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
Subject: October 2010
An interesting fact about October 2010:
This OCTOBER has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays, all in 1 month.
It happens once in 823 years. These are considered money bags months. Pass them to 8 good people and money will appear. Based on Chinese fengshui. Whoever stops this will experience none…..
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
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
