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1. Today is Monday-- Today is Monday-- Monday – Wash Day! Everybody happy? Well I should say!
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. Spoken: Let’s sing the whole week—
Monday – Wash Day! (Sing the last line slowly) Well I should say! |
Please note--I have re--created this song.
As written here, this song would be excellent for helping young children learn the names of the days of the week, while learning certain chores need to be done to maintain a household. Of course, you may change the lyrics around to suit your own family. Likewise, you have the option of adapting the song to your own family activities during the week. That's how folklore works. It changes all the time.
A bit of background: My mother used to sing three verses of “an old song” with the names of the weekdays, claiming that she didn’t remember the rest.
What she sang was:
Today is Monday--She told me that women used to do the laundry on Monday and hang it out to dry on the line—which is why Monday was Wash Day.
Today is Monday--
Monday – Wash Day!
Everybody happy?
Well I should say!Today is Friday--
Today is Friday--
Friday – Fish Day!
Everybody happy?
Well I should say!Today is Saturday--
Today is Saturday--
Saturday – Fun Day!
Everybody happy?
Well I should say!
I once insisted we needed to find the rest of the words to this song so we sing the whole week. At which point, she became very surly—and said with an annoyed tone--“WE don’t need to do that.” In all fairness to her, I could be annoyingly persistent about things.
I did not bring up finding the other verses to this song to her again. However, this set of circumstances did not stop my personal quest. I did look for it in various folklore collections of old rhymes and songs in various public libraries. I never did locate it.
Hence, this is why I finally--in 2018--recreated the song as above.
Why did it take me so long?
Actually, I did not come across the now famous children’s book by Eric Carle until my late 30’s:
Eric Carle, Today Is Monday, 1993 . (Ages 3-7)Carle’s book was clearly a variant of the children’s folk song that I was looking for—except food had been substituted for weekday chores. (I have gifted Carle's book to young nieces and nephews over the years.)Children’s author/illustrator Eric Carle has a wonderful book, Today Is Monday, 1993, with delightful illustrations that assists little ones in learning the days of the week through singing. After being around for 20 years, it is a beloved classic.
In Carle’s book each day of the seven weekdays is associated with a different food:
Monday - string beans,A review thumbnail explained, “Taking his culinary cue from the well-known children's song, Carle dishes up a smorgasbord of creatures and comestibles...The final spread shows children--also of various skin colors--wolfing down the various foods at a sumptuous banquet, as the featured animals look on from paintings on the wall. The song's music and lyrics bring this feast to a satisfying close.”
Tuesday - spaghetti,
Wednesday - soup,
Thursday - roast beef,
Friday - fresh fish,
Saturday - chicken,
Sunday - ice cream.
This children’s folk song is commonly known as All You Hungry Children or as Today is Monday. My husband told me that he learned a version of All You Hungry Children from the television show, Captain Kangaroo, which first aired on CBS Monday morning, October 3, 1955. (My husband does not remember at what date the song aired or how old he was.) See below sources for lyrics. The tune he to me sang was the same as the one I heard from my mother.
Intriguing—but it provided me with no more verses…and whenever I tried to talk to people about tracking down this old song which involved chores, I got uncomprehending stares.
Then in 2018, I came across a reference to an old “PA Dutch” song. [Please note the “PA Dutch” do not speak “Dutch”, they speak "Deitsch”. This folk song in the Thomas R. Brendle collection was collected in "Deitsch”. ]
In the song, Zu Ulla:This book is a marvelous resource for the folklore of the Pennsylvania Dutch, who came from German-speaking areas of Europe. As I mentioned above, the PA Dutch spoke a dialect of German which they called "Deitsch"-- in standard German this dialect is called “Deutsch”. I highly recommend this book.Mundaag - Waescherei ,
Dinschdaag - Mittwoch,
Dunnerschdaag - Butzeerei,
Freidaag - Backerei,
Samschdaag - Schparickerei,
Sunndaag - Ruherei.The editor translates this as:
Monday - Washing,
Tuesday - Ironing,
Wednesday - Mending,
Thursday - Cleaning,
Friday - Baking,
Saturday - Courting,
Sunday – Resting.--The Thomas R. Brendle Collection of Pennsylvania German Folklore, Volume I, edited by Richard Beam, 1995, p 62.
Paperback: 172 pages
Publisher: Center for Pennsylvania German Studies, Millersville University (January 2, 1995)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1880976110
ISBN-13: 978-1880976111
The complete wording of the song is not recorded—but I finally had a reference to a folksong with weekday chores paired with specific days of the week.
Now at this point in the re-creation of the song, my mind veered wildly off the road of folklore scholarship--and my “younger-self” started giggling while scampering into the wild, grassy meadow of imagination. My mind moved around and about unrelated magical trivia--and random poetic wimsy.
You ought to understand that my younger-self always suspected there was more to this old song…
…AND below is what my younger-self pulled out of the meadow of imagination:
| Weekday | Human Activity | Heavenly Sphere of Influence | Correspondence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Washing | Moon | water |
| Tuesday | Ironing | Mars | iron |
| Wednesday | Marketing | Mercury | commerce, marketing |
| Thursday | Cleaning | Jupiter | order |
| Friday | Baking | Venus | love, affection, cookie |
| Saturday | Fun Day | Saturn | ?? |
| Sunday | Resting | Sun | ?? |
I do not claim these above correspondences in the table have anything to do with the original PA Dutch song--nor do I assert this actually made any genuine sense...poetic wimsy rarely does. However, it did pop randomly into my mind, pretending to be a mystcal insight (chuckle).
2018 Myth Woodling
Sources:
The Thomas R. Brendle Collection of Pennsylvania German Folklore, Volume I, edited by Richard Beam, 1995.
ThoughtCo, Why the Pennsylvania Germans Are Often Called Dutch, accessed 10/2/18.
Eric Carle, Today Is Monday, 1993.
Children's Book Review: Today Is Monday by Eric Carle, Author, Dick King-Smith, Author Reviewed 2/22/1993, accessed 10/2/18.
Below is the lyrics of the song my husband heard on Captain Kangaroo. These lyrics can be found all over the internet:
Today is Monday, today is Monday.
Monday string beans.
All you hungry children, come and eat it all up!Today is Tuesday, today is Tuesday.
Tuesday spaghetti,
Monday string beans.
All you hungry children, come and eat it all up!Today is Wednesday, today is Wednesday.
Wednesday soup,
Tuesday spaghetti, Monday string beans.
All you hungry children, come and eat it all up!Today is Thursday, today is Thursday.
Thursday roast beef,
Wednesday soup, Tuesday spaghetti, Monday string beans.
All you hungry children, come and eat it all up!Today is Friday, today is Friday.
Friday fresh fish,
Thursday roast beef, Wednesday soup, Tuesday spaghetti, Monday string beans.
All you hungry children, come and eat it all up!
Today is Saturday, today is Saturday.
Saturday chicken,
Friday fresh fish, Thursday roast beef, Wednesday soup, Tuesday spaghetti, Monday string beans.
All you hungry children, come and eat it all up!Today is Sunday, today is Sunday.
Sunday ice-cream,
Saturday chicken, Friday fresh fish, Thursday roast beef, Wednesday soup, Tuesday spaghetti, Monday string beans.
All you hungry children, come and eat it all up!
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