December 2012 – 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays and 5 Mondays
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The claim
Circulating message claims that December 2012 will feature 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays and 5 Mondays, a combination of days that occurs only once every 823 years. The message claims that sending on the information will bring good luck to the sender.
Subject: December 2012
DID YOU KNOW THIS?
Follow instructions and wait 4 days!!
This year, December has 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays and 5 Mondays.
This only happens once every 824 years.
The Chinese call it the Money Bag.
Send this to all your friends – and enemies as well.
According to the legend, you will receive money in 4 days.
According to Feng Shui, if you do not send it you will stay poor.
I in particular, will not let this opportunity pass by.
So I send it to you with my best wishes. In case it is true!
What the fact-checkers found
It is perfectly true that December 2012 has 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays and 5 Mondays. However, such a combination occurs far more often than every 823 years. The last occurrence was in December 2007 while the next occurrence will take place in December 2018. 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. This message is a revamped version of earlier – and equally spurious – chain messages.
This message, which is currently circulating via email and social media websites, points out that December 2012 will feature five Saturdays, five Sundays and five Mondays. The message claims that such a combination of days for December occurs only once in every 823 years.
According to the message, the Chinese called this December event “Money Bag” because those who send on the information will receive money within four days. Alas, warns the message, those who do not pass it on will “stay poor.”
It is quite true that December 2012 will include five Saturdays, five Sundays and five Mondays. However, this fact is not at all unusual and takes place in December every few years. The claim that such a combination only happens every 823 years is utter nonsense. The last time such a combination occurred was in December 2007:
And the next time it will take place is December 2018:
Moreover, December in every single year will have three consecutive days that occur five times. In fact, any month that has 31 days will have three consecutive days that occur five times in the month. Such combinations are commonplace, perfectly predictable, and occur each and every year.
This message is just a revamped version of earlier messages that featured other months, including August 2010, October 2010 and several more in the years since.
And, of course, the claim that sending on a silly – and factually flawed – message will somehow bring you good luck is superstitious nonsense.
Sources and references
- 1
CalendarWerks
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