Birth lore · Your birthday
Your birthday · Jupiter
Born on a Thursday
Thursday's child has far to go.
The name and its planet
The Roman dies Iovis, Jupiter's day, became French jeudi, Italian giovedì and Spanish jueves. Germanic peoples matched Jupiter, the sky god who wields the thunderbolt, with their own thunder god Thor or Thunor, giving Old English Þunresdæg, English Thursday and German Donnerstag, "thunder's day". In Hindi Thursday is Guruvār or Brihaspativār, after Brihaspati, the teacher of the gods and the planet Jupiter, and in Japanese it is Mokuyōbi, the "wood day". Greek counts it Pempti, "the fifth", and Russian chetverg, "the fourth".
Born on a Thursday
The rhyme says "Thursday's child has far to go", which may mean a long and successful journey rather than a hard one. Western astrology gives Jupiter generosity, wisdom, good fortune and expansion. Among the Akan of Ghana a Thursday-born boy is Yaw (Ekow) and a girl Yaa (Aba). In Thailand Thursday's colour is orange and its Buddha image shows him seated in meditation; because Jupiter is the teacher among the planets, Thai schools traditionally hold their wai khru ceremony honouring teachers on a Thursday. Burmese astrology gives the Thursday-born the rat.
Lore and observance
In Christian tradition Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, and Ascension Day falls on the fortieth day after Easter, always a Thursday. In the United States Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November. Many Hindus worship Brihaspati or Vishnu on Thursdays and wear yellow, the planet's colour in Vedic astrology. The Thor association made Thursday an important day in some Scandinavian folk traditions, when certain kinds of work were avoided. In Western magic Jupiter's day is linked with tin, prosperity and the law (see Astral magic).