There are seven days in a week. People in Croatia consider Monday to be the first day of the week and children are taught in schools to recite the days of the week starting with Monday.
So how did the days of the week get their names?
This day used to celebrate the Moon (Luna dies) and that is how it got its name in Romance languages (e.g. Lunedi). However, Slavic people marked this day as coming after Sunday- ‘poslije nedjelje’ (po-nedjelja-k).
Tuesday used to be dedicated to Mars (the god of war) and was called ‘Mars dies’ (e.g. Mardi). The Croatian name for Tuesday came from an old Slavic word meaning ‘the second’-‘vtori’ and that is how Utorak came about.
In pre-Christian era this day was dedicated to commerce, that is, to the god of commerce-Mercury (hence its name- ”Mercurius Dies”). The Croatian word for Wednesday has a much more practical meaning and it is ‘the middle of the week’ or ‘sred tjedna’.
Četvrtak is the fourth day of the week and that’s exactly how and why it got its name because četiri means four in Croatian.
Again, it is the fifth day of the week and that is where it gets its name from (pet à engl.five). In ancient times this day was dedicated to Venus, the goddess of love, and was called ‘Vener dies’ (e.g. Venerdi)
In the old times this was the seventh day of the week and its name originates from the Hebrew word ‘sabbath’ (the day of rest)). The old Romans dedicated this day to the god Saturn and according to some beliefs no work should be done on this day.
The last day of the week according to the modern calendar. The Roman Emperor Constantine established a nation-wide holiday on this day and Slavic peoples named this day after the practice of not working- ‘ne djela’.
An important thing to note at the end is that in Croatian the names of the days are not capitalized like in English (unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence)
Here are some additional interesting time expressions in Croatian:
