The Rivers of Life

“So the planets, the Roman gods and the days of the week are all connected?” “Certainly. When we look up at the sky, there are seven heavenly bodies humanity can see with the naked eye. They are the Sun, the Moon, and the planets Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn – and it’s interesting to note that in some languages we also find this sequence in the days of the week.” “Like Italian and Spanish?” “Exactly. So seven is the number of heavenly bodies we can see without needing a telescope.” “That’s really cool,” the children said. “I think so too. Take a look at what the other days mean in French later. And in English, Sunday pays tribute to the Sun; the Moon lent its name to Monday; and Saturday is named after Saturn. The other days of the week – Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – were named after the Germanic Gods Tiw, Woden, Thunor and Frig. Let’s look online to see where the name for Wednesday comes from. Turn on the computer and let’s take a look.” “It’s on,” Maria said. “So type in the word ‘Wednesday’ and see what comes up.” “But mom, which of these links should I choose?” Pedro wanted to know. “Ask yourself which of this information can help you better understand what you’re searching for.” “Okay, I’ll click on this one, then,” the boy said. “Read what it says,” the mother asked. “Mom, it says here that ‘Wednesday’ also refers to the God Mercury, and that Mercury is the water planet. It also says that in Portuguese, Wednesday is called quarta-feira because it’s the fourth day after the Sun. And it was also on the fourth day when God created the Moon and the Sun. In Japan and Korea, it seems they consider Wednesday to be the day of water. Interesting, isn’t it?” the daughter noted. “Very interesting, honey. And they say, again, that in Korea and Japan, they also place the Moon on Monday, as is the case in the languages we were talking about before, but they named the other days after the five natural elements: water, tree (for the element of wood), fire, gold (for metal), and earth.” “What are the five elements, mom? How do they work?” Pedro wanted to understand more. “Alright, since you’re asking… For many Eastern cultures, the five elements are important forces within our planet and also within our bodies. When they’re in balance, everything works smoothly. Go online and run an image search for ‘five elements’. Let’s see what comes up.” “Look, mom, there’s a diagram showing how each element connects with the others,” the girl pointed out. “Exactly. This concept shows that, for a great deal of Easterners, many things in our planet and also in our body work more or less like this: Wood feeds Fire. Fire turns it into ash and thereby feeds Earth. Earth strengthens Metal, which flows into Water and strengthens it, and which, in turn, feeds Wood. Look at this graphic and what it shows. For example, when Water is in balance, it transmits feelings of confidence and tranquility. On the other hand, when the Water element is in imbalance, it creates fear and insecurity. These elements exist in our planet as well as in our body, and they need to remain in balance so that everything can flow smoothly. Later you can read more about this topic, and about the smaller variations of the five elements, but the general idea is that the energy flows and they are connected. Interlinked. What happens in one place on someone’s body or on the planet influences other organs or other places. It’s important to remember these principles, because much of Eastern philosophy is based on them.” “The five elements of the Earth, the planets, the people and the days of the week, all connected,” Maria concluded. “Exactly. And, in Vietnam, they put the word sao, meaning ‘star’, before the name of each planet and its element. Presto: Venus is Sao Kim, the metal star.” “They say sao? That’s similar to what we call the saints in Portuguese,” Maria reflected. “It is, honey.” “The saints, the stars and Vietnam,” Pedro mentioned. “Pedro, Vietnam was one of the few Asian countries that converted to a western script. They write using our alphabet. So when you get there and look at the street signs, they’re written using the letters of our alphabet, and that makes it easier to pronounce the words. Interesting, isn’t it? To name the days of the week, they adopted, for most days, a sequence similar to the Portuguese system. Meanwhile, China has gone through many changes and today the system they use is numbered, but also refers to the stars. There’s so much we can learn, isn’t there?” “Now that you mention it, where does the Portuguese system come from, mom?” the son asked. After all, there were so many names and places, it was hard to keep up. “Our Portuguese also followed a numbered system, similar to these countries we’ve just mentioned. But it also made other combinations. And it also adds the word feira to the names of the weekdays. I think at one point the people used to say feria, but over time that turned into feira, which alludes to ‘party’. If you start counting on Sunday, then segunda-feira, Monday, is the second day, and so on: terça, Tuesday, is the third day; quarta, Wednesday, is the fourth day… Something else that’s interesting is that Portuguese logic is, shall we say, different. It’s possible that some other part of the world does the same, I don’t know.” “What do you mean?” the children asked. “Our word for Saturday, sábado, is similar to the Jewish Shabbat and the Arabic as Sabt.” “Does Arabic also follow this number system?” the children wanted to know. “Yes, it does. And they start counting right with Sunday, which is day number one. But Friday gets a different name, al-Jum’ah, which means ‘the day when people gather together’. In the past, their weekends took place on Thursday and Friday, but today, because of the connections between the Eastern and Western worlds in many places with an Arabic influence, it’s changed to Friday and Saturday.”