People, I just learned that the days of the week are named after a now defunct perspective that [i] the planets ruled the hours of the day; and [ii] there are 7 planets going out from the Earth. ?!
I suppose habits stick.
The days of the week are based on ancient (mostly) Latin culture, with a mix of executions depending on the present day language (for me English) in review.
Apparently the perspective people had in the day and time when the 7-days of the week were (most?) originally named was that the planets (and sun) laid outward from the Earth in the following pattern:
- Saturn
- Jupiter (aka Jove)
- Mars
- Sun
- Venus
- Mercury
- Moon
People in those days believed each day was ruled by whatever neighboring planet “was in rule” during the first hour of any particular day.
See the numbered illustration.
So, they checked to see which planet might be ‘in rule’ during the first hour of the day for any given day by going out 25 hours.
(*It would be nice to know and put here reference to where the 24-hour cycle originated. Additionally, detailing how humankind came to the decision for a second to be a second would be interesting to know more about.)
So, 25 hours (24 + 1) after the initial point of Saturn we arrive at the Sun (25 in the above illustration).
Twenty-five additional hours after that point we arrive at the Moon (49 in the above illustration).
Carrying that pattern out we eventually arrive at a list that looks like the below:
- Saturn
- Sun
- Moon
- Mars
- Mercury
- Jupiter
- Venus