Thursday

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For other uses, see Thursday (disambiguation).

Thursday is the day of the week between Wednesday and Friday. According to the ISO 8601 international standard, it is the fourth day of the week. In countries which adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is the fifth day of the week.[1]

Name

Further information on naming conventions: Names of the days of the week

Thor's day

Painting depicting the Norse god Thunor (the Norse Thor), after whom Thursday is named, by Mårten Eskil Winge, 1872

The name is derived from

interpretatio romana
.

In most Romance languages, the day is named after the Roman god

p-Celtic Welsh
dydd Iau.

The

sign of the planet Jupiter (♃ Jupiter
) is sometimes used to represent Thursday.

Since the Roman god

Jupiter was identified with Thunor (Norse Thor in northern Europe), most Germanic languages name the day after this god: Torsdag in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, Hósdagur/Tórsdagur in Faroese, Donnerstag in German or Donderdag in Dutch. Finnish and Northern Sami, both non-Germanic (Uralic) languages, uses the borrowing "Torstai" and "Duorastat". In the extinct Polabian Slavic language, it was perundan, Perun being the Slavic equivalent of Thor.[5]

Vishnu's/Buddha's/Dattatrey's Day

There are a number of modern names imitating the naming of Thursday after an equivalent of "Jupiter" in local tradition. In most of the

Bṛhaspati). In Nepali language, the day is called Bihivāra as derived from the Sanskrit word same like in Hindi vara means day and Bihivāra meaning Bṛhaspati. In Thai, the word is Wan Pharuehatsabodi, also in Old Javanese as Respati or in Balinese
as Wraspati – referring to the Hindu deity Bṛhaspati, also associated with Jupiter.
En was an old Illyrian deity and in his honor in the Albanian language Thursday is called "Enjte".[6]
In the
Nahuatl language, Thursday is Tezcatlipotōnal (Nahuatl pronunciation: [teskat͡ɬipoˈtoːnaɬ]) meaning "day of Tezcatlipoca
".

In Japanese, the day is 木曜日 (木 represents Jupiter, 木星), following East Asian tradition.

Fourth day

In Slavic languages and in Chinese, this day's name is "fourth" (Slovak štvrtok, Czech čtvrtek, Slovene četrtek, Polish czwartek, Russian четверг chetverg, Bulgarian четвъртък, Serbo-Croatian четвртак / četvrtak, Macedonian четврток, Ukrainian четвер chetver). Hungarian uses a Slavic loanword "csütörtök". In Chinese, it is 星期四 xīngqīsì ("fourth solar day"). In Estonian it's neljapäev, meaning "fourth day" or "fourth day in a week". The Baltic languages also use the term "fourth day" (Latvian ceturtdiena, Lithuanian ketvirtadienis).

Fifth day

Malaysian and "Kemis" in Javanese
.

In

Catholic liturgy, Thursday is referred to in Latin as feria quinta. Portuguese, unlike other Romance languages
, uses the word quinta-feira, meaning "fifth day of liturgical celebration", that comes from the Latin feria quinta used in religious texts where it was not allowed to consecrate days to pagan gods.

Icelandic also uses the term fifth day (Fimmtudagur).

In the Persian language, Thursday is referred to as panj-shanbeh, meaning 5th day of the week.

Vietnamese refers to Thursday as Thứ năm (literally means "day five").

Quakers traditionally referred to Thursday as "Fifth Day" eschewing the pagan origin of the English name "Thursday".[7]

Cultural and religious practices

Christian holidays

In the Christian tradition, Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter — the day on which the Last Supper occurred. Also known as Sheer Thursday in the United Kingdom, it is traditionally a day of cleaning and giving out Maundy money there. Holy Thursday is part of Holy Week.

In the

Wonder-worker
…"

Ascension Thursday is 40 days after Easter, when Christ ascended into Heaven
.

Hinduism

In

Buddha. However, Wednesday is dedicated to his avatars of Krishna and Vithoba. Devotees usually fast on this day in honor of Vishnu and his avatars, especially Vaishnava Hindus.[8][9]

Islam

In Islam, Thursdays are one of the days in a week in which Muslims are encouraged to do voluntary fasting, the other being Mondays.[10]

Judaism

In Judaism, Thursdays are considered auspicious days for fasting. The Didache warned early Christians not to fast on Thursdays to avoid Judaizing, and suggested Fridays instead.

In Judaism the Torah is read in public on Thursday mornings, and special penitential prayers are said on Thursday, unless there is a special occasion for happiness which cancels them.

Druze faith

Druze Prayer house in Daliyat al-Karmel

Formal Druze worship is confined to weekly meeting on Thursday evenings, during which all members of community gather together to discuss local issues before those not initiated into the secrets of the faith (the juhhāl, or the ignorant) are dismissed, and those who are "uqqāl" or "enlightened" (those few initiated in the Druze holy books) remain to read and study their holy scriptures.[11]

Practices in countries

In Finland and Sweden, pea soup is traditionally served on Thursdays.[12][13]

In Indonesia,[14] and Malaysia,[15] in a week, batik clothing is usually worn on Thursday, especially at education and civil servant institutions.

For

Thai Buddhist
, Thursday is considered the "Teacher's Day", and it is believed that one should begin one's education on this auspicious day. Thai students still pay homages to their teachers in specific ceremony always held on a selected Thursday. And graduation day in Thai universities, which can vary depending on each university, almost always will be held on a Thursday.

In the Thai solar calendar, the colour associated with Thursday is orange.

In the United States, Thanksgiving Day is an annual festival celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.

Conventional weekly events

In Australia, most cinema movies premieres are held on Thursdays. Also, most Australians are paid on a Thursday, either weekly or fortnightly. Shopping malls see this as an opportunity to open longer than usual, generally until 9 pm, as most pay cheques are cleared by Thursday morning.

In Norway, Thursday has also traditionally been the day when most shops and malls are open later than on the other weekdays, although the majority of shopping malls now are open until 8 pm or 9 pm every weekday.

In the USSR of the 1970s and 1980s Thursday was the "Fish Day" (Russian: Рыбный день, Rybny den), when the nation's foodservice establishments were supposed to serve fish (rather than meat) dishes.[16]

For college and university students, Thursday is sometimes referred to as the new Friday. There are often fewer or sometimes no classes on Fridays and more opportunities to hold parties on Thursday night and sleep in on Friday. As a consequence, some call Thursday "thirstday" or "thirsty Thursday".[17]

Elections in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, all general elections since 1935 have been held on a Thursday, and this has become a tradition, although not a requirement of the law — which merely states that an election may be held on any day "except Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Good Friday, bank holidays in any part of the United Kingdom and any day appointed for public thanksgiving and mourning".[18]

Additionally, local elections are usually held on the first Thursday in May.[citation needed][19]

The Electoral Administration Act 2006 removed Maundy Thursday as an excluded day on the electoral timetable, therefore an election can now be held on Maundy Thursday; prior to this elections were sometimes scheduled on the Tuesday before as an alternative.

Astrology

Thursday is aligned by the planet

Jupiter and the astrological signs of Pisces and Sagittarius.[citation needed
]

Popular culture

Literature

  • Gabriel Syme, the main character, was given the title of Thursday in G. K. Chesterton's novel The Man Who Was Thursday (1908).
  • The titular day in Sweet Thursday (1954) (the sequel to John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row (1945)), the author explains, is the day after Lousy Wednesday and the day before Waiting Friday.
  • In
    The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul
     (1988), one of the characters says to the character Thor, after whom the day was named: "I'm not used to spending the evening with someone who's got a whole day named after them".
  • In the
    cross media work Thursday's Fictions by Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman, Thursday is the title character, a woman who tries to cheat the cycle of reincarnation to get a form of eternal life. Thursday's Fictions has been a stage production, a book, a film and an 3D online immersive world in Second Life.[21]
  • Thursday Next is the central character in a series of novels by Jasper Fforde.
  • In
    Sin of Wrath
    .
  • According to
    water signs and takes Thursday as his feast day.[22]

Cinema

Music

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thursday.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Thursday.
Look up Thursday in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  1. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.a2284707
    .
  2. ^ "Anglo-Saxon Week". English Heathenism. Archived from the original on 24 September 2009. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  3. ^ Stone, John Robert (1997). "Observing Bede's Anglo-Saxon Calendar". The English Companions. Archived from the original on 4 May 2010. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  4. ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  5. ISBN 978-3-11-010617-6
    . Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  6. ^ Lurker, Manfred. The Routledge Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons, Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. p.57
  7. ^ "Guide to Quaker Calendar Names". Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Retrieved 30 March 2017. In the 20th Century, many Friends began accepting use of the common date names, feeling that any pagan meaning has been forgotten. The numerical names continue to be used, however, in many documents and more formal situations."
  8. ^ "Hindu Fasting".
  9. ^ "Weekly Rituals in the Practice of Hinduism".
  10. ^ "Fasting on Mondays and Thursdays or on Three Days of each Month? - Islam Question & Answer". islamqa.info. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  11. ISBN 978-0-8108-6836-6
    .
  12. ^ "Pea soup tradition is weekly #TBT passion in Finland". This Is Finland. 4 January 2017. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  13. ^ "Yellow pea soup". SwedishFood.com. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  14. ^ Kadhapy, Moh. (20 September 2023). "HMJ Mengajak Mahasiswa Untuk Memakai Batik Setiap Hari Kamis" [Department Student Organization Invites Students to Wear Batik Every Thursday]. Fakultas Sastra dan Budaya Universitas Negeri Gorontalo (in Indonesian). Department Student Organization of Indonesian Language and Art Department of Art and Culture Faculty of State University of Gorontalo (HMJ BSI FSB UNG). Retrieved 23 March 2024.
  15. Malaysian Parliament Makes Every Thursday Batik Day]. Liputan 6 Lifestyle (in Indonesian). Liputan 6
    . Retrieved 23 March 2024.
  16. ISBN 1-4116-9865-7
  17. ^ Hafner, Katie (6 November 2005). "How Thursday Became the New Friday". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  18. ^ "Representation of the People Act 1983". Schedule 1, Act of 1 November 1996. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  19. ^ "General elections - UK Parliament".
  20. ISBN 0-8070-7911-1
    .
  21. ^ "Magazine – issue 80 – dance film: spiritual odyssey". RealTime Arts. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  22. ^ Nostradamus. "Century 1 – Quatrain 50". Nostradamus Quatrains. Archived from the original on 27 August 2012. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
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