Fun facts about Tuesdays
“He respects Owl, because you can’t help respecting anybody who can spell Tuesday even if he doesn’t spell it right” ~ AA Milne
Tuesday, to the majority of us, is simply known as the day of the week after Monday and before Wednesday. But there is much, much more to this day. For example, did you know that Tuesday is also known as the most productive day of the working week? According to a survey from Accountemps, almost half of the 150 executives that participated in a poll, identified Tuesday as the day that their employees were most productive. They reported that a Tuesday will always beat a Monday because the first day of the working week tends to be filled with more meetings. The worst day for productivity, not surprisingly, is reported to be a Friday.
Tuesday is named after Tiw, the Norse god of single combat, victory and glory, and Tiw is associated with Mars, the Roman god of war, hence the day being known as ‘Mardi’ in French, ‘Martes’ in Spanish and ‘Martedi’ in Italian.
Tuesday is considered to be an unlucky day in the Greek and Spanish-speaking worlds. For both these nationalities, the thirteenth of the month is considered unlucky if it falls on a Tuesday and not a Friday. In Judaism, however, this day is considered a particularly lucky day… why? Because in Genesis Chapter 1, the paragraph about the day Tuesday contains the words “it was good”, twice.
In the USA, Black Tuesday refers to Tuesday 29th October 1929, part of the great Stock Market Crash, a crash which is said to have marked the start of the Great Depression. On a lighter note, Super Tuesday is the day which many states in the USA hold their Presidential primary elections.
Patch Tuesday is so-called because it is the second Tuesday of every month when Microsoft releases patches for their products. And Shrove Tuesday (also known as Mardi Gras (fat Tuesday)), precedes the first day of Lent in the Western Christian calendar.
In the famous rhyme Monday’s Child, Tuesday’s child is “full of grace” and, in Khmer and Thai traditions, the day is associated with the colour pink (traditionally, there are astrological rules that assign colours for each day of the week, based on the colour of the God who protects the day). Christmas Eve also falls less often on a Tuesday than any other day of the week (under the rules of the Gregorian calendar).
Actress Tuesday Weld was born Susan Ker Weld but legally changed her name to Tuesday in 1959 as an expanded form of Tu-Tu, the name given by her young cousin who couldn’t pronounce Susan. She was not, however, born on a Tuesday but on a Friday!
Material sourced from Wikipedia