Monday

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Monday (pron. IPA Template:IPA or Template:IPA) is considered either the first or the second day of the week, between Sunday and Tuesday. It gets its name from Mani (Old English Mona), the Germanic Moon god. Similarly, the French name (lundi) and the Spanish name (lunes) come from the Latin name for the moon, Luna.

In India, Monday is Somvar. It is based on Soma or Somdev Vedic God of Moon.

Monday is often held to be the first day of the week. This is the case in most of Europe, Australia, parts of Africa, and South America. In Asia – because the western calendar system was introduced only during the 20th century – many languages refer to Monday as the "day of the beginning". For example, Monday is xingqi yi (星期一) in Chinese, meaning day one of the week. The wage labour oriented, international standard ISO 8601 also defines Monday as the first day of the week.

According to the Judeo-Christian count, Monday is the second day. This is the traditional view in Canada and the United States. The name for the day in Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew and Portuguese is "second day". Quakers also traditionally refer to Monday as "Second Day" eschewing the pagan origin of the English name "Monday". For similar reasons the official liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church refers to Monday as "Feria II".

Modern culture usually looks at Monday as the beginning of the workweek, as it is typically Monday when adults go back to work and children back to school after the weekend. Thus, Mondays are often seen as a misfortune. In Middle Eastern countries, however, the beginning of the workweek is usually Saturday (Thursday and Friday are observed as the weekend). In Israel, Sunday is the first day of the workweek. Friday is half a work day and Friday Night and Saturday are the Sabbath.

In 2002 the professional services firm PwC sold off its management consulting division. For a brief period the newly independent firm was to be called "Monday". According to the advertising campaign that supported the launch this name was associated with "crisp, white shirts", and "fresh coffee"; a clean, fresh, ready-to-work image. The proposed name was greeted with derision in the media; fortunately for the employees, computer giant IBM stepped in with a winning offer one week later, and the firm became IBM's own consulting division.

Mondays are also attributed to the colloquial "illness" Mondayitis (also known as having a case of "The Mondays"). A possible cause of Mondayitis is that human circadian rhythms are incompatible with the normal 35 to 40-hour working week.

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