Does a month have five Saturdays once every 823 years? Fact Check
Online messages claim that a particular upcoming month has five Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, and that this phenomenon only occurs once every 823 years. The messages also claim that this is known in Chinese culture as “money bags”, and that sharing the message on social media will bring good fortune or wealth.
Many variations of the message exist, targeting a number of different months, namely August, July and October. The days can also change depending on the permutation, with many popular variations omitting Monday in place of Friday.
FALSE
Some examples of the claims on social media are below.
This year, July has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. This happens once every 823 years. This is called money bags. So, forward this to your friends and money will arrive within 4 days. Based on Chinese Feng Shui the one who does not forward ….. will be without money. I`m not taking any chances!
– collected 2011
THIS IS THE ONLY TIME WE WILL SEE AND LIVE THIS EVENT IN OUR LIFETIME Calendar for July 2012 . This year, July has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. This happens once every 823 years. Based on Chinese Feng Shui, this is called money bags. If you share this info, they say money will arrive within 4 days. The one who does not share…..will be without money. Well, Im not taking any chances :))
– collected 2012
– collected 2014
– collected 2020
Of course, the claims are entirely nonsensical.
Firstly, it is not uncommon for a month to have five Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. In fact, every time a 31-day month (January, March, May, July, August, October and December) begins with a Saturday, it will consequently have five Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. As you would expect, this occurs far more frequently than once every 823 years.
Naturally, the same applies if a 31-day month begins on a Friday; it will have five Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Of course this could easily be confirmed by looking at any standard calendar.
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Secondly, there is nothing in Chinese culture about such an occurrence, and no such event called “money bags”. Additionally, there is no connection to Chinese Feng Shui.
These types of messages typically rely on the assumption that a person who blindly believes the false assertions made in the message is also likely to share baseless superstitious tripe to their friends on social media as well. And for the most part, these assumptions pay off, since this particular example of social media hogwash has been spreading across the Internet since at least 2011.
Even if you frequently find yourself erring on the side of superstition, given that the claims in the messages are objectively false – regardless of which month, year or set of days are quoted – there is little reason to take it seriously and perhaps it’s time to put this nonsense to rest once and for all.
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