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Five Weekends In August, Weird Date Alignment Won't Recur For 11 Years

(CBS SF) -- The Internet myth is just that, a myth--it won't take 823 years for another August with five weekends--five Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in the same month--but it is still cool, and worth mentioning even if it doesn't have a cool name like "money bags" or "silver pockets full."

Apparently it's a lot more fun to hit "FORWARD" on the email than look at your Outlook calendar to spot the pattern, but if you do, you'll spot that the first two days (or first three days in a 31-day month) always repeat five times. It just so happens that the days repeating this August are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and it's happening at the end of summer.

As there are seven days in a week, there is a seven-year cycle where the dates will follow the same pattern, with one caveat. Because of leap years, it follows a 6 year, 5 year, 6 year, and 11 year cycle.

Snopes.com has a fantastic explanation of dates, and the origins of this fun, but false funky date.

Another good source of date data is TimeAndDate.com They mention that 823 years from now, August will NOT actually have five weekends. Ironic, right?

As for getting money, well, with five Fridays, if you're paid biweekly, you may be on a schedule that means an extra paycheck, which never hurts.

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