Saturday is the

day of the week In many languages, the names given to the seven days of the week are derived from the names of the classical planets in Hellenistic astronomy, which were in turn named after contemporary deities, a system introduced by the Sumerians and late ...

between

Friday Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. In countries that adopt the traditional "Sunday-first" convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In countries adopting the ISO-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth d ...

and Sunday. No later than the

2nd century The 2nd century is the period from 101 ( CI) through 200 ( CC) in accordance with the Julian calendar. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. Early in the century, the Roman Empire attained its greatest e ...

, the Romans named Saturday ("Saturn's Day") for the planet Saturn, which controlled the first hour of that day, according to

Vettius Valens Vettius Valens (120 – c. 175) was a 2nd-century Hellenistic astrologer, a somewhat younger contemporary of Claudius Ptolemy. Valens' major work is the ''Anthology'' ( la, Anthologia), ten volumes in Greek written roughly within the period 150 t ...

. The day's name was introduced into

West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into ...

and is recorded in the Low German languages such as

Middle Low German Middle Low German or Middle Saxon (autonym: ''Sassisch'', i.e. " Saxon", Standard High German: ', Modern Dutch: ') is a developmental stage of Low German. It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented i ...

, ''saterdach'',

Middle Dutch Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or c. 1550, there was no overarc ...

(Modern Dutch ) and Old English , ''Sæterndæġ'' or .

Origins

Between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

gradually replaced the eight-day Roman

nundinal cycle The nundinae (), sometimes anglicized to nundines,. were the market days of the ancient Roman calendar, forming a kind of weekend including, for a certain period, rest from work for the ruling class (patricians). The nundinal cycle, market w ...

with the seven-day week. The astrological order of the days was explained by

and Dio Cassius (and

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

gave the same explanation in his ''

Treatise on the Astrolabe ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' is a medieval instruction manual on the astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer. It describes both the form and the proper use of the instrument, and stands out as a prose technical work from a writer better known for poet ...

''). According to these authors, it was a principle of

astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

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 The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and e ...

adapted the system introduced by the Romans but glossed their indigenous gods over the Roman deities in a process known as ''

interpretatio germanica Interpretatio germanica is the practice by the Germanic peoples of identifying Roman gods with the names of Germanic deities. According to Rudolf Simek, this occurred around the 1st century AD, when both cultures came into closer contact. Name ...

''. In the case of Saturday, however, the Roman name was borrowed directly by West Germanic peoples, apparently because none of the Germanic gods were considered to be counterparts of the Roman god Saturn. Otherwise

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

and

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

did not borrow the name of the Roman god (Icelandic , German ). In the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...

, Saturdays are days on which the Theotokos (

Mother of God ''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or ''Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations ar ...

) and All Saints are commemorated, and the day on which

prayers for the dead Religions with the belief in a future judgment, a resurrection of the dead or a purgatory often offer prayers on behalf of the dead to God. Buddhism For most funerals that follow the tradition of Chinese Buddhism, common practices include chantin ...

are especially offered, in remembrance that it was on a Saturday that Jesus lay dead in the

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...

. The

Octoechos Oktōēchos (here transcribed "Octoechos"; Greek: ;The feminine form exists as well, but means the book octoechos. from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́с� ...

contains hymns on these themes, arranged in an eight-week cycle, that are chanted on Saturdays throughout the year. At the end of services on Saturday, the dismissal begins with the words: "May Christ our True God, through the

intercession Intercession or intercessory prayer is the act of praying to a deity on behalf of others, or asking a saint in heaven to pray on behalf of oneself or for others. The Apostle Paul's exhortation to Timothy specified that intercession prayers s ...

s of his most-pure Mother, of the holy, glorious and right victorious

Martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

s, of our reverend and God-bearing

Fathers A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fath ...

…". For the Orthodox, Saturday — with the sole exception of

Holy Saturday Holy Saturday ( la, Sabbatum Sanctum), also known as Great and Holy Saturday (also Holy and Great Saturday), the Great Sabbath, Hallelujah Saturday (in Portugal and Brazil), Saturday of the Glory, Sabado de Gloria, and Black Saturday or Easter ...

