Monday’s Child is a traditional fortune-telling for kids and, along with Solomon Grundy, it is one great song for teaching children the days of the week.
Monday’s Child lyrics were first published in the second volume of “The Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy” (1836) “Traditions, legends, superstitions, and Sketches of Devonshire” (1838) by the British novelist Anna Eliza Bray.
Fortune-telling tradition is dating back to 1570’s England. The Sunday is missing in the song as that time it was referred to as Sabbath day. In the 1840s the song was included in James Orchard Halliwell’s book English Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales. In this version Sunday or Sabbath day was replaced with Christmas Day.
Each day’s prediction has varied over the years. For instance some superstitions considered Friday an unlucky day, while for Christians Good Friday is the commemoration of Jesus’s Crucifixion. Thus, the line “Wednesday’s child is full of woe” was once “Friday’s child is full of woe”.
However there are more than just one accepted versions of this nursery rhyme. Below are the lyrics of one of the most known versions sung today:
Monday’s Child Lyrics
Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay;