Tuesday

The god Týr or Tiw, identified with Mars, after whom Tuesday is named. Icelandic National Library, Reykjavík.

Tuesday is the day of the week between Monday and Wednesday. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the second day of the week. According to some commonly used calendars, however, especially in the United States, it is the third day of the week. The English name is derived from Old English Tiwesdæg and Middle English Tewesday, meaning "Tīw's Day", the day of Tiw or Týr, the god of single combat, and law and justice in Norse mythology. Tiw was equated with Mars in the interpretatio germanica, and the name of the day is a translation of Latin dies Martis.

Etymology

The name Tuesday derives from the Old English "Tiwesdæg" and literally means "Tiw's Day".[1] Tiw is the Old English form of the Proto-Germanic god *Tîwaz, or Týr in Old Norse. *Tîwaz derives from the Proto-Indo-European base *dei-, *deyā-, *dīdyā-, meaning 'to shine', whence comes also such words as "deity".[2]

The Latin name dies Martis ("day of Mars") is equivalent to the Greek ἡμέρα Ἄρεως. In most languages with Latin origins (Italian, French, Spanish, Catalan, Romanian, Galician, Sardinian, Corsican, but not Portuguese), the day is named after Mars, the Ancient Greek Ares Ἄρης .

In some Slavic languages the word Tuesday originated from Old Church Slavonic word въторъ meaning "the second". Bulgarian and Russian "Вторник" (Vtornik) (Serbian:уторак (utorak)) is derived from the Bulgarian and Russian adjective for 'Second' - "Втори" (Vtori) or "Второй" (Vtoroi).

In Japanese, the word Tuesday is 火曜日(ka youbi), meaning 'fire day' and is associated with 火星 (kasei): Mars (the planet), literally meaning "fire star". Similarly, in Korean the word Tuesday is 화요일 (hwa yo il), also meaning fire day.

In the Indo-Aryan languages Pali and Sanskrit the name of the day is taken from Angaraka ('one who is red in colour')[3] a style (manner of address) for Mangala, the god of war, and for Mars, the red planet.

In the Nahuatl language, Tuesday is Huītzilōpōchtōnal (Nahuatl pronunciation: [wiːt͡siloːpoːt͡ʃˈtoːnaɬ]) meaning "day of Huitzilopochtli".

Religious observances

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Tuesdays are dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. The Octoechos contains hymns on this theme, arranged in an eight-week cycle, that are chanted on Tuesdays throughout the year. At the end of Divine Services on Tuesday, the dismissal begins with the words: "May Christ our True God, through the intercessions of his most-pure Mother, of the honorable and glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John…"

Cultural references

In the Greek world, Tuesday (the day of the week of the Fall of Constantinople) is considered an unlucky day. The same is true in the Spanish-speaking world; it is believed that this is due to the association between Tuesday and Mars, the god of war and therefore related to death.[4] For both Greeks and Spanish-speakers, the 13th of the month is considered unlucky if it falls on Tuesday, instead of Friday. In Judaism, on the other hand, Tuesday is considered a particularly lucky day, because in the first chapter of Genesis the paragraph about this day contains the phrase "it was good" twice.

In the Thai solar calendar, the day is named for the Pali word for the planet Mars, which also means "Ashes of the Dead";[5] the color associated with Tuesday is pink.

In the folk rhyme Monday's Child, "Tuesday's child is full of grace". In India, Tuesday is also popular for worshipping Hanuman and people fast during Tuesday.

Astrology

Tuesday is associated with the planet Mars and shares that planet's symbol, ♂. As Mars rules over Aries and Scorpio, these signs are also associated with Tuesday.

Common occurrences

United States

Tuesday is the usual day for elections in the United States. Federal elections take place on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November; this date was established by a law of 1845 for presidential elections (specifically for the selection of the Electoral College), and was extended to elections for the House of Representatives in 1875 and for the Senate in 1914. Tuesday was the earliest day of the week which was practical for polling in the early 19th century: citizens might have to travel for a whole day to cast their vote, and would not wish to leave on Sunday which was a day of worship for the great majority of them. However, a bill was introduced in 2012 to move elections to weekends, with a co-sponsor stating that "by moving Election Day from a single day in the middle of the work week to a full weekend, we are encouraging more working Americans to participate. Our democracy will be best served when our leaders are elected by as many Americans as possible."[6]

Video games are commonly released on Tuesdays in the United States, this fact often attributed to the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Sonic 2s day" marketing campaign in 1992.[7] In addition, DVDs (also Blu-rays) are released on Tuesday.[8] Albums were typically released on Tuesdays as well, but this has changed to Fridays globally in 2015.[9]

Australia

In Australia, events occurring on Tuesdays include:

  • The board of the Reserve Bank of Australia meets on the first Tuesday of every month except January.[10]
  • The federal government hands down the federal budget on the second Tuesday in May, the practice since 1994 in all years except 1996 and 2016.[11]
  • The Melbourne Cup is held each year on the first Tuesday in November.[12]

Named days

References

Notes
  1. ↑ "Tuesday". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
  2. ↑ Klein, E., "deity" and "Tuesday", Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (Elsevier Publishing, 1966), pp. 417—8 & 1662.
  3. ↑ Turner, Sir Ralph Lilley (1962). "aṅgāraka 126". A comparative dictionary of the Indo-Aryan languages. London: Oxford University Press. Digital Dictionaries of South Asia, University of Chicago. p. 7. Retrieved 21 February 2010. 126 aṅgāraka 1. Pali 'red like charcoal'; Sanskrit aṅārī. (speculative) 2. Pali aṅgāraka masculine 'Mars'; Sanskrit aṅāro masculine 'Tuesday'.
  4. ↑ MARTÍNEZ, HELENA (2008-05-13). "Reportaje | Marte cena con los apóstoles". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  5. ↑ "อังคาร angM khaanM". Thai-language.com. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
  6. ↑ "Bill introduced to move Election Day to weekend". Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  7. ↑ "The Weird Reason Why Video Games Are Released On Tuesdays". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
  8. ↑ "Why Albums Are Released On Tuesdays In The U.S." NPR.org. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
  9. ↑ "Industry Sets Friday as Global Record Release Day". Billboard.com. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  10. ↑ "Reserve Bank Board".
  11. ↑ "ParlInfo - APPROPRIATION BILL (No. 1) 1994-95 : Second Reading". parlinfo.aph.gov.au. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  12. ↑ "Melbourne Cup Day in Australia". www.timeanddate.com.
Sources
  • Grimm, Jacob. 1875–78. Deutsche Mythologie. Fourth ed., curated by Elard Hugo Meyer, 3 vols. Berlin: F. Dümmler. Reprinted Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1965.
  • Media related to Tuesday at Wikimedia Commons
  • Quotations related to Tuesday at Wikiquote
  • The dictionary definition of Tuesday at Wiktionary


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