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Monthly Knuckles
If you don’t have a calendar on hand, here’s an easy way to figure out which months have 31 days and which have 30:
- Count the months on your knuckles and the grooves between your knuckles. Leave out your thumb knuckle.
- Every month that lands on a knuckle is 31 days, every month that lands on a groove between knuckles is 30 days (or 28 for February).
Starting with your forefinger’s knuckle:
1st knuckle: Jan (31 days)
Groove: Feb (28 or 30 days)
2nd knuckle: March (31 days)
Groove: April (30 days)
3rd Knuckle: May (31 days)
Groove: June (30 days)
4th Knuckle: July (31 days)
Returning to first knuckle (the forefinger, remember–skip the thumb knuckle)
1st Knuckle: August (31 days)
Groove: September (30 days)
2nd Knuckle: October (31 days)
Groove: November (30 days)
3rd Knuckle: December (31 days)
Instead of moving right to left by starting with your forefinger, you could also start with your pinkie’s knuckle and move left to right. Still works out the same.
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I never heard of this before – what a neat tip!
very cool, I’ll never wonder about it again!
I used to always sing the little jingle 30 days has September, April, June and November. This works just as well and is kind of aq fun bit of trivia!
I learned this tip from Kaptain Kangaroo (Bob Keashan) back in the 50’s (yeah, I’m that old) but it’s nice to see it updated on the web.
I have always used it. My mom had taught me this and I think most of the kids at school in India also knew it.
Okay, this is just trippy! Only yesterday, I was mentioning to a co-worker that I had never learned the little poem to remember which months have 31 days so he taught me this previously unheard-of knuckle trick.
Now it just so happenes to be circulating all over the Internet less than 24 hours later. Kinduva bizarre coincidence…
ITA Rob, that IS trippy!
Thanks for the comments everyone, it is something so many of us grew up with–and the rest of us had no clue. I was taught this from a friend when I was in my mid-30’s (not as old as you Bob lol).
That is also a very old Chinese method on teaching kids to figure out longer or shorter months, almost every kid knows how to do that from 3 years old.
I just repeat this little nursery rhyme my mom taught me:
Thirty day hath September
April, June and November
All the rest have thirty-one
Except for February
Which has twenty-eight
I guess the whole rhyme scheme breaks down at the end, but we always did it last part in a cheesy Vaudeville voice for effect. You can also say:
Except for February
Which hath but twenty-eight, in fine,
‘Til leap year makes it twenty-nine
C. Spencer Beggs, that’s very similar to the one I learned from my (English) grandmother here in Australia –
Thirty days hath September
April, June and November
All the rest have thirty-one
Excepting February, all alone
Which has twenty-eight days clear,
And twenty-nine each leap year.
This one keeps the rhyming structure so I find it very easy to remember.
We in India are using this tip for ages. I learnt it when I learnt to say ‘aa’ from my grandmother.
I wonder why I never thought of it worth putting on web!
Nice job.
The way I learned the rhyme was:
Thirty days hath September
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty one,
But the second month alone,
To which we twenty-eight assign,
and in Leap Year twenty-nine.
I fyou actually know this little ditty, it’s much faster than counting knuckles!