 thumb|saturnus, caravaggio, 16th century saturday ( or ) is the day of the week following friday and preceding sunday. saturday is the seventh and therefore last day of the week according to many commonly used calendars, and it is the second-to-last (sixth) day of the week according to iso 8601 (see below). the romans named saturday dies saturni ("saturn's day") no later than the 2nd century for the planet saturn, which controlled the first hour of that day, according to vettius valens. when the day's name was introduced into english and other germanic languages, however, the name was selected as a calque of the god saturn, after whom the planet was named. the name was introduced into english no later than the tenth century, when the day was referred to as "sÃ¦ternes dÃ¦ge" in an old english translation of bede's ecclesiastical history of the english people., entry "saturday, n. and adv., a. n. in old english, the name was sunnanÃ¦fen ("sun" + "eve")., entry "sunnight n, (and adv.)", with the note "also in the dative with adverbial force". ==origins in antiquity==  200 px|framed|right|saturday is named after the planet saturn, which in turn was named after the roman god saturn between the 1st and 3rd centuries ad, the roman empire gradually replaced the eight-day roman nundinal cycle with the seven-day week. the astrological order of the days was explained by vettius valens and dio cassius (and chaucer gave the same explanation in his treatise on the astrolabe). according to these authors, it was a principle of astrology that the heavenly bodies presided, in succession, over the hours of the day. the association of the weekdays with the respective deities is thus indirect, the days are named for the planets, which were in turn named for the deities. the germanic peoples adapted the system introduced by the romans but glossed their indigenous gods over the roman deities in a process known as interpretatio germanica. in the case of saturday, however, the roman name was borrowed directly, apparently because none of the germanic gods were considered to be counterparts of the roman god saturn. in the eastern orthodox church saturdays are days on which the theotokos (mother of god) and all saints are commemorated, the day is also a general day of prayer for the dead, because it was on a saturday that jesus is believed by some to have laid dead in the tomb. the [[octoechos (liturgy
Days_of_the_week Eastern_Christian_liturgy Saturday