An East Anglian rhyme gave a meaning to cutting your nails on each day of the week: health on Monday, wealth on Tuesday, news on Wednesday and a new pair of shoes on Thursday. Friday brought sorrow and Saturday a sight of your true love the next day, but cutting them on Sunday meant having the devil with you all week. Chambers’s correspondent heard it almost word for word as Forby had printed it.
Cutting the Nails
Printed under 7 September · East Anglia
Lore and belief
Cut 'em on Friday, you cut 'em for sorrow; Cut 'em on Saturday, you'll see your true love to-morrow
From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 2, p. 322. Read the original
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