. AD 170).
The Latin name is reflected directly in the weekday name in Romance languages
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
: mercredi (French), mercoledì (Italian), miércoles (Spanish), miercuri (Romanian), dimecres (Catalan), Marcuri or Mercuri (Corsican), dies Mercurii (Latin).
The German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
name for the day, Mittwoch (literally: "mid-week"), replaced the former name Wodanstag ("Wodan's day") in the tenth century. Most Slavic languages
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
follow this pattern and use derivations of "the middle" (Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
сряда sryada, Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
srijeda, Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
středa, Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
среда sreda, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
środa, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
среда sredá, Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
среда/sreda or cриједа/srijeda, Slovak
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
streda, Slovene sreda, Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
середа sereda). The Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
name is Keskiviikko ("middle of the week"), as is the Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
name: Miðvikudagur, and the Faroese
Faroese language
Faroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere...
name: Mikudagur ("Mid-week day"),. Some dialects of Faroese have Ónsdagur, though, which shares etymology with Wednesday.Danish, Dansk Onsdag, ("Ons-dag" = Odens/Odins dag/day, same in Swedish).wednesday is called 'budhwar in hindi.
Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
uses the word quarta-feira, meaning "fourth day". While in Greek the word is Tetarti (Τετάρτη) meaning simply "fourth." Similarly, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
أربعاء means "fourth", Hebrew רביעי means "fourth" and Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
چهارشنبه means "fourth day." Yet the name for the day in Estonian
Estonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
is (kolmapäev) meaning "third day), in Lithuanian
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
, (trečiadienis), and in Mandarin Chinese, 星期三 (xīngqīsān), means "day three", as Sunday is unnumbered.
Religious observances
The Creation narrative in the Hebrew BibleHebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
places the creation of the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
and Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
on "the fourth day" of the divine workweek.
Quakers
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
traditionally refer to Wednesday as "Fourth Day" to avoid the pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
associations that exist with the name "Wednesday".
The Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
observes Wednesday (as well as Friday) as a fast day
Fast Day
Fast Day was a holiday observed in some parts of the United States between 1670 and 1991."A day of public fasting and prayer", it was traditionally observed in the New England states. It had its origin in days of prayer and repentance proclaimed in the early days of the American colonies by Royal...
throughout the year (with the exception of several fast-free periods during the year). Fasting on Wednesday and Fridays entails abstinence
Abstinence
Abstinence is a voluntary restraint from indulging in bodily activities that are widely experienced as giving pleasure. Most frequently, the term refers to sexual abstinence, or abstention from alcohol or food. The practice can arise from religious prohibitions or practical...
from meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
or meat products (i.e., four-footed animals), poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
and dairy products. Unless a feast day occurs on a Friday, the Orthodox also abstain from fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, from using oil in their cooking and from alcoholic beverages (there is some debate over whether abstention from oil involves all cooking oil
Cooking oil
Cooking oil is purified fat of plant origin, which is usually liquid at room temperature ....
or only olive oil
Olive oil
Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
). For the Orthodox, Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year commemorate the betrayal of Jesus (Wednesday) and the Crucifixion of Christ (Friday). There are hymns in the Octoekhos
Octoechos (liturgy)
The Octoechos —literally, the book "of the Eight Tones"—contains an eight-week cycle, providing texts to be chanted for every day at Vespers, Matins, the Divine Liturgy, Compline and the Midnight Office...
which reflect this liturgically. These include special Theotokia
Theotokion
A Theotokion is a hymn to Mary, the Theotokos , which is read or chanted during the Divine Services of the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches....
(hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s to the Mother of God) called Stavrotheotokia ("Cross-Theotokia"). The dismissal
Dismissal (liturgy)
The Dismissal is the final blessing said by a Christian priest or minister at the end of a religious service. In liturgical churches the dismissal will often take the form of ritualized words and gestures, such as raising the minister's hands over the congregation, or blessing with the sign of the...
at the end of services on Wednesday begins with these words: "May Christ our true God, through the power of the precious and life-giving cross...."
In Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
and Scottish Gaelic, the name for Wednesday also refers to fasting, as it is Dé Céadaoin in Irish Gaelic and Di-Ciadain in Scottish Gaelic, which comes from aoine, "fasting" and means "first day of fasting".
In American culture many Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
and Protestant churches and some Jewish synagogues schedule study or prayer meetings on Wednesday nights. The sports calendar in many American public schools reflects this, reserving Mondays and Thursdays for girls' games and Tuesdays and Fridays for boys' games while generally avoiding events on Wednesday evening.
Cultural references
Wednesday is sometimes referred to as "hump day" in American EnglishAmerican English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
. In some parts of Australia and the United Kingdom Wednesday afternoon is known as Philosophers Afternoon.
In Hindu mythology, Budha
Budha
In Hindu mythology, Budha is the name for the planet Mercury, a son of Chandra with Tara or Rohini. He is also the god of merchandise and protector of Merchants....
(not to be confused with Buddha) is the god of Mercury (planet)
Mercury (planet)
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
, mid-week Wednesday
Wednesday
Wednesday is a day of the week in the Gregorian calendar. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the third day of the week. This day is between Tuesday and Thursday...
