Thursday!

Thursday is perfect for all your pagan celebrations. Named (in English, German and Scandinavian languages) for Thor, the god of lightning and big hammers, this day goes by many pagan names. In Roman languages this day is known as Jupiter's day, Jovis Dies, which became giovedi, jueves, and jeudi in Italian, Spanish, and French. In Hindu Thursday is Guruvaar which derives from Jupiter's name in Sanskrit. Whether culturally you prefer Thor or Jupiter you're still acknowledging the power of a really big tool and a bolt of lightning.

While the worlds "modern" religions celebrate their gods on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday the living earth still calls it's people to celebrate Thursday in older, more traditional ways. For example, Thursday is the best drinking and partying night of the week for those paganically inclined. You can meet new people on Thursday and be on the third date before the end of the weekend!

School taught me to party on Thursdays. In college, everyone went home weekends, leaving the campus deserted. So Thursday night was the time to hit the student pubs. Later in life I learned that weekends can start on Thursday evenings... provided the weekend enjoyer is willing to work Friday (part of the weekend). There's a certain evil pleasure in that moment when you know you're already up too late to get enough sleep for work, but you order another drink any way.

You can have a three-day weekend every week... if you want it hard enough.

Some cultures hold out. In Portugal they prefer to keep cleaner souls and so simply refer to Thursday as "fifth day". Quakers, from whom we more expect this piety, also keep time with Wednesday, fifth day, Friday. I wonder how they capitalise it? Fifth day? Fifth Day? Or do they eschew paper?

Douglas Adams knew that the world would eventually explode on a Thursday. And Last Thursdayism expounds that the world was actually created on a Thursday. Specifically, last Thursday.

In the UK this pagan holiday has it's place in evil tradition with all elections in the last 70 years held on Thursdays. And Thanksgiving in the U.S., their most pagan of pagan feast days, is always held on Thursdays. The fourth Thursday of the 11th month. Eleven, a one and a one. 1+1=2. Two and four?

Even the symbol for Jupiter gives away the true purpose of Thursday. The numbers two and four, together. As any Canadian can tell you, two-four is the universal term for a case of (24) beer. There's twenty four hours in every Thursday and twenty four beers in a case. Coincidence? Don't be so naive!

So the next time your work week feels endless. The next time you lament how boring your life seems. The next time you feel like you just can't make it one more day until Friday... cut loose, go wild, be pagan, and yell," Thank gods it's Thursday!"

.