What Does the Traditional Rhyme Say About the Meaning of the Day of Your Birth?
The traditional rhyme about the meaning of the day of your birth is “Monday’s Child is Fair of Face” by Mother Goose. The words of the poem are used to associate people, especially children, with a personality or pattern according to the day of the week on which they were born.
The poem states that Monday’s child is fair of face and Tuesday’s child is full of grace. It further states that Wednesday’s child is full of woe and Thursday’s child has far to go. The poem then goes on to state that Friday’s child is loving and giving and Saturday’s child works hard for a living. The poem finally concludes that the child that is born on the Sabbath day is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.
Mother Goose rhymes usually have a rich history behind them. Mother Goose is a mythical person whose name was probably derived from the title of Charles Perrault’s collection of fairy tales, “Tales of Mother Goose,” published in 1697. Mother Goose is a fictitious old woman who is reputedly the source of many traditional children’s songs and verses known as nursery rhymes. She is often pictured as a beak-nosed, sharp-chinned elderly woman riding on the back of a flying gander.
The persistent legend that Mother Goose was an actual Boston woman, Elizabeth Goose, is false, states Encylopaedia Britannica. The first U.S. edition of Mother Goose rhymes was a reprint of the Newbery edition published by Isaiah Thomas in 1785.
