‘Interesting Fact’ About October 2010 – 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays

Outline

Message claims that October 2010 has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays and that this combination of days only occurs once in 823 years. 

Brief Analysis

It is true that October 2010 has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. However, such a combination occurs far more often than every 823 years. The last occurrence was in October 2004 while the next occurrence will take place in October 2021. The message is a revised version of a very similar- and equally erroneous – message about August 2010.

Example

Detailed Analysis

This message, which has been circulating via social networking websites as well as email, claims to reveal an “interesting fact” about October 2010 in that the month has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. The message claims that this particular combination of days in October only happens once in every 823 years.



It is true that October 2010 has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. However, there is nothing particularly “interesting” or unusual about this fact. And it is certainly not true that such a combination only happens every 823 years. In fact, such combinations occur every few years. As the following calendar shows, the next year that has a month of October with 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays will be 2021. This is a mere eleven years in the future, not 823 years as suggested in the message:

And, the same combination occurred as recently as 2004:

In fact, any month that has 31 days will have three consecutive days that occur five times in the month. Such combinations are commonplace and occur each and every year. For example, October 2011 will have 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays and 5 Mondays.

This message is just a revamped version of another “interesting fact” that circulated earlier in the year that informed recipients that August 2010 was special because it boasted 5 Sundays, 5 Mondays and 5 Tuesdays. The August version also falsely claimed that the “event” only took place once every 823 years.

The October version tacks on an extra bit of nonsense that claims that such combinations are considered “money bag months” and that if we pass on the message to “8 good people” money will come our way.

Since many months with such combinations will come along in the months and years to come, we are perhaps likely to see our inboxes and social networks cluttered with updated versions of these silly – and utterly pointless – messages as time goes by.

References
Calendarwerks – Free Printable Calendars