Everything about Thursday totally explained
Thursday is the fourth day of the week in most western countries and the fifth day of the week in the Judeo-Christian
calendar, falling between
Wednesday and
Friday. In countries that adopt the
Sunday-first convention, it's considered the fifth day of the week. However, in
ISO 8601 it's the fourth day of the week.
Origins of the name
See Days of the week for more on naming conventions.
The contemporary name comes from the
Old English Þunresdæg (with loss of -n-, first in northern dialects, from influence of
Old Norse Þorsdagr), meaning "Day of
Thunor", this being a rough Germanic equivalent to the Latin
Iovis Dies, "Jupiter's Day". Most Germanic and Romance-speaking countries use their languages' equivalents:
German Donnerstag,
Dutch donderdag,
torsdag in
Scandinavia,
Italian giovedì,
Spanish jueves,
French jeudi,
Catalan dijous, and
Romanian joi.
In Latin the Genitive or possessive case of Jupiter was
Jovis and as such in most Romance languages with the exception of Portuguese it became the word for Thursday: Latin
Jovis Dies, Spanish
Jueves, Italian
Giovedi, and Rumanian
Jiuvidi.
In most of the Indian Languages the word for Thursday is
Guruvar, with
Guru being the
Sanskrit name for the planet Jupiter. In
Slavic languages and in Chinese, this day's name is "fourth" (Polish
czwartek, Russian
четверг, pronounced CHET-vierg).
Portuguese, too, uses a number for this day:
quinta-feira, "fifth day", (see
days of the week for more on the different conventions).
The Urdu name for Thursday is Jumeraate (eve of Friday).
Religious observances
In the
Hindu religion, Thursday is
Guruvaar, from
Guru, the
Sanskrit name for Jupiter, the largest of planets. Guruvaar fasting is very common throughout
India for various holy/religious reasons.
In
Judaism and
Islam 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's a special occasion for happiness which cancels them.
In the
Christian tradition,
Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before
Easter — the day on which the
Last Supper occurred.
Ascension Thursday is 40 days after Easter, when Christ ascended into
Heaven.
In
Catholic liturgy, Thursday is referred to in
Latin as
feria quinta.
In the
Eastern Orthodox Church. Thursdays are dedicated to the
Apostles and
Saint Nicholas. The
Octoechos contains
hymns on these themes, arranged in an eight-week cycle, that are chanted on Thursdays throughout the year. At the end of
Divine Services on Thursday, the
dismissal begins with the words: "May Christ our True God, through the
intercessions of his most-pure
Mother, of the holy, glorious and all-laudable Apostles, of our
Father among the
saints Nicholas,
Archbishop of
Myra in
Lycia, the
Wonder-worker…"
Quakers traditionally refer to Thursday as "Fifth Day" eschewing the
pagan origin of the English name "Thursday". The name of the day is also called by words meaning "fifth day" in Icelandic, Modern Greek, Portuguese, and modern Semitic languages.
Cultural references
In the
nursery rhyme, "
Thursday's Child has far to go".
In Thailand, the color associated with Thursday is orange, see
Thai solar calendar.
Popular culture
Gabriel Syme, the main character was given the title of Thursday in
G. K. Chesterton's novel "
The Man Who Was Thursday."
In
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by
Douglas Adams, the character
Arthur Dent says
"This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays". A few minutes later the planet
Earth is destroyed.
Thor, for whom the day was named, also appears later in the Hitchhiker's series and in other Adams books. Appropriately, in
The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul, one of the characters says to Thor:
"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 which has been a stage production, a book, a film and an 3D online immersive world in
Second Life.
Thursday is sometimes referred to as "Friday Eve" in anticipation for the end of the work week on Friday.
Thursday is a post-hardcore band from New Brunswick, New Jersey, formed in 1997.
Thursday's Child is a
David Bowie song from the album
hours...(1999).
Thursday's Child is also a song by
The Chameleons in Script of the Bridge (1983).
In
Neil Gaiman's
American Gods, when Wednesday introduces himself, he remarks that given the weather (he and the main character are flying in a thunderstorm), it could be Thursday, as Thor was the god of thunder.
Outlook for Thursday was a hit in
New Zealand for
Dave Dobbyn.
"Thursday" is the name of an episode of
Strange Days at Blake Holsey High. In the episode
Corrine Baxter finds herself trapped in the same day over and over again, similar to the premise of the
film Groundhog Day.
"Thursday Next" is the central character in a series of novels by
Jasper Fforde.
In
high schools in the
United States during the
1960s, it was widely believed that if someone wore
green on Thursdays, it meant that they were
gay.
"Thursday" is an NPC in the online game Dragonfable.
In "
Breakfast at Tiffany's (novella),"
Truman Capote writes of Holly Golightly: "'
Thursday.' She stood up. 'My God,' she said, and sat down again with a moan. 'It's too gruesome.'"
Thursday is the day of the Second Round draw in the English League Cup.
BBC TWO's new comedy zone is named "THURSDAYS ARE FUNNY".
In college life is referred to as the new friday because of drinking and parties.
Thursday (1998 film) is a movie starring
Thomas Jane about the day of a drug dealer gone straight, who gets pulled back into his old lifestyle.
"Thursday" is the name of an Italian neo realistic film of the 60s.
Common occurences
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 only 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". An explanation sometimes given for the choice of Thursday as polling day is that it was, in most towns, the traditional market day, although it has also been observed that the choice has practical advantages — with the outcome of the election being known by Friday, the new or continuing administration then has the weekend to organise itself in preparation for the "government shop opening for business" on Monday, the first day of the new week following the election. It is sometimes thought that Thursday was the chosen polling day as it's furthest from the Friday and Weekend before, making it therefore the day when people were most
sober.
Additionally, local elections are usually held on the first Thursday in May.
The Thursday before Easter is also known as
Maundy Thursday or
Sheer Thursday in the United Kingdom, traditionally a day of cleaning and giving out Maundy money. 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.
United States
In the United States,
Thanksgiving Day is an annual festival celebrated on a Thursday in November, currently the fourth Thursday.
Astrology
The
astrological and
astronomical sign of the planet
Jupiter represents Thursday with similar names in Latin-derived languages, such as the
French Jeudi,
Italian Giovedì and
Spanish Jueves. In English, this became "Thor's Day," since the Roman god
Jupiter was identified with Thor in
northern Europe.
Named days
- Black Thursday refers to October 24, 1929 when stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange fell sharply, with record volume of nearly 13 million shares. Five days later, the market crashed on volume of over 16 million shares – a level not to be surpassed for 39 years. In popular imagery, the crash has come to mark the beginning of the Great Depression.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Thursday'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://thursday.totallyexplained.com">Thursday Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