— is never a strict fast day. When a Saturday falls during one of the fasting seasons ( Great Lent,

Nativity Fast In Christianity, the Nativity Fast—or Fast of the Prophets in Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church—is a period of abstinence and penance practiced by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church a ...

, Apostles' Fast,

Dormition Fast The Dormition of the Mother of God is a Great Feast of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches (except the East Syriac churches). It celebrates the "falling asleep" (death) of Mary the '' Theotokos'' ("Mother o ...

) the fasting rules are always lessened to an extent. The

Great Feast In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the feast of the Resurrection of Jesus, called Pascha (Easter), is the greatest of all holy days and as such it is called the "feast of feasts". Immediately below it in importance, there is a group of Twelve Great Fe ...

of the

Exaltation of the Cross In the Christian liturgical calendar, there are several different Feasts of the Cross, all of which commemorate the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus. Unlike Good Friday, which is dedicated to the passion of Christ and the crucifixion, these ...

and the

Beheading of St. John the Baptist The beheading of John the Baptist, also known as the decollation of Saint John the Baptist or the beheading of the Forerunner, is a biblical event commemorated as a holy day by various Christian churches. According to the New Testament, Herod ...

are normally observed as strict fast days, but if they fall on a Saturday or Sunday, the fast is lessened.

Name and associations

Today, Saturday has two names in modern Standard German. The first word, , is always used in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarch ...

, and the German-speaking part of Switzerland, and generally used in southern and western

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It derives from

, the first part (''sambaz'') of which derives from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, and this Greek word derives from

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, . However, the current German word for Sabbath is . The second name for Saturday in German is , which derives from Old High German , and is closely related to the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

word . It means literally "Sun eve", i.e., "The day before Sunday". is generally used in northern and eastern Germany, and was also the official name for Saturday in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. Even if these two names are used regionally differently, they are usually understood at least passively in the other part. In West Frisian there are also two words for Saturday. In Wood Frisian it is , and in Clay Frisian it is , derived from , a combination of Old Frisian , meaning ''sun'' and ''joen'', meaning eve. In the

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

n dialects of Low Saxon, in

East Frisian Low Saxon East Frisian Low German or East Frisian Low Saxon is one of the Northern Low Saxon dialects, a West Low German dialect spoken in the East Frisian peninsula of northwestern Lower Saxony. It is used quite frequently in everyday speech there. Ab ...

and in the

Saterland Frisian language Saterland Frisian, also known as Sater Frisian, Saterfrisian or Saterlandic (), is the last living dialect of the East Frisian language. It is closely related to the other Frisian languages: North Frisian, spoken in Germany as well, and West Fri ...

, Saturday is called , also akin to

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, which has the same linguistic roots as the English word ''Saturday''. It was formerly thought that the English name referred to a deity named ''Sætere'' who was venerated by the pre-Christian peoples of north-western Germany, some of whom were the ancestors of the

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

. Sætere was identified as either a god associated with the harvest of possible

Slav Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

origin, or another name for Loki a complex deity associated with both good and evil; this latter suggestion may be due to Jacob Grimm. However, modern dictionaries derive the name from ''Saturn''. In most

languages of India Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes known ...

, Saturday is , meaning day, based on

Shani Shani ( sa, शनि, ), or Shanaishchara ( sa, शनैश्चर, ), refers to the divine personification of the planet Saturn in Hinduism, and is one of the nine heavenly objects (Navagraha) in Hindu astrology. Shani is also a male Hind ...

, the

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...

god manifested in the planet Saturn. In the

Thai solar calendar The Thai solar calendar ( th, ปฏิทินสุริยคติ, , "solar calendar") was adopted by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) in 1888 CE as the Siamese version of the Gregorian calendar, replacing the Thai lunar calendar as the lega ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, the day is named from the

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

word for Saturn, and the color associated with Saturday is

purple Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, ...

