I’ve gotten a few comments about how special some months are, in particular the months that have 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays & 5 Sundays in them. The myth is that this only happens once every 823 years. So I guess I wanted to clear this up for you and give you the facts around this myth.
Months like this coming March (2013) fall into this pattern. Since March always has 31 days, and a week is always 7 days, March will include these same 5 days anytime the month begins on a Friday (like next year). Since a week has 7 days, and a standard year consists of 52 weeks plus 1 day, March begins on a Friday an average of once every 7 years (not every 823 years).
Due to leap years, however, March does not begin on a Friday exactly once every 7 years; instead, it follows a 6-5-6-11 pattern. So when March begins on a Friday, that occurs again 6 years later, then 5 years later, then 6 years later, and finally 11 years later, whereupon the cycle repeats. Thus we see patterns of Friday-beginning March in clusters of years like the following: 1996, 2002, 2007, 2013, 2024, 2030, etc.
We’re approaching the end of a cycle and thus the longest gap between occurrences, but that gap is only 11 years, not 8 centuries.
The e-mail I got about this said it was based on Chinese Fung Shui but the Chinese don’t even use the same calender. Go figure!
One of my friends at work forwarded an e-mail about this freaky coincidence. I don’t know how you figured it all out, but I’m glad you did. I’m so bad at figuring out calender things (and math in general)! Just goes you show how most things you read on the Internet need to be taken with a grain of salt!
you explained my thoughts in the next paragraph. Was like uh only 7 days a week so in 7 years March 1st is on a friday again. Seems like someone threw out the 823 number to make people think 5 weekends in a month was super rare.
Seems phony to me, big time, as wouldn’t it be 9 or 10 years with leap year oddly enough though, when it gets closer to March 2013 going to try saying this is a rare once in 823 year month and see if I impress them.
I remember getting this email and thinking it was a little weird but never looked into it. I guess you put it in common sense lol