Friday, February 4, 2011

TGIF

Friday

Friday (pronounced /ˈfraɪdeɪ, ˈfraɪdi/ ( listen)) is the day between Thursday and Saturday, and is the last day of the school or work week in many countries. In countries adopting Monday-first conventions as recommended by the international standard ISO 8601, it is the fifth day of the week. It is the sixth day in countries that adopt aSunday-first convention as in Abrahamic tradition (except in Israel).

In most countries with a five-day work week, Friday is the last workday before the weekend and is, therefore, viewed as a cause for celebration or relief (leading to the phrase "TGIF", for "Thank God It's Friday"). In recent years, in some offices, employees are allowed to wear less formal attire on Fridays, known as Casual Friday or Dress-Down Friday.

In Saudi Arabia and Iran, however, Friday is the last day of the weekend and Saturday is the first workday. In Iran, it is the only weekend day. Moreover, in some countries, Friday is the first day of the weekend, and Sunday is the first workday. In Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and Kuwait, Friday was formerly the last day of the weekend while Saturday was the first workday. However, this was changed in Bahrain and the U.A.E. on 1 September 2006 to Friday as the first day of the weekend and Sunday as the beginning of the workday, with Kuwait following on 1 September 2007.

The name Friday comes from the Old English frīgedæg, meaning the "day of Frige". The same holds for Frīatag in Old High German, Freitag in Modern German and Vrijdag in Dutch.

The expected cognate name in Old Norse would be *friggjar-dagr. However, the name of Friday in Old Norse is frjá-dagrinstead, indicating a loan of the weekday names from Low German. The modern Scandinavian form is Fredag in Swedish,Norwegian and Danish.

The word for Friday in most Romance languages is derived from Latin dies Veneris, "day of Venus" (a translation of GreekAphrodites hemera) such as vendredi in French, venerdì in Italian, viernes in Spanish, divendres in Catalan, vennari inCorsican, and vineri in Romanian. This is also reflected in the p-Celtic Welsh language as dydd Gwener. An exception isPortuguese, also a Romance language, which uses the word sexta-feira, meaning "sixth day of liturgical celebration", derived from the Latin "feria sexta" used in religious texts where it was not allowed to consecrate days to pagan gods.

Most Slavic languages call Friday the "fifth (day)": Belarusian Пятніца, Bulgarian Петък, Czech pátek, Polish Piątek, RussianПятница, Serbian петак, Croatian Petak, Slovene Petek, Slovak piatok, and Ukrainian П'ятниця. The Hungarian word péntek is a Slavic loanword.

In most of the varieties of Arabic, Friday is Jumma-tul-Mubarak (or a derived variation of Jumma), named for Jumma.

In most of the Indian languages, Friday is Shukravar (or a derived variation of Sukravar), named for Shukra, the Sanskrit name of the planet Venus.

In Japanese, 金曜日 (きんようび, kinyoubi) is formed from the words 金星 (きんせい, "kinsei") meaning Venus (lit. Metal + Planet) and 曜日 (ようび, "youbi") meaning day (of the week).

Folklore

In some cultures, Friday is considered unlucky. This is particularly so in maritime circles; perhaps the most enduring sailing superstition is that it is unlucky to begin a voyage on a Friday. In the 19th century Admiral William Henry Smyth, writing in his nautical lexicon The Sailor's Word-Book, described Friday as “ The Dies Infaustus, on which old seamen were desirous of not getting under weigh, as ill-omened. ” (Dies Infaustus means "unlucky day".) This superstition is the root of the well-known urban legend of HMS Friday.

However, this superstition is not universal, notably in Scottish Gaelic culture:"Though Friday has always been held an unlucky day in many Christian countries, still in the Hebrides it is supposed that it is a lucky day for sowing the seed. Good Friday in particular is a favourite day for potato planting—even strict Roman Catholics make a point of planting a bucketful on that day. Probably the idea is that as the Resurrection followed the Crucifixion, and Burial so too in the case of the seed, and after death will come life."

In modern times, Friday the 13th is considered to be especially unlucky, due to the conjunction of Friday with the unlucky number thirteen. Such a Friday may be called a "Black Friday".

In astrology, Friday is connected with the planet Venus. It is also connected with the Astrological signs Libra and Taurus.



(From Wikipedia)

~ mmmmm ~

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