. In

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

, Saturday is , meaning the week. In Eastern Indian languages like Bengali Saturday is called , meaning Saturn's Day and is the first day of the Bengali Week in the

Bengali calendar The Bengali Calendar or Bangla Calendar ( bn, বঙ্গাব্দ , , Baṅgābda), colloquially ( bn, বাংলা সন, Baṅgla Śon), is a solar calendar used in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent. A revised version of th ...

. In

Islamic countries The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In ...

, Fridays are considered as the last or penultimate day of the week and are holidays along with

Thursday Thursday is the day of the week between Wednesday and Friday. According to the ISO 8601 international standard, it is the fourth day of the week. In countries which adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is the fifth day of the week. Name ''Se ...

s or Saturdays; Saturday is called , (cognate to Sabbath) and it is the first day of the week in many

Arab countries The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western As ...

but the Last Day in other Islamic countries such as

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...

, Central Asian countries. In

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, the word Saturday is , , meaning 'soil day' and is associated with , : Saturn (the planet), literally meaning "soil star". Similarly, in

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

the word Saturday is , , also meaning earth day. The element Earth was associated with the planet Saturn in Chinese astrology and philosophy. The modern

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

name for Saturday, , literally means "washing-day" – a vestige of early colonized life when Māori converts would set aside time on the Saturday to wash their whites for Church on Sunday. A common alternative Māori name for Saturday is the transliteration .

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

traditionally referred to Saturday as "Seventh Day", eschewing the " pagan" origin of the name. In

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

n countries, Saturday is called , , or , the name being derived from the old word '' laugr/laug'' (hence Icelandic name ), meaning bath, thus ''Lördag'' equates to bath-day. This is due to the

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

practice of bathing on Saturdays. The roots ''lör'', ''laugar'' and so forth are cognate to the English word ''

lye A lye is a metal hydroxide traditionally obtained by leaching wood ashes, or a strong alkali which is highly soluble in water producing caustic basic solutions. "Lye" most commonly refers to sodium hydroxide (NaOH), but historically has been u ...

'', in the sense of detergent. The

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

and Estonian names for the day, and , respectively, are also derived from this term.

Position in the week

The international standard

ISO 8601 ISO 8601 is an international standard covering the worldwide exchange and communication of date and time-related data. It is maintained by the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and was first published in 1988, w ...

sets Saturday as the sixth day of the week. The three

Abrahamic religions The Abrahamic religions are a group of religions centered around worship of the God of Abraham. Abraham, a Hebrew patriarch, is extensively mentioned throughout Abrahamic religious scriptures such as the Bible and the Quran. Jewish tradition ...

(

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, and Islam) regard Saturday as the seventh

. As a result, many refused the ISO 8601 standards and continue to use Saturday as their seventh day.

Saturday Sabbath

For

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, Messianics, Seventh Day Baptists and

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

s, the seventh day of the week, known as Shabbat (or Sabbath for Seventh-day Adventists), stretches from sundown Friday to nightfall Saturday and is the day of rest.

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

and

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...

churches distinguish between Saturday (Sabbath) and the

Lord's Day The Lord's Day in Christianity is generally Sunday, the principal day of communal worship. It is observed by most Christians as the weekly memorial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is said in the canonical Gospels to have been witnessed ...

(Sunday). Other Protestant groups, such as Seventh-day Adventists, hold that the Lord's Day is the Sabbath, according to the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:8), and not Sunday.

Astrology

, Saturn is associated with Saturday, its planet's symbol Saturn symbol (fixed width)

, and the astrological signs Capricorn and

Aquarius Aquarius may refer to: Astrology * Aquarius (astrology), an astrological sign * Age of Aquarius, a time period in the cycle of astrological ages Astronomy * Aquarius (constellation) * Aquarius in Chinese astronomy Arts and entertainme ...

In popular culture

Regional customs

* In most countries, Saturday is a weekend day (see

workweek The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays (British English), or workweek (American English), is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most of t ...

