Monday's Child - Lecture Notes

Introduction to "Monday's Child"

• "Monday's Child" is a popular fortune-telling nursery rhyme for children.
• It tells a child's character or future based on their day of birth.
• Helps young children remember the seven days of the week.
• Roud Folk Song Index number: 19526.

Historical Context

• First printed source: 1836.
• Published in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1873.
• Songwriter: Unknown.

Common Modern Version

• Monday: Fair of face.
• Tuesday: Full of grace.
• Wednesday: Full of woe.
• Thursday: Has far to go.
• Friday: Loving and giving.
• Saturday: Works hard for a living.
• Sunday (Sabbath Day): Bonny, blithe, good, and gay.

Variants and Evolution

• First recorded by A. E. Bray in "Traditions of Devonshire" (1836).
• Collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-19th century.
• Variations:
  • Christmas Day version: "Fair and wise, good and gay."
  • Sunday and Christmas Day version: "Good and fair, and wise and gay."

Tradition of Fortune Telling

• Older tradition of fortune telling by birth days noted by Thomas Nashe in 1570s Suffolk.
• Variations existed with debates over attribute assignments for each day.

Variants in Literature

• An earlier version was published in Harper's Weekly in 1887:
  • Wednesday's child was "full of woe" and Friday's child "full of woe" in the older version.
  • Reflected traditional superstitions about Friday as unlucky (associated with Crucifixion).

Concise Variant

• Born on Monday: Fair in the face.
• Born on Tuesday: Full of God's grace.
• Born on Wednesday: Sour and sad.
• Born on Thursday: Merry and glad.
• Born on Friday: Worthily given.
• Born on Saturday: Work hard for a living.
• Born on Sunday: Will never know want.

Reverse Order Variant

• Begins with Sunday and ends with Saturday.
• Attributes in this version vary slightly from the common modern version.

Unrhymed Traditions from North-East England

• Sunday-born: Lives without anxiety, handsome.
• Monday-born: Certain to be killed.
• Tuesday-born: Sinful and perverse.
• Wednesday-born: Waspish in temper.
• Thursday-born: Peaceful, easy disposition, averse to women.
• Friday-born: Unlucky, silly, crafty, thief, coward; short life expectancy.
• Saturday-born: Renowned deeds, potential alderman, long life.

Mention in Literature

• Mentioned in James Joyce's "Ulysses" by brothel worker Zoe Higgins.

Inclusion in Music

• Included by John Rutter for a cappella choir in the collection Five Childhood Lyrics (1974).

Additional Resources

• Links to disambiguation pages for other similarly titled nursery rhymes.
• Day of the week calculator from Ancestor Search.