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Wednesday

Wednesday (
i
/wdnzde/,
i
/wnzde/
[1]
or /wnzdi/
[2]
) is the day of the week following
Tuesday and before Thursday. According to international standard ISO 8601 adopted in most
western countries it is the third day of the week. In countries that use the Sunday-first convention
Wednesday is defined as the fourth day of the week. It is the fourth day of the week in the Judeo-
Christian calendar as well, and was defined so in the ancient Mesopotamian and biblical
calendars. The name is derived from Old English Wdnesdg and Middle English Wednesdei,
"day of Wodanaz", ultimately a calque of dies Mercurii "day of Mercury".
Wednesday is in the middle of the common Western five-day workweek that starts on Monday
and finishes on Friday.

Etymology
See Week-day names for more on naming conventions.
The name Wednesday continues Middle English Wednesdei. Old English still had wdnesdg,
which would be continued as *Wodnesday (but Old Frisian has an attested wednesdei). By the
early 13th century, the i-mutated form was introduced unetymologically.
The name is a calque of the Latin dies Mercurii "day of Mercury", reflecting the fact that the
Germanic god Woden (Wodanaz or Odin) during the Roman era was interpreted as "Germanic
Mercury".
The Latin name dates to the late 2nd or early 3rd century. It is a calque of Greek
hemra Hrmou, a term first attested, together with the system of naming the seven weekdays
after the seven classical planets, in the Anthologiarum by Vettius Valens (ca. AD 170).
The Latin name is reflected directly in the weekday name in Romance languages: Mrcuris
(Sardinian), mercredi (French), mercoled (Italian), mircoles (Spanish), miercuri (Romanian),
dimecres (Catalan), Marcuri or Mercuri (Corsican), dies Mercurii (Latin). The German name for
the day, Mittwoch (literally: "mid-week"), replaced the former name Wodenstag ("Wodan's day")
in the tenth century. The Dutch name for the day, woensdag has the same etymology as English
Wednesday, it comes from Middle Dutch wodenesdag, woedensdag ("Wodan's day").
Most Slavic languages follow this pattern and use derivations of "the middle" (Bulgarian
sryada, Croatian srijeda, Czech steda, Macedonian sreda, Polish roda, Russian
sred, Serbian /sreda or c/srijeda, Slovak streda, Slovene sreda, Ukrainian
sereda). The Finnish name is Keskiviikko ("middle of the week"), as is the Icelandic name:
Mivikudagur, and the Faroese name: Mikudagur ("Mid-week day"). Some dialects of Faroese
have nsdagur, though, which shares etymology with Wednesday. Danish, Norwegian, Swedish
Onsdag, ("Ons-dag" = Odens/Odins dag/day). In Welsh it is Dydd Mercher, meaning Mercury's
Day.
In Japanese, the word Wednesday is (sui youbi), meaning 'water day' and is associated
with (suisei): Mercury (the planet), literally meaning "water star". Similarly, in Korean the
word Wednesday is (su yo il), also meaning water day.
In most of the languages of India, the word for Wednesday is Budhavravra meaning day and
Budh being the planet Mercury.
From Armenian (chorekshabti), Georgian (othshabati), and
Tajik (Chorshanbiyev) languages the word literally means as "four (days) from Saturday".
Portuguese uses the word quarta-feira, meaning "fourth day", while in Greek the word is Tetarti
() meaning simply "fourth". Similarly, Arabic means "fourth", Hebrew
means "fourth", and Persian means "fourth day". Yet the name for the day in
Estonian kolmapev, Lithuanian treiadienis, and Latvian trediena means "third day" while in
Mandarin Chinese (xngqsn), means "day three", as Sunday is unnumbered.
Religious observances
The imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday
The Creation narrative in the Hebrew Bible places the creation of the Sun and Moon on "the
fourth day" of the divine workweek.
Quakers traditionally refer to Wednesday as "Fourth Day" to avoid the pagan associations that
exist with the name "Wednesday" or in keeping with the practice of treating each day as equally
divine.
The Eastern Orthodox Church observes Wednesday (as well as Friday) as a fast day throughout
the year (with the exception of several fast-free periods during the year). Fasting on Wednesday
and Fridays entails abstinence from meat or meat products (i.e., four-footed animals), poultry
and dairy products. Unless a feast day occurs on a Friday, the Orthodox also abstain from fish,
from using oil in their cooking and from alcoholic beverages (there is some debate over whether
abstention from oil involves all cooking oil or only olive oil). For the Orthodox, Wednesdays and
Fridays throughout the year commemorate the betrayal of Jesus (Wednesday) and the
Crucifixion of Christ (Friday). There are hymns in the Octoekhos which reflect this liturgically.
These include special Theotokia (hymns to the Mother of God) called Stavrotheotokia ("Cross-
Theotokia"). The dismissal at the end of services on Wednesday begins with these words: "May
Christ our true God, through the power of the precious and life-giving cross...."
In Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the name for Wednesday also refers to fasting, as it is D Cadaoin
in Irish Gaelic and Di-Ciadain in Scottish Gaelic, which comes from chad, "first" and aoine,
"fasting" which means "first day of fasting".
[3]

In American culture many Catholic and Protestant churches and some Jewish synagogues
schedule study or prayer meetings on Wednesday nights. The sports calendar in many American
public schools reflects this, reserving Mondays and Thursdays for girls' games and Tuesdays and
Fridays for boys' games while generally avoiding events on Wednesday evening.
Cultural usage
In Hindu mythology, Budha is the god of Mercury (planet), mid-week Wednesday, and of
Merchants and merchandise. According to the Thai solar calendar, the color associated with
Wednesday is green.
[citation needed]

In the folk rhyme "Wednesday's child is full of woe", reciting the days of the week, Solomon
Grundy was 'Married on Wednesday.' In Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, the disagreeable
nature of the weather is attributed to it being "Winds-Day" (a play on "Wednesday"). In Richard
Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar Wednesday is the day when the sun shines grey.
[full citation needed]

Wednesday Friday Addams is a member of the fictional family The Addams Family. Her name
is derived from idea that Wednesday's child is full of woe. Additionally, Wednesday sometimes
appears as a character's name in literary works. These include Thursday's fictions by Richard
James Allen and Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods. In the 1945 John Steinbeck novel Sweet
Thursday, the titular day is preceded by "Lousy Wednesday".
Wednesday is sometimes informally referred to as "hump day" in North America, a reference to
the fact that Wednesday is the middle dayor "hump"of a typical work week.
[4]

Astrology
The astrological sign of the planet Mercury, , represents WednesdayDies Mercurii to the
Romans, with similar names in Latin-derived languages, such as the Italian mercoled (d means
"day"), the French mercredi, and the Spanish mircoles. In English, this became "Woden's Day",
since the Roman god Mercury was identified with Woden in northern Europe.
Named days
Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the Western Christian tradition, occurs forty-six
days before Easter (forty, not counting Sundays).
Holy Wednesday, sometimes called Spy Wednesday in allusion to the betrayal of Jesus
by Judas Iscariot, is the Wednesday immediately preceding Easter.

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