Day of the week | Date | Holidays and observances |
---|---|---|
Wednesday | December 18th, 2024 | Roast Suckling Pig Day International Migrants Day Arabic Language Day |
Wednesday | December 25th, 2024 | Christmas |
Wednesday | January 1st, 2025 | Public Domain Day World Hangover Day New Year's Day |
Wednesday | January 8th, 2025 | Earth’s Rotation Day Clean Off Your Desk Day Elvis Presley Day |
Wednesday | January 15th, 2025 | Wikipedia Day Bagel Day Martin Luther King Day Robert E. Lee Day |
Wednesday in Modern Culture
Even though in most countries of the world Wednesday is not perceived as the middle of the week, it is usually the middle of a typical work week. This is why in North America it is often called “hump day”. However, Wednesday is also associated with fasting in the Eastern Orthodox Church – on that day throughout the year, with several exceptions, people are not allowed to eat meat, poultry, and dairy products. Western Christians, on the other hand, observe Ash Wednesday as the beginning of Lent – a 40-day period of fasting that ends before Easter Sunday. On that day religious leaders place ashes on the believers’ foreheads as a symbol of repentance. The Wednesday before Easter is also known as “Spy Wednesday”, which refers to Judas’s betrayal of Jesus. Wednesday is definitely an important day of the week for all football lovers – it is traditionally the day of the Champions League matches. Another important Wednesday in the modern culture is known as Red Wednesday. This name can actually be connected with two observations: 1) the Yezidi festival celebrated in Iraq; 2) an event observed by religious institutions that draws attention to the persecution and oppression of Christians.
Historical Wednesdays
There were some Wednesdays in the history of the world that will be remembered as special. One of them was July 20, 1969, when the Apollo 11 mission had started – a successful mission aiming at landing the first men on the Moon. In the same year, on October 29, the University of California, Los Angeles, has sent the first message through the ARPANET – the forefather of the Internet. On May 10, 1797, the first U.S. Navy Ship,” The United States,” was launched. In Australia, however, there was one Wednesday that brought a lot of damage to the country. On February 16, 1983, a series of over 100 bushfires had started there. 75 people were killed, over 2,600 were injured, and nearly 9,000 homes were damaged.
Did you know?
There was a character in the Addams Family films called Wednesday Addams. This name is connected with the nursery rhyme Monday’s Child, which says “Wednesday’s child is full of woe.” In Burma, on the other hand, when a child is born on a Wednesday before midday, it is traditionally given a name starting with one of four letters of the alphabet known as Boudehunan.