). * In Australia, elections must take place on a Saturday. * In

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, Saturday is the official Shabbat, day of rest, on which all government offices and most businesses, including some public transportation, are closed. * In Nepal, Saturday is the last day of the week and is the only official weekly holiday. * In New Zealand, Saturday is the only day on which elections can be held. * In Sweden and Norway, Saturday has usually been the only day of the week when especially younger children are allowed to eat sweets, in Swedish Language, Swedish and in Norwegian Language, Norwegian. This tradition was introduced to limit dental caries, utilizing the results of the infamous Vipeholm experiments between 1945–1955. (See festivities in Sweden.) * In the U.S. state of Louisiana, Saturday is the preferred election day.

Slang

* The amount of criminal activities that take place on Saturday nights has led to the expression, "Saturday night special", a pejorative slang term used in the United States and Canada for any inexpensive handgun.

Arts, entertainment, and media

Comics and periodicals

* ''Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal'' is a single-panel webcomic by Zach Weiner. * ''The Saturday Evening Post'' * ''Saturday Night (magazine)'' (Canada) * ''Saturday Night Magazine (U.S.)''

Films

* The association of Saturday night with comedy shows on television lent its name to the film ''Mr. Saturday Night'', starring Billy Crystal. * It is common for clubs, bars and restaurants to be open later on Saturday night than on other nights. Thus "Saturday Night" has come to imply the party scene, and has lent its name to the films ''Saturday Night Fever'', which showcased New York City, New York discotheques, ''Uptown Saturday Night'', as well as many songs (see below).

Folk rhymes and folklore

* In the folk rhyme ''Monday's Child'', "Saturday's child works hard for a living". * In another rhyme reciting the days of the week, Solomon Grundy (nursery rhyme), Solomon Grundy "Died on Saturday". * In folklore, Saturday was the preferred day to hunt vampires, because on that day they were restricted to their coffins. It was also believed in the Balkans that someone born on Saturday could see a vampire when it was otherwise invisible, and that such people were particularly apt to become vampire hunters. Accordingly, in this context, people born on Saturday were specially designated as in

In and in Bulgarian language, Bulgarian; the term has been rendered in English as "Week-day names#Weekdays numbered from Monday, Sabbatarians".

Music

;Groups * The Saturdays is a female pop group ;Songs * The music of Nigeria, Nigerian popular song "''Bobo Waro Fero Satodeh''" ("Everybody Loves Saturday Night") became internationally famous in the 1950s and was sung translated into many languages * Saturday (Fall Out Boy song), "Saturday" (Fall Out Boy song) from the album ''Take This to Your Grave'' * Saturday (Kids in Glass Houses song), "Saturday" (Kids in Glass Houses song) from the album ''Smart Casual'' * "Saturday in the Park (song), Saturday in the Park" is a song by Chicago (band), Chicago * "Saturday Night" is a song by the Misfits (band), Misfits from ''Famous Monsters'' * "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" is an Elton John song * "One More Saturday Night (song), One More Saturday Night" is a Grateful Dead song.

Television

* Saturday-morning cartoon, Saturday morning is a notable television time block aimed at children while generally airing animated cartoons, although in the United States this has generally been phased out due to American television regulations E/I, requiring educational content be aired, along with Saturday outside activities for children * Saturday night is also a popular time slot for comedy shows on television in the US. The most famous of these is ''Saturday Night Live'', a sketch comedy show that has aired on NBC nearly every week since 1975. Other notable examples include ''Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell''. * The Grand Final of the popular pan-European TV show, ''Eurovision Song Contest'', has always aired on a Saturday in May. * Saturday evenings are a time slot in the United Kingdom, devoted to popular TV shows such as ''Strictly Come Dancing'', ''The Voice UK'', and ''The X Factor (UK), The X Factor''. Many family game shows, for example ''Total Wipeout'' and ''Hole in the Wall'', also air on a Saturday evening.

Video Games

*''Saturday Night Slam Masters'' – Published by Capcom Wrestling, 1993 video game *''Saturday Morning RPG''

Sports

* In the United Kingdom, Saturday is the day most domestic fixtures of football are played. * In the United States, most regular season college football games are played on Saturday. Saturday is also a common day for college basketball games.

References

{{Authority control Saturday, Days of the week, 6 Saturday Eastern Christian liturgy