, and of Merchants and merchandise. According to the Thai
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
solar calendar
Thai solar calendar
The Thai solar calendar, Suriyakati was adopted by King Chulalongkorn in AD 1888 as the Siamese version of the Gregorian calendar. It is the legal calendar in Thailand, though Thai lunar calendar dates continue in use. Years are now counted in the Buddhist Era that is 543 years greater than...
, the color associated with Wednesday is green.
In the folk rhyme
Monday's Child
‘Monday's Child’ is one of many fortune-telling songs, popular as nursery rhymes for children. It is supposed to tell a child's character or future based on the day they were born and help young children remember the days of the week. As with all nursery rhymes, there are many versions...
, "Wednesday's child is full of woe". In another rhyme reciting the days of the week, Solomon Grundy
Solomon Grundy
"Solomon Grundy" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19299.-Lyrics:The rhyme has varied very little since it was first collected by James Orchard Halliwell and published in 1842 with the lyrics:* The premiere of Sesame Street features a Solomon Grundy...
was 'Married on Wednesday.' In Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is a 1968 animated featurette based on stories from the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution on December 20, 1968 before The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. This was...
, the disagreeable nature of the weather is attributed to it being "Winds-Day" (a play on "Wednesday"). In Richard Brautigan
Richard Brautigan
Richard Gary Brautigan was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. His work often employs black comedy, parody, and satire. He is best known for his 1967 novel Trout Fishing in America.- Early life :...
's In Watermelon Sugar
In Watermelon Sugar
In Watermelon Sugar is a novella written by Richard Brautigan and published in 1968. It is a tale of a commune organized around a central gathering house which is named "iDEATH". In this environment, many things are made of watermelon sugar...
Wednesday is the day when the sun shines grey.
Wednesday sometimes appears as a character's name in literary works. These include Thursday's fictions by Richard James Allen
Richard James Allen
Richard James Allen is a contemporary Australian poet, dancer and filmmaker. The former Artistic Director of the , and founding director of the , Richard was Co-Artistic Director with Karen Pearlman of That Was Fast and Tasdance , and now at The Physical TV Company .Richard James Allen recently...
and Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
's novel American Gods
American Gods
American Gods is a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel by Neil Gaiman. The novel is a blend of Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology, all centering on a mysterious and taciturn protagonist, Shadow. It is Gaiman's fourth prose novel, being preceded by Good Omens ,...
. In the 1945 John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
novel Sweet Thursday
Sweet Thursday
Sweet Thursday is a 1954 novel by John Steinbeck. It is a sequel to Cannery Row and set in the years after the end of World War II. According to the author, "Sweet Thursday" is the day after Lousy Wednesday and the day before Waiting Friday....
, the titular day is preceded by "Lousy Wednesday".
A song titled "Wednesday's Song" is on the 2004 album Shadows Collide with People
Shadows Collide with People
Shadows Collide with People is the fourth studio album by John Frusciante, released February 24, 2004. The album was written during the recording of By the Way, and is widely regarded as his most accessible work, featuring a mix of guitar-driven alternative rock, folk ballads, and electronica...
by John Frusciante
John Frusciante
John Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, record and film producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he had been for a number of years and recorded five studio albums...
, "Wednesday" is the title of a song on musician Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
' "Scarlet's Walk
Scarlet's Walk
Scarlet's Walk is the seventh album released in singer-songwriter Tori Amos' solo career. The 18-track concept album details the cross-country travels of Scarlet, a character loosely based on Amos, as well as the concept of America post-September 11th . The album was the first released by Amos on...
" album.
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a professional football club based in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, England.
Wednesday Friday Addams
Wednesday Addams
Wednesday Friday Addams is a member of the fictional Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker.-Wednesday:In Charles Addams's cartoons, Wednesday and other members of the family had no names...
is a member of the fictional family The Addams Family
The Addams Family (TV series)
The Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966...
.
Astrology
The astrological signAstrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
of the planet Mercury
Mercury (planet)
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
, ☿, represents Wednesday — Dies Mercurii to the Romans, with similar names in Latin-derived languages, such as the Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
mercoledì (dì means "day"), the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
mercredi and the Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
miércoles. In English, this became "Woden's Day", since the Roman god Mercury
Mercury (mythology)
Mercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...
was identified with Woden in northern Europe
Northern Europe
Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Northern Europe typically refers to the seven countries in the northern part of the European subcontinent which includes Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden...
.
Named days
- Ash WednesdayAsh WednesdayAsh Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter...
, the first day of LentLentIn the Christian tradition, Lent is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer – through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial – for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and...
in the Western Christian tradition, occurs forty six days before EasterEasterEaster is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
, (forty, not counting Sundays). - Holy WednesdayHoly WednesdayIn Christianity, Holy Wednesday is the Wednesday of the Holy Week, the week before Easter...
, sometimes called Spy Wednesday in allusion to the betrayal of JesusJesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
by Judas IscariotJudas IscariotJudas Iscariot was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He is best known for his betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver.-Etymology:...
, is the Wednesday immediately preceding EasterEasterEaster is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
.