50 Fun Facts About Days of the Week

Tuesday is named for Tiw, the Norse Tyr, who lost what to the monstrous wolf Fenrir?

His hand. Tyr placed it in Fenrir's jaws as a pledge of good faith while the gods bound the wolf, and Fenrir bit it off when he realised he had been tricked.

Which horse race, run on the first Tuesday of November, is known as 'the race that stops a nation'?

Melbourne Cup. Run at Flemington since 1861, it draws such a following that race day has been a public holiday in Melbourne since the 1870s.

Dienstag, German for Tuesday, is linked to the 'thing', which was what in Germanic societies?

An assembly. Free people met at the thing to settle disputes and make law, and Roman-era inscriptions honouring a war god titled Thingsus, 'of the thing', are thought to lie behind the name Dienstag.

In Japanese, Tuesday is kayōbi, named after which planet?

Mars. Japan took its weekday names from Chinese astrology about a thousand years ago: the planet is the 'fire star', so kayōbi is literally 'fire day', as Tuesday is in Korean too.

In Greek the name for Tuesday, Triti, literally means what?

The third. Greek counts Tuesday as the third day of a week that opens on Sunday, the Lord's Day; only Friday and Saturday break the numbering, named for the Preparation and the Sabbath.

Super Tuesday is the day when the most US states hold what?

Presidential primaries. Around one in three convention delegates can be won that day, so the results often settle who each party's front-runner is.

In 2023 a Wyoming-based fast-food chain abandoned its federal trademark on which phrase?

Taco Tuesday. Taco John's had held the mark since 1989 and dropped it after Taco Bell petitioned to cancel it, saying the fight wasn't worth millions in lawyers' fees.

In Britain and Ireland, Shrove Tuesday is popularly named after which food?

Pancakes. Frying a batch was the easy way to use up the eggs, milk and butter in the house before weeks of fasting began, which is how the day became Pancake Day.

Shrove Tuesday takes its name from 'shrive', a word meaning what?

Absolve. Christians went to confession on the day to be 'shriven' of their sins, and the word survives in 'short shrift', once the brief confession allowed a condemned prisoner.

What does the word ‘Gras’ in Mardi Gras mean?

Fat. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, the final chance to feast on meat, butter, eggs and cheese before the weeks of fasting that begin the next morning.

Which company introduced 'Patch Tuesday' in 2003, bundling its security fixes on the second Tuesday of each month?

Microsoft. Saving a month of fixes for one day lets IT teams plan ahead, but attackers pick the patches apart so quickly that the following day is nicknamed Exploit Wednesday.

Which US president was in office when Wall Street crashed on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929?

Herbert Hoover. He had taken office only that March, and as the Depression deepened he was blamed so widely that the shanty towns of the homeless were nicknamed Hoovervilles.

Which sportswriter turned visits to his dying professor into the bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie?

Mitch Albom. He had lost touch with Morrie Schwartz after college until he saw his old professor on TV's Nightline, talking about dying, and began flying in to see him every Tuesday.

Which French painter built A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte from tiny dots of colour?

Georges Seurat. The canvas took him two years, and a century later it inspired Stephen Sondheim's musical Sunday in the Park with George.

Which band's 1983 song 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' is about the Troubles in Northern Ireland?

U2. The song recalls the day in 1972 when British soldiers shot unarmed civil rights marchers in Derry, and Bono took to introducing it on stage with the words 'This is not a rebel song.'

On 'Ruby Tuesday' by the Rolling Stones, Brian Jones plays a countermelody on what?

Alto recorder. Its flute-like line runs through the song, and the double bass took two Stones to play: Bill Wyman fingered the notes while Keith Richards bowed.

Monday's name comes from the Old English for the day of what?

The moon. Mōnandæg was the Anglo-Saxons' translation of Latin dies Lunae, 'day of the moon', the name that French lundi and Spanish lunes inherited directly.

Under the ISO 8601 standard, Monday is which day of the week?

The first. The international standard numbers the days from Monday, but calendars in the US, Canada and Japan still open the week on Sunday.

'Blue Monday', billed as the most depressing day of the year, falls in which month?

January. The date comes from a 2005 press release for the holiday firm Sky Travel, backed by a 'formula' of weather, debt and broken resolutions that scientists dismiss as nonsense.

Which US trade group coined 'Cyber Monday' in 2005 for the online shopping surge after Thanksgiving?

National Retail Federation. Its online arm had seen orders jump on that Monday, as people back at their desks shopped on faster office connections, and put the name in a press release.

The Bangles' 'Manic Monday' was written by which star under the pseudonym 'Christopher'?

It reached number two in the US, held off the top spot by Prince's own 'Kiss'.

Monday Night Football originally aired on which network from 1970 to 2005?

ABC. Its booth made news of its own: in December 1980 Howard Cosell broke off from the game to tell viewers that John Lennon had been shot dead.

Which Federal Reserve chairman, new to the job, faced the 'Black Monday' crash of 1987?

Alan Greenspan. He had been chairman for about two months when the Dow fell 22.6% in a day, and the next morning he pledged in a single sentence that the Fed stood ready to supply liquidity.

Garfield, the cat famous for hating Mondays, was first published locally under what title?

Jon. Jim Davis turned to a cat after an editor told him nobody could relate to his earlier strip about a gnat, and at first the owner got top billing in an Indiana local paper.

Whit Monday is the public holiday celebrated the day after which Christian feast?

