How Portugal named the: Days of The Week

While planning my Christmas calendar of family get-togethers and Christmas parties in both English and Portuguese, I had something of an epiphany. Thanks to the influence of the once all-powerful Roman Empire, most Latin languages dedicate the days of the week to Roman gods or planets. Portugal, however, seems to be somewhat the odd one out. 

This got me thinking: why does Portugal (which derives from the Latin language) use numerics for its days of the week, but many of its Latin cousins do not? Well, it’s all thanks to one man, the Bishop of Braga, who you could say had a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

For example, English and Spanish both use the planetary system for saying days of the week, such as Saturday/sábado (Saturn) or Wednesday/miércoles (Mercury), influenced by the Romans. Portugal, on the other hand, took a different approach. It was during the 6th century that São Martinho de Dume, the Bishop of Braga, decided to fight against Roman paganism by changing the week names for liturgical feasts.

São Martinho de Dume (c. 520–580 AD) introduced the word feria (meaning feast) before the numeric order of the days of the week intended for use in the liturgical week. These were called dominica dias. When first introduced, the day names started with feria. For example, Monday would appear as feria-secunda (the second feast after Sunday, the first day, known in Portuguese as domingo). This would be followed by Tuesday, feria-tertia, Wednesday, feria-quarta, and so on, except for Saturday (sábado) and Sunday (domingo). Over time, feria was transformed into feira and passed on after the number.

Today, Portugal continues to use almost the same days of the week that São Martinho de Dume introduced some 15 centuries ago. So next time you write a specific day in Portuguese in your calendar, just remember it’s all thanks to the Bishop of Braga.

Days of the week in Portuguese:

  • Monday – segunda-feira
  • Tuesday – terça-feira
  • Wednesday – quarta-feira
  • Thursday – quinta-feira
  • Friday – sexta-feira
  • Saturday – sábado
  • Sunday – domingo 

Did you know?
Portugal replaced the former Julian calendar and adopted the modern Gregorian calendar in 1582, some 170 years prior to Britain’s adaptation in 1752. 

Image: São Martinho de Dume by Joseolgon (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International licence).

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