Wednesday is the day of the week between Tuesday and Thursday. The name comes from the Old English Wódnesdæg meaning the day of Woden, commonly known as Odin in Modern English. The astrological sign of the planet Mercury represents Wednesday, which was Dies Mercurii to the Romans. In English, this became Woden's Day, since the Roman god Mercury was identified with the Germanic god Woden in northern Europe.
When Sunday is taken as the first of the week, the day in the middle of the following week is Wednesday. Correspondingly, the German name for Wednesday has been Mittwoch (literally: "mid-week") since the 10th Century, having displaced the original name: Wochentag.
Wednesday is also in the middle of the common working week from Monday through Friday. However, see also Thursday and ISO 8601.
In the popular rhyme, "Wednesday's Child is full of woe".
In Spanish, miércoles is used to mean Wednesday, but also as a semi-rude euphemism for never ever.
An English language idiom for Wednesday is "hump day", a reference to making it through the middle of work week as getting "over the hump".
Quakers traditionally refer to Wednesday as "Fourth Day" eschewing the "pagan" origin of the name "Wednesday".
The film Angel Heart includes a scene where Harry Angel refers to Wednesday as "Anything can happen day" in reference to the original Mickey Mouse Club television program.
Named days
- Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, occurs forty days before Easter not counting Sundays.
- Spy Wednesday is an old name given to the Wednesday immediately preceding Easter, in allusion to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot. This story is the pericope from the Gospel read at Mass in the Roman Catholic tradition on this day.
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