Dume: The days of the week

Dume: The days of the week

Among other peculiarities of Portuguese culture, one aspect that most captures the attention of those who visit us is the curious naming of our weekdays, especially when compared to other Romance languages. But do you know why this particular case exists? We can already tell you that the issue is, literally, older than Braga’s Cathedral…

The Portuguese language is a treasure trove of unique cases. Its complex (sometimes confusing, even for natives) grammar and its vast vocabulary make it one of the most interesting and difficult to study, master, and research. Originating, like its Romance counterparts, from the vernacular Latin — that is, the Latin spoken by the lower classes of society such as soldiers or the plebeians — Portuguese, much like its twin brother Galician, underwent profound and decisive influences from the dialects spoken by the castrejos peoples who inhabited the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula before the Romanization of Hispania.

Even the most inattentive will certainly have noticed that the Portuguese language presents some peculiarities among the Latin languages. Many examples could be used, but today our focus will be on the weekdays and on how peculiar the Portuguese case is. But let us go back in time…

Figure 1 Gaius Julius Caesar

Roman culture was deeply polytheistic. The daily life of a Roman citizen, whether patrician or plebeian, was shaped by the influence and protection of hundreds and hundreds of deities, whether of Etruscan origin or of foreign provenance — Egyptian, Persian, and of course, Greek. It is therefore not surprising that an aspect as present in everyday life as the division of time was also under divine rule. The months of the year, after Julius Caesar’s reform, varied between names of gods (for instance, Januarius, from the god Janus, or Februarius, from the god Februus) and ordinal names (September and October, the seventh and eighth months, since the year began in March). The days of the week were also influenced by deities, and here is where the differences compared to Portuguese begin. In Latin, the days of the week had the following names: Lunae dies, Martis dies, Mercurii dies, Jovis dies, Veneris dies, Saturni dies and Solis dies. We can see similarities in the other Latin languages. In Spanish, Lunes, in French Mardi, in Italian Mercoledì, or in Romanian Joi, we can verify how much the pagan heritage remains present in their daily life.

Although there is no document in Portugal that attests to the use of the “pagan” version, it is generally agreed that it did happen (Galician, always useful for studying the evolution of Portuguese, still more frequently uses the pagan version). However, this would change in the 6th century, in one of the great cultural hubs of the early Middle Ages in the Iberian Peninsula: Bracara, through one of its most notable bishops: Martin.

Saint Martin of Dume was born in Pannonia (present-day Hungary) in the early 6th century. Its proximity to the Eastern Roman Empire took him to Constantinople and Alexandria, where he studied with the great masters and philosophers of the time. He later came to Iberia, to the vicinity of Bracara Augusta, where he founded a monastic cell in Dume. His brilliant management and focus on knowledge caused the monastery to flourish so much that the Pope elevated it to the status of a Diocese, making Martin its first Bishop. Later, given the vacancy of the neighboring diocese, Martin was ordained Metropolitan Bishop of Braga, a position he would hold until his death around 580.

It was in the capital of the Suebi kingdom that Martin achieved some of his most notable actions. Among his greatest accomplishments were the conversion of the Suebi from Arianism to Catholicism and the adoption of a new nomenclature for the days of the week, definitively breaking with the pagan tradition. The context, or rather, the pretext, was Holy Week and its prayers. According to Martin, besides not making sense, it was indecorous to use pagan terminology during the week in which Christ’s Passion is remembered. Thus, using more liturgical terminology and taking the idea that Sunday, or Dominica, was the first day of the week, the next day would be Feria Secunda, followed by Feria Tertia, and so on until Sabbatum, with the term feria meaning holy day. This system, as we have seen, was devised and initially applied only during Holy Week celebrations, but it was so successful that it soon spread and, later, was adopted throughout the year as a way of breaking with the past and as a cultural assertion by the newly formed Kingdom of Portugal.

Martin, or rather Saint Martin of Dume, would be forever known as one of the most brilliant prelates and thinkers of Christianity and a central figure in what we now consider Portuguese culture.

Article written by Tiago Lopes Botelho