Saturday (Samedi)

Baron Samedi takes his name from the French word for “Saturday”, although there is no known etymology for the term, in as far as the particular reason why that’s his name. Saturday is the only day of the week that takes its name from Roman mythology; the term original was “Saturn’s day”. Saturn was the Roman god of agriculture. Although a few major cultures had a different name for the day, based on the gods oof their religion, Saturday is still the name used by the majority of the globe for the day between Friday and Sunday. Despite the origins of the term, Christianity still had its way in creating their own reasoning behind the etymology.

The Jews for example, recognized Saturday as the Shabbat, or Sabbath, while Sunday was still known as the Lord’s Day. Thus it was reasoned by the Judeo-Christian world, that Saturday was not for Saturn at all, but meant Sabbath day, –despite an obvious lack of vocabulary synchronization. The words both started with S, and so that was all the cause they needed to justify their decision to keep Saturday the current term. This actually might be part of the etymology behind Baron Samedi’s name.

Vodou is a faith that combines Judeo-Christian traditions with African traditions and religions, and so if Saturday is a Sabbath day for one group, it is still a associated enough with the other to remain a holy day. The Baron Samedi loa is part of a group of gods or spirits called the Ghede, which primarily are concerned with death, and funeral traditions. Because death is an event which is sacred to all religions, it is also closely tied to the gods. In this instance, as a funeral and death concerned deity, perhaps synonymous with Baron Samedi, is “Baron Sabbath”, despite his numerous characteristics that are quite opposite to anything Christ-like.