Pentecost. Its old English name is Whitsunday, 'white Sunday', possibly from the white robes worn by people baptised on that day.

Wednesday takes its name from Woden, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of which Norse god?

Odin. Woden is his Old English name, and the Romans matched him with their Mercury, which is why the same day is mercredi in French and miércoles in Spanish.

Ash Wednesday marks the first day of which season?

Lent. The ashes marked on worshippers' foreheads are made by burning the palm branches blessed on the previous year's Palm Sunday.

Charles Addams named Wednesday Addams after a line from which nursery rhyme?

Monday's Child. A woman Addams met at a party said she offered its line 'Wednesday's child is full of woe' for the gloomy daughter, who like the rest of the family went unnamed in the New Yorker cartoons until the 1960s.

Who plays the title role in the Netflix series Wednesday?

Jenna Ortega. She choreographed Wednesday's dance scene herself, and Christina Ricci, who played the character in the 1990s films, joined the cast as a teacher.

Thursday is named for the Germanic thunder god equated with which Roman deity?

Jupiter. Both gods wield thunder, so the Romans' 'day of Jove' became Thor's day in the north, while Italian giovedì and French jeudi keep the Latin name.

'Maundy' in Maundy Thursday comes from mandatum, the Latin word for what?

It opens Jesus' words 'A new commandment I give to you' from John 13, spoken after he washed the apostles' feet.

Which president's decision to move Thanksgiving a week earlier, to lengthen Christmas shopping, was mocked as 'Franksgiving'?

Franklin D. Roosevelt. He made the change in 1939 to give shops a longer season, but many states refused to follow it, and in 1941 Congress fixed the fourth Thursday of November by law.

Friday is named for Frigg, a Germanic goddess associated with which Roman goddess?

Venus. Old English frigedæg, 'Frigg's day', was a translation of the Latin dies Veneris, the name that survives as vendredi in French and viernes in Spanish.

Which camp is terrorised in the 1980 film Friday the 13th?

Camp Crystal Lake. The film was shot at a working Scout camp in New Jersey, which now hosts guided tours of the filming locations and sells souvenirs to fans.

In which country is Friday the 17th, rather than the 13th, the traditional date of bad luck?

Italy. One old explanation is that the Roman numeral XVII can be rearranged into VIXI, Latin for 'I have lived', in other words 'I am dead'.

Some trace the Friday the 13th superstition to the arrest of which order on 13 October 1307?

The Knights Templar. King Philip IV, who was heavily in debt to the order, had its members across his kingdom arrested on the same day.

Police in which US city first used 'Black Friday' for post-Thanksgiving shopping chaos?

Philadelphia. Officers there used it for the traffic jams and crowds they dreaded each year; the cheerier story that shops go 'into the black' that day was attached to the name later.

Which British band had a worldwide hit in 1992 with 'Friday I'm in Love'?

The Cure. Robert Smith was so sure he must have stolen its chord progression that he phoned everyone he knew and sang it to them, asking whether they had heard it before.

In Robinson Crusoe, why does Crusoe name his companion Friday?

It was the day they met. Crusoe rescues the man from cannibals and names him for the day he saved his life, which later gave English the phrase 'man Friday' for a loyal assistant.

The 1995 film Friday stars Chris Tucker alongside which rapper, who also co-wrote it?

Ice Cube and DJ Pooh wrote it to counter the violent portrayal of hood films, setting it in South Central Los Angeles.

In the 2003 film Freaky Friday, what causes the mother and daughter to swap bodies?

Chinese fortune cookies. An elderly woman at a Chinese restaurant hands them over in the middle of a row, and mother and daughter wake up the next morning in each other's bodies.

In Islam, Friday is Yawm al-Jum'ah, a name that translates as what?

Day of Assembly. The name reflects the day's main event: at midday Muslims gather at the mosque for a sermon and communal prayer in place of the usual noon prayer.

Only one English weekday is named directly after a Roman god: which god?

Saturn. Saturday kept its Roman name while other days took Germanic gods, perhaps because the northern pantheon had no match for him; Scandinavians call it 'bath day' instead.

Saturday Night Live's 1975 premiere was hosted by which comedian?

George Carlin. He performed stand-up several times that night but appeared in none of the sketches.

Which actor became a star as Brooklyn disco king Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever?

John Travolta. His character came from a New York magazine article that writer Nik Cohn later admitted he had largely invented, basing its hero on a mod he had known in London.

Which Roman emperor made the seven-day week official in AD 321?

Constantine. His decree of 321 told city dwellers to rest on 'the venerable Day of the Sun', though farmers were allowed to carry on working.

Which Romance language uses numbered weekdays instead of planet names for Monday to Friday?

Portuguese. Martin of Braga, a sixth-century bishop, objected to naming days after pagan gods, so Monday to Friday became segunda-feira to sexta-feira, the 'second' to 'sixth' days.

Which carmaker began closing its factories all Saturday and Sunday in 1926?

Ford. Henry Ford argued that leisure for workers was not 'lost time': people with free weekends, he reckoned, would travel and shop more.

Which country scrapped the shared weekend in 1929, giving workers staggered rest days in a continuous five-day week?

Soviet Union. Workers were split into colour-coded groups so factories never stopped, but families could rarely share a day off, and the experiment was dropped in 1940.

Which country's revolutionary calendar of 1793 replaced the seven-day week with a ten-day one?

France. Meant to rid the year of Christian associations, the calendar cut each month into three ten-day 'décades' in place of weeks, and Napoleon's regime abandoned it at the start of 1806.