"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 he or she was born and to
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. 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.
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-nineteenth century. 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