Born on a Friday

The name and its planet

The Roman dies Veneris, Venus's day, survives in French vendredi, Italian venerdì and Spanish viernes. The Germanic peoples matched Venus with Frigg, Odin's wife, giving Old English Frīgedæg and English Friday; whether Frigg or the similar goddess Freyja lies behind the name is debated, and the two may once have been closely linked. In Hindi it is Shukravār, the day of Shukra, the planet Venus, and in Japanese Kin'yōbi, the "metal" or "gold day". Arabic calls it al-Jumu'ah, "the day of gathering".

Born on a Friday

In the rhyme "Friday's child is loving and giving", which fits the planet of love and beauty. Among the Akan of Ghana a Friday-born boy is Kofi and a girl Afua (Efua); the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, born on Friday 8 April 1938, carried his day name. In Thailand Friday's colour is light blue and its Buddha image shows him standing with arms crossed in contemplation. Burmese astrology gives the Friday-born the guinea pig. In some English folklore, notably from Somerset, a "chime child", born during the hours when church bells chimed, and especially on a Friday, was said to see spirits.

Lore and observance

In Islam Friday noon brings the congregational prayer, the jumu'ah, with its sermon (see The five pillars of Islam). For Christians it is the weekday of the Crucifixion, remembered above all on Good Friday, and many have kept Friday as a day of fasting or abstinence from meat since the early Church. In English sea lore it was unlucky to begin a voyage on a Friday. The fear of Friday the 13th is much more recent, documented mainly from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In Western magic Friday belongs to Venus, copper and love.