5 Weekends in the Same Month: The Truth Behind the Myth

5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays in one month – the internet is telling us that this phenomenon happens only every 823 years! It’s a very popular urban myth has been making its rounds on the world wide web for a while. However, it is exactly that: a myth.
The “5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays & 5 Sundays” myths:
Before you get too overly excited about this so called “once-in-a-lifetime event” and start sharing the amazing news with your friends, family and Facebook buddies you should know that it’s going to happen a few more times than once in your lifetime. Special combinations of days like 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays happen much more often than every 800+ years!

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The 823 years myth:
If you happen to have a Twitter account, Facebook page, e-mail account or you pretty much don’t live under a rock, chances are that you have come across a tweet or a post that claims that August 2015 has an ultra-rare specific combination of days. A recent version goes something like this:

August 2015 will have 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. This happens only once every 823 years. The Chinese call it silver pockets full. Share with friends and you will come up on a large sum of money before the month is over!

The email is right in once sense, that August 2015 DOES have 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, and 5 Sundays. But this is nothing to freak out about. You definitely will not have to wait another 800 years for the next time this happens on our calendars. Only 11 years from now, in 2026, August will also have 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, and 5 Sundays.

As a matter of fact, a calendar month that contains 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays occurs pretty much every year – in 2016 January and July will have 5 weekend days!

When you think about it, the calendar 823 years from now won’t even the same as the calendar of the month in the many versions of this elaborate internet hoax! Nice try, Trolls.

Not a special combination:
The combinations of days that these messages or emails refer to aren’t as magical as you would think. It can all be broken down with some simple math. The first 3 weekdays of any month containing 31 days are repeated 5 times within that month. So, any month that has 31 days and happens to begin on a Friday will undoubtedly have 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, and 5 Sundays. Another example, any 31-day month that begins on a Tuesday, will have 5 Tuesdays, 5 Wednesdays and 5 Thursdays.

823 years from now, August 2837 will not
have 5 Fridays like August 2014!
Take a look at our calendars and take it to the test!

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Here’s a more mathematical examples as to why the 823 year claim is a hoax:

Every year has 7 months with 31 days. Each of these months have at least 3 weekdays that happen 5 times during the month.

For example, August 2014 has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. October 2014 has 5 Wednesdays, 5 Thursdays and 5 Fridays.

There are 7 different days a month can start on. So on average, the combination of any 3 days occuring 5 times in a calendar month will happen once a year.

In any given year, there are only 6 such combinations of days. This is because 2 months with 31 days start on the same weekday. In a common or regular year, January and October have the same calendar, while in a leap year, January and July look the same.

Here’s the months you can expect this to happen in 2015: