The English word “Friday” is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Frigedaeg, meaning “Venus day” (Friga = Venus + dae = day), and many other languages also trace their names for Friday from root words meaning “Venus day.
Several ancient civilizations practiced Venus worship in some form or another, and surprisingly veneration of the planet has persisted until modern times. It has been suggested that human sacrifices were offered to the planet as late as the nineteenth century by Polynesian cultures and the Skidi Pawnee Indians in North America.
