Names of the days of the week the "first day". This convention is also found in some Austronesian languages whose speakers were converted to Christianity by European missionaries. In Slavic languages, some of the names correspond to numerals after Sunday: compare Russian "vtornik" "Tuesday" and "vtoroj" "the following", "chetverg" "Thursday" and "chetvertyj" "the fourth", "pyatnitsa" "Friday" and "pyatyj" "the fifth"; see also the Notes. In Standard Chinese, the week is referred to as the cycle of the stars (). The modern Chinese names for the days of the week are based on a simple numerical sequence. The word for "week" (which is literally translated to "star day")
Eight-day week Eight-day week Some historical calendars had "weeks" of eight days. In the Burmese version of Theravada Buddhism, the week has eight days. Wednesday is divided into Wednesday proper (midnight to noon) and Rahu (noon to midnight). Each day is associated with a compass direction, a planet, and a totem animal. The ancient Etruscans developed an eight-day market week known as the nundinum around the 8th or 7th century BC. This was passed on to the Romans no later than the 6th century BC. As Rome expanded, it encountered the seven-day week and for a time attempted to include both. The