Monday

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For other uses, see Monday (disambiguation).

Monday (pron. IPA: [mʌn.deɪ] or [mʌn.di]) is considered either the first or second day of the week, between Sunday and Tuesday. It gets its name from the Moon, which in turn gets its name from Mani (Old English Mona), the Germanic Moon god. Similarly, the Italian name (lunedi), the French name (lundi) and the Spanish name (lunes) come from the Latin name for the moon, Luna.

In India, Monday is Somvar. It is based on Soma or Somdev Vedic God of Moon.

Monday is often held to be the first day of the week. This is the case in most of Europe, parts of Africa, and South America. In Asia – because the western calendar system was introduced only during the 20th century – many languages refer to Monday as the "day of the beginning". For example, Monday is xingqi yi (星期一) in Chinese, meaning day one of the week. The wage labour oriented international standard, ISO 8601, also defines Monday as the first day of the week.

According to the Judeo-Christian count, Monday is the second day. This is the traditional view in Canada and the United States. The name for the day in Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Persian and Portuguese is "second day". Quakers also traditionally refer to Monday as "Second 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".

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. It is Monday when commodity markets add or subtract weather premium, hence the nickname Weather Market Monday. 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.

[edit] Monday in popular culture

In the popular rhyme, "Monday's child is fair of face".
In the Garfield comic series, Garfield is known for hating Mondays despite the fact he has no job. This is because he usually has bad luck on Mondays, always followed by the famous line, "I hate Mondays."
In a well known nursery rhyme Solomon Grundy was "born on Monday"
In the song "Rainy Days and Mondays" by the Carpentersin 1971
The Boomtown Rats' biggest hit was 1979's "I Don't Like Mondays." (See also: Brenda Ann Spencer.)
The title of The Mamas and The Papas 1966 hit "Monday, Monday,"
Manic Monday by The Bangles.