Days of the week trivia: 48 facts about Tuesday

Tuesday is the second day of the week. It is the day that you are starting to get used to the hectic lifestyle of your daily routine and work.

But let’s dive into some trivia and facts about this day!

1. Tuesday is the day of the week between Monday and Wednesday
2. According to international standard ISO 8601, Monday is the first day of the week and so Tuesday is the second day of the week
3. According to some commonly used calendars, however, especially in the United States, Sunday is the first day of the week and so Tuesday is the third day of the week
4. The English name is derived from Old English Tiwesdæg and Middle English Tewesday, meaning “Tīw’s Day”, the day of Tiw or Týr, the god of single combat, and law and justice in Norse mythology
5. Tiw was equated with Mars in the interpretatio germanica
6. The name of the day is a translation of Latin dies Martis
7. The name Tuesday derives from the Old English “Tiwesdæg” and literally means “Tiw’s Day”
8. Tiw is the Old English form of the Proto-Germanic god *Tîwaz, or Týr in Old Norse
9. *Tîwaz derives from the Proto-Indo-European base *dei-, *deyā-, *dīdyā-, meaning ‘to shine’, whence comes also such words as “deity”
10. The Latin name dies Martis (“day of Mars”) is equivalent to the Greek Iméra Áreos
11. In most languages with Latin origins (Italian, French, Spanish, Catalan, Romanian, Galician, Sardinian, Corsican, but not Portuguese), the day is named after Mars, the Ancient Greek Ares
12. In some Slavic languages the word Tuesday originated from Old Church Slavonic word въторъ meaning “the second”
13. Bulgarian and Russian “Вторник” (Vtornik) is derived from the Bulgarian and Russian adjective for ‘Second’ – “Втори” (Vtori) or “Второй” (Vtoroi)
14. In Japanese, the word Tuesday is ka youbi
15. Meaning ‘Mars day’ from kasei, the planet
16. Similarly, in Korean the word Tuesday is hwa yo il
17. Also meaning Mars day
18. In the Indo-Aryan languages Pali and Sanskrit the name of the day is taken from Angaraka (‘one who is red in colour’)
19. A manner of address for Mangala, the god of war
20. And for Mars, the red planet
21. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Tuesdays are dedicated to Saint John the Baptist
22. The Octoechos contains hymns on this theme, arranged in an eight-week cycle, that are chanted on Tuesdays throughout the year
23. At the end of Divine Services on Tuesday, the dismissal begins with the words: “May Christ our True God, through the intercessions of his most-pure Mother, of the honorable and glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John”
24. In Hinduism, Tuesday is also a popular for worshipping and praying to Hanuman, Durga, Kali, and Ganesh
25. Many Hindus fast during Tuesday
26. In the Greek world, Tuesday is considered an unlucky day
27. Because it is the day of the week of the Fall of Constantinople
28. The same is true in the Spanish-speaking world
29. It is believed that this is due to the association between Tuesday and Mars, the god of war and therefore related to death
30. For both Greeks and Spanish-speakers, the 13th of the month is considered unlucky if it falls on Tuesday, instead of Friday
31. In Judaism, on the other hand, Tuesday is considered a particularly lucky day
32. Because in the first chapter of Genesis the paragraph about this day contains the phrase “it was good” twice
33. In the Thai solar calendar, the day is named for the Pali word for the planet Mars, which also means “Ashes of the Dead”
34. The color associated with Tuesday is pink
35. In the folk rhyme Monday’s Child, “Tuesday’s child is full of grace”
36. Tuesday is the usual day for elections in the United States
37. Federal elections take place on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November
38. This date was established by a law of 1845 for presidential elections
39. Specifically for the selection of the Electoral College
40. It was extended to elections for the House of Representatives in 1875 and for the Senate in 1914
41. Tuesday was the earliest day of the week which was practical for polling in the early 19th century
42. Citizens might have to travel for a whole day to cast their vote, and would not wish to leave on Sunday which was a day of worship for the great majority of them
43. However, a bill was introduced in 2012 to move elections to weekends
44. With a co-sponsor stating that “by moving Election Day from a single day in the middle of the work week to a full weekend, we are encouraging more working Americans to participate. Our democracy will be best served when our leaders are elected by as many Americans as possible”
45. Video games are commonly released on Tuesdays in the United States
46. This fact often attributed to the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 “Sonic 2s day” marketing campaign in 1992
47. In addition, DVDs (also Blu-rays) are released on Tuesdays
48. Albums were typically released on Tuesdays as well, but this has changed to Fridays globally in 2015