Etymology
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Etymology
The English noun Monday derived sometime before 1200 from monedæi, which itself developed from Old English (around 1000) mōnandæg and mōndæg (literally meaning "day of the moon"), which is cognate to other Germanic languages, including Old Frisian mōnadeig, Middle Low German and Middle Dutch mānendach (modern Dutch Maandag), Old High German mānetag (modern German Montag), and Old Norse mánadagr (Swedish and Norwegian nynorsk måndag, Danish and Norwegian bokmål mandag). The Germanic term is a Germanic interpretation of Latin lunae dies ("day of the moon").Barnhart (1995:485).
The Russian word, eschewing pagan names, is понедельник (poniediélnik), meaning "after holiday." In most of the Indian Languages, the word for Monday is Somvar, with Soma being the Sanskrit name for the moon. The Japanese word for Monday is getsuyōbi (月曜日) which means day of the moon.
Position in the week
According to the Christian count, Sunday is the first day of the week. This is the standard format in the United States, Canada, and Japan.
But in many other cultures, Monday is held to be the first day of the week. For example, Monday is xingqi yi (星期一) in Chinese, meaning day one of the week. The international standard, ISO 8601, defines Monday as the first day of the week. Its name in Georgian, Greek and Syriac means "first day". Quakers also traditionally refer to Monday as "First Day" eschewing the pagan origin of the English name "Monday". For similar reasons the official liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church refers to Monday as "Feria II". (The Portuguese name for Monday reflects this, as do all the days' names except Saturday and Sunday: the Portuguese word for Monday is segunda-feira.)
Modern culture usually looks at Monday as the beginning of the workweek, as it is typically Monday when adults go back to work and children back to school after the weekend. Thus, Mondays are often seen as a misfortune. In Middle Eastern countries, however, the beginning of the workweek is usually Saturday (Thursday and Friday are observed as the weekend). In Israel, Sunday is the first day of the workweek. Friday is half a work day and Friday night and Saturday are the Sabbath.
Religious observances
In Judaism and Islam Mondays are considered auspicious days for fasting. The Didache warned early Christians not to fast on Mondays to avoid Judaizing, and suggests Wednesdays instead.
In Judaism the Torah is read in public on Monday mornings, one of three days the Torah is read each week (the other two days being Thursday and Saturday). Special penitential prayers are recited on Monday, unless there is a special occasion for happiness which cancels them.
