An old bit of folk superstition turned into a rhyme, working through each day of the week and what a sneeze on it supposedly means. The list structure gives it a natural, chanting momentum that is satisfying to say straight through.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
If you sneeze on Monday, you sneeze for danger;
Sneeze on a Tuesday, kiss a stranger;
Sneeze on a Wednesday, sneeze for a letter;
Sneeze on a Thursday, something better.
Sneeze on a Friday, sneeze for sorrow;
Sneeze on a Saturday, joy to-morrow.
About this rhyme
Text runs Monday through Saturday only (six lines); no Sunday line is present.
A piece of old sneezing lore, one line for each day from Monday to Saturday, in the same family as the better-known 'Monday's child' rhymes that hand out a fate for whichever day you're born. Here it's whichever day you sneeze that counts: danger on a Monday, a kiss on a Tuesday, and so on down the week.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition