Monday's Child

For the 1967 Argentine film, see Monday's Child (film).

"Monday's Child" Roud #19526
Written by	Traditional
Published	1838
Written	England
Language	English
Form	Nursery rhyme

‘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 based on the day they were born and help young children remember the days of the week. As with all nursery rhymes, there are many versions. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19526.

Lyrics

Common modern versions include:

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 who is born on the Sabbath Day

Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.^[1]

Origins

This rhyme was first recorded in A. E. Bray's Traditions of Devonshire (Volume II, pp.287-288)^[2] in 1838 and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-nineteenth century.^[1] The tradition of fortune telling by days of birth is much older. Thomas Nashe recalled stories told to "yong folks" in Suffolk in the 1570s which included "tell[ing] what luck eurie one should have by the day of the weeke he was borne on". Nashe thus provides evidence for fortune telling rhymes of this type circulating in Suffolk in the 1570s.^[3]

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.^[1] Despite modern versions in which "Wednesday's child is full of woe," an early 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 liturgical Christians associated Friday with the Crucifixion. In addition to Wednesday's and Friday's children's role reversal, the fates of Thursday's and Saturday's children was also exchanged and Sunday's child is "happy and wise" instead of "blithe and good".^[4]

Cultural references

In literature:

• Monday's Child (2004) and Tuesday's Child (2005) are novels written by Louise Bagshawe
• Wednesday's Child (1956) is the title of a short story by William Tenn (pen name of Philip Klass) published in Fantastic Universe in 1956.
• Wednesday's Child (1960) is a novel by Margaret Arbore Berg
• Wednesday's Child (2011) is a short story by Ken Bruen, nominated for the 2011 CWA Short Story Dagger
• Wednesday Addams of The Addams Family is said to have been named after the phrase, "Wednesday's child is full of woe." Her middle name, Friday, corresponds to the 1887 version.^{[citation needed]}
• Thursday's Child (1956) is one of Eartha Kitt's three autobiographies.
• Thursday's Child (1970) is a novel by Noel Streatfeild.
• Thursday's Child (2000) is the title of a novel by Sonya Hartnett.
• Friday's Child (1944) is a novel by Georgette Heyer.
• "Old Mama Saturday ('Saturday's Child Must Work for a Living')" (1995) by Marie Ponsot, featured in the 1995 volume of the annual Best American Poetry, vol. 8 (New York: Collier Books, 1995), refers to the rhyme in its title.
• Prior Walter refers to the poem in Tony Kushner's play Angels in America (1985-86) (Act III Scene 1)

In T.V.:

• Wednesday's Child is the title of a play in the umbrella series Kraft Television Theatre (season 1, episode 15), broadcast on January 21, 1954.^[5]
• "Friday's Child" (1967) is the title of an episode of the original Star Trek television series.
• "Thursday's Child" is the title of an episode in the fifth season of the series Road to Avonlea, in which Great Aunt Eliza recites part of this poem in relation to Cecily.^[6]
• "Thursday's Child" is the title of an episode of Murder, She Wrote in season 7.
• "Wednesday's Child" is the title of an episode in season 1 of the US version of Prime Suspect.

In popular music:

• Nancy Sinatra had a hit in 1966 with "Friday's Child", which contains the lines "Friday's child her sister's misery...Friday's child they'll forget to bury..."
• David Gates, later of Bread, composed a song called "Saturday's Child" that was included on the 1960s' American pop rock band The Monkees' eponymous first album (1966).
• The Beatles song "Lady Madonna" (1968) includes the line: "Monday's child has learned to tie his bootlace."
• The Raiders' 1970 album "Collage" contains the track "Wednesday's Child", the lyrics of which are another variation of the "Monday's Child" nursery rhyme, with the song ending with the lines "Wednesday's child is full of woe. Woe I know, I am Wednesday's Child".
• The Chameleons' 1983 album Script of the Bridge contains the track Thursday's Child.^[7]
• Van Morrison wrote a song entitled "Friday's Child" (1971) while with the band Them.
• "Tuesday's Child" is the title of a song on the second album (1988) by Contemporary Christian musician Steven Curtis Chapman.
• David Bowie included a song called "Thursday's Child" on his 1999 album 'Hours...'.
• "Wednesday's Child" is a song by Emiliana Torrini which appears on her 1999 album Love in the Time of Science.
• Will Young released an album named Friday's Child (2003). The title track has a variant of the rhyme as its chorus.
• Isobel Campbell included a song called "Thursday's Child" on her album Milkwhite Sheets (2006).
• "Måndagsbarn" (Monday's child) (2008) is a song by Swedish singer Veronica Maggio.
• Vermillion Lies composed a song called Wednesday's Child on their album What's In The Box
• The Belle & Sebastian song "The Chalet Lines" from the album Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant refers to an unfortunate character who is "Full of woe and further to go", derived from a combination of Wednesday's and Thursday's child.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 309-10.
2. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=qw82psYn-eoC&lr&pg=PR2#v=onepage&q&f=false
3. ^ A. Fox, Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500-1700 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 182.
4. ^ 'Children's charms and Oracles' New York folklore quarterly (1952), p. 46.
5. ^ Kraft Television Theatre: Wednesday's Child on the Internet Movie Database.
6. ^ [1] Episode 61 (Season 5, Episode 9), originally aired on CBC: February 27, 1994
7. ^ http://www.thechameleons.com/lyrics/index.php?song=8

External links

• Day of the week calculator from Ancestor Search