How Many Days Does January Have?

Is it just me, or does anyone else remember the poem thirty-days has Sept, April, June, and November..?

It has been at least a few decades since I had to memorize that poem in the 5th grade (I see you Gen Xers)..and to this day, if I have figure out the days in a month, my go-to is this poem. Thank goodness for Mrs. Kuzdiny, the Hiller Elementary teacher who spent many lectures stressing the importance of memorization of poems, music, and in this case, nursery rhymes. I had no idea the power and longevity of that simple rhyme.

As I change my calendar and embark on a new year (cheers 2021), I whisper the poem from start to finish to validate that January has 31 days. So then I was thinking, was this some made up poem that only Hiller Saints had to memorize, or was our teacher just brilliant? As all inquisitive people do, I googled it, and much to my surprise, this poem has been around the world for quite some time. The first published English version appeared in Richard Grafton’s Abridgment of the Chronicles of England in 1562. And well, Mother Goose brought it to life as a nursey rhyme the Leap Year Poem:

Thirty days hath September,

April, June, and November.

All the rest have thirty-one,

Excepting February alone,

And that has twenty-eight days clear.

And twenty-nine in each leap year.

Who knew? I did not, so I wanted to share my rabbit hole discovery on the Leap Year Poem history.

Thanks, Mrs. Kuzindy, and rest in peace, for making us all memorize something that would help us ours for years and years.