I mean, if today i.e. is Sunday then someone long time ago should have said “Today will be Sunday” for the first time in a period from today that is multiple of seven. I was assuming that it was Pope Gregory XIII in October 1582, but looks like he is not. I failed in googling and duckduckgoing out the answer, so I ask for Lemmy’s collective wisdom!

EDIT: so question is not about the origin of 7-day week and sequence of weekday names, but about the exact reference point (day) of today’s weekday countdown. From when have people stopped adding or ommiting any adjustment ‘out-of-week’ days (like in Babylon or Rome) and kept counting to seven till today? In other words, there should be a point exactly N x 7 days ago from which the 7-day countdown has not been interrupted. Or at least the earliest known day in history that everyone on Earth agreed upon as a reference point

EDIT 2: Solved by https://lemmy.world/comment/1852458 Thanks everyone!

  • PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    I believe most weekday names as we know them in English and many other northern European languages derive from the vikings.

    • Monday, not sure?
    • Tuesday = Tir’s day, Tir/Thyra being a woman in the Nordic mythology.
    • Wednesday = Wotan’s day, also “onsdag” in Nordic languages, Wotan=Odin.
    • Thursday = Thor’s day, also “torsdag” in Nordic languages.
    • Friday = “fredag”, from Frey/Freia in the Nordic mythology.
    • Saturday = lørdag, not sure.
    • Sunday = literally the day of the sun.