"Monday's Child" is one of many fortune-telling songs, popular as nursery rhymes for children. It is supposed to tell a child's character or future from their day of birth and to help young children remember the seven days of the week. As with many nursery rhymes, there are many versions. It has a

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

number of 19526.

Lyrics

The following is a common modern version:

Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace. Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go. Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works hard for a living. But the child that is born on Sabbath day, Is bonny and blithe, good and gay.Iona Opie and Peter Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd ed., 1997), pp. 364–5.

Origins

This rhyme was first recorded in A. E. Bray's ''Traditions of Devonshire'' (Volume II, pp. 287–288) in 1838 and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-19th century. The tradition of fortune telling by days of birth is much older. Thomas Nashe recalled stories told to children in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

in the 1570s which included "what luck eurie 'every''one should have by the day of the weeke he was borne on". There was considerable variation and debate about the exact attributes of each day and even over the days. Halliwell had 'Christmas Day' instead of the Sabbath. Unlike modern versions in which "Wednesday's child is full of woe", an earlier incarnation of this rhyme appeared in a multi-part fictional story in a chapter appearing in '' Harper's Weekly'' on September 17, 1887, in which "Friday's child is full of woe", perhaps reflecting traditional superstitions associated with bad luck on Friday – as many Christians associated Friday with the Crucifixion. The fates of Thursday's and Saturday's children were also exchanged and Sunday's child is "happy and wise" instead of "blithe and good".

Legacy

In James Joyce's novel ''

Ulysses Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature. Ulysses may also refer to: People * Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name Places in the United States * Ulysses, Kansas * Ulysse ...

'', brothel worker Zoe Higgins quotes the line about Thursday's child to

Stephen Dedalus Stephen Dedalus is James Joyce's literary alter ego, appearing as the protagonist and antihero of his first, semi-autobiographic novel of artistic existence ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' (1916) and an important character in Joyce' ...

upon learning he was born on a Thursday, the same weekday on which the novel is set. The whole rhyme was later included by John Rutter for

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

choir in the collection ''

Five Childhood Lyrics ''Five Childhood Lyrics'' is a choral composition by John Rutter, who set five texts, poems and nursery rhymes, for four vocal parts (SATB with some divisi) a cappella. Rutter composed the work for the London Concord Singers who first performed t ...

'', first published in 1974.A performance on YouTube
/ref>

References

External links

Day of the week calculator
from Ancestor Search {{authority control English nursery rhymes Year of song unknown Songwriter unknown English folk songs English children's songs Traditional children's songs

Lyrics

Origins

Legacy

See also

References

External links