Hansen/Curtis, 1/e, Ch



World History in Today's World: The Days of the Week

This activity corresponds to the "World History in Today's World: The Days of the Week" feature in your textbook. Once you have answered the Comprehension questions, submit your answers and move on to the subsequent questions included in the Analysis and Outside Sources sections. Each section is designed to build upon the one before it, taking you progressively deeper into the subject you are studying. After you have answered all of the questions, you will have the option of emailing your responses to your instructor.

Introduction

Calendars are revealing sources of information. How a society keeps time tells much about its beliefs and values. As this chapter's "World History in Today's World" feature suggests, the old Germanic calendar emphasized that culture's major deities, while Constantine's calendar featured important astronomical bodies. The links and questions below will help you to deepen your understanding of how calendars function(ed) in some of the societies you have studied or will encounter in later chapters.

Comprehension

1. For what Old Norse god is Thursday named? What was the significance of that god?

2. What god gave his name to Tuesday?

3. What is the origin of the days Sunday, Monday, and Saturday?

Analysis

1. Take a look at this comparative table of the Roman and Germanic days of the week at . What is the significance of Saturn/ Saturday in the Roman days of the week? Why do you think the Germanic days had no equivalent?

2. Go to and examine the calendar of Republican Rome. What do the names of the months mean, and what do those names tell you about the important moments in the Republican sense of time?

3. discusses the Julian Calendar. How did Julius Caesar reform the old Republican calendar? What later reforms turned the Julian Calendar into the one that is the basis of Western calendars?

4. At , read about the Old Icelandic calendar. What needs prompted the Viking Age Icelanders to develop their calendar? What role did the Icelandic environment play in that development?

Outside Sources

1. At , you can study detailed comparative tables of calendars from many world societies. How many calendars can you find that are based on the Julian Calendar?

2. Go to and study the Chinese and Japanese solar calendar. What ideas, beliefs, and/or practices does this calendar emphasize?

3. During the French Revolution (see Chapter 22 of your textbook), revolutionary leaders tried to break with the past by introducing a new calendar. You can learn more about this unique calendar at . How does this calendar resemble and differ from the calendars you have examined so far?

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download