According to an old European superstition, you should never cut your nails on Sundays. If you made bad stories, they would be told about you for a week. Worse still, the devil would follow you all week. Cutting your nails was considered not only a job, but also being concerned about your outer beauty. This was something that was not tolerated on the day of rest and worship.
Cutting her nails on a Friday was equally unfortunate. It was said that bad luck and pain would strike the house if someone in the house dared to cut their nails on a Friday.
Friday and Sunday were certainly ruled out for cutting their nails. Playing it safe, many would wait until Monday before cutting their nails. The Monday before noon was said to be a good time to pull out the scissors and trim those nails. Get your nails trimmed early Monday morning and you could expect a treat. The saying continued like this. Cut Tuesday to save, cut Wednesday for news, cut Thursday for shoes, cut Friday for grief, cut Saturday to see your lover tomorrow, cut Sunday for bad.
In the 19th century it was a common superstition that if a mother cut her baby’s nails before the child was twelve months old, that child would grow up and become a thief.
Even the Vikings were very concerned about nails. The ship called Naglfar (nail ferry) was believed to be made solely of fingernails and toenails taken from dead humans. When Naglfar was completed, the Jotunns would sail this ship in battle against the gods. This was the final battle. This was Ragnarok, the end of the world. No dead were to be buried without nails clipped. Every precaution had to be taken not to be sure that the corpse provided no more material for the construction of the Naglfar. But not all is lost. After Ragnarok a new world arises. I don’t know what happened to Naglfar.