Monday
The Moon's day in Western magic, Shiva's day for many Hindus, and the Monday-born tiger of Burma.
In the Western occult tradition Monday belongs to the Moon, and its correspondences are the ones people have long linked to the moon itself: dreams, tides, women's cycles, the home and the inner life. Other cultures give the same day to Shiva, to a tiger or to a child named Kwadwo. Each of these is a way of saying who is thought to watch over the day.
The Moon in the Western scheme
The seven days of the week take their order from the seven classical planets, and Monday, Latin dies Lunae, is the Moon's. Magical handbooks, from the medieval grimoires to the modern Golden Dawn tables, assign it silver, white, pearl, moonstone and clear water, and treat it as a day for dreams, intuition, cleansing and anything to do with the house and family. Practitioners who work by planetary hours also divide the day into hours ruled in turn by each planet, so a Monday is not wholly lunar. Whether the correspondences carry any force is a question of belief; historians note that they were standardised in late antiquity and the Renaissance.
Somvar, Shiva and the Moon in India
In Hindu practice Monday is Somvar, from Soma, a name of the Moon, and it is held sacred to Shiva, who wears the crescent in his hair. Many devotees fast on Mondays, offer water, milk and bael leaves at a Shiva shrine, and in some regions take up a sixteen-Monday vow for a good marriage or the wellbeing of the family. The month of Shravan is especially associated with Monday observances. Jain and Buddhist traditions have their own lunar days, and the Moon is one of the nine grahas in Hindu astrology.
Monday-born names and animals
Among the Akan of Ghana a boy born on a Monday is traditionally called Kwadwo, or Kojo, and a girl Adwoa, and the day name is believed to tie a person to the character of that day's soul, or kra. In Burma the Monday-born belong to the tiger, in the system of eight weekday animals used in astrology and in the shrines of pagodas, where the day's corner is washed with water. In Thailand each day has a colour, and Monday's is yellow, worn by those born on the day and by the many who honour the king, whose birthday it is.
Monday's child
The English rhyme says Monday's child is fair of face, and goes on to give a trait to every day of the week. It was written down in the nineteenth century, and its older versions vary. It is a nursery verse rather than a belief, though it has often been treated as a guide to character.
Entries tied to it
Also part of it, and being written: Monday (The day and its names.), Moon in astrology (The planetary ruler in the Western scheme.), Akan names (Day names such as Kwadwo.), Monday's Child (The nursery rhyme.).
Written by the EveryJaadu desk with AI assistance. Customs differ by community and family, and are described here as tradition, not instruction, and with no claim that they work. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Shiva: Indianhilbilly, CC BY-SA 3.0, source