The English names for the days of the week

So a couple weeks ago, I got to see Thor 2: The Dark World, where Loki is undisputably the best character and villain ever invented. When I got out of the movie theater, not only did I immediately post a review, but I scavenged Youtube for interviews, bloopers, and other behind-the-scenes.

Loki, the god of chaos. Image taken from an 18th century Islandic manuscript and uploaded to Wikicommons by a kind soul.

While there are many funny videos out there, I found a particular information to be very amusing. And that is that when they were filming Thor 2, the project was called 'Thursday Mourning."

Thursday? Thor's day? Ring a bell, anyone?

What I loved about it is that not long ago, I was explaining to a French friend where the name Thursday came from. Coincidentally, it was on a Thursday, and we were hearing thunder. I pointed into the sky and shouted, "Hey, isn't that cool! It's a really Thunder's day on Thursday!" And then I launched myself into a lecture, which my friend was more than happy to contribute, explaining the French origins of the days of the week, also.

So the origin of Thursday comes from Thor's day, which is the god of thunder. Thursday = day for worshipping Thunder.

I'm not sure how Scandinavian culture wound itself around the English language, but there you go.

The other days of the week are simpler.

Sunday = Sun's day
Monday = Moon's day
Tuesday = Two's day  (my friend had suggested this and I laughed it off. Turns out he was somewhat, at least according to Wikipedia. It could also be the god Tiw).
Wednesday = Wodan's day (a Germanic god)
Thursday = Thor's day
Friday = Frige's day (a Norse goddess).
Saturday = The only day in the week that is Roman of origin and similar to other Romance languages: sabado, samedi, sabato, etc. Also Saturn's day.

The Portuguese names for the days of the week are much funner to explain. I'll be addressing them shortly. For now, don't forget to get your Vitamin D on Sunday!