Birth lore · Your birthday
Your birthday · Mars
Born on a Tuesday
Tuesday's child is full of grace.
The name and its planet
The Romans called Tuesday the dies Martis, the day of Mars, which survives in French mardi, Italian martedì and Spanish martes. Germanic peoples matched the Roman war god with their own sky and war god Tiw (Old Norse Týr), giving Old English Tīwesdæg and English Tuesday (see Norse and Germanic religion). In Hindi it is Mangalavār, the day of Mangala, the planet Mars, and in Japanese Kayōbi, the "fire day". Greek calls it Triti, "the third", and Russian vtornik, "the second" day of the working week.
Born on a Tuesday
In the English rhyme "Tuesday's child is full of grace", a gentler verdict than the martial planet might suggest. Western astrology links Mars with energy, courage and quarrels. Among the Akan of Ghana a Tuesday-born boy is Kwabena (Kobina) and a girl Abena. In Thailand Tuesday's colour is pink, and the Tuesday Buddha image is the reclining Buddha at the moment of his passing into nirvana. Burmese astrology assigns the Tuesday-born the lion.
Lore and observance
Tuesday has an unlucky reputation in several Mediterranean cultures. Greeks remember that Constantinople fell to the Ottomans on Tuesday 29 May 1453, and a Spanish proverb advises "en martes, ni te cases ni te embarques": on a Tuesday, neither marry nor set sail. In Hindu practice Tuesday is widely devoted to Hanuman, and some devotees fast on that day. In the Christian calendar Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras or "Fat Tuesday", is the last feast before the fasting season of Lent. In Vedic astrology Mangala is considered a strong and potentially harsh planet, and Tuesday is often avoided for beginning gentle undertakings.