by Anura Guruge
on December 29, 2021
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Christmas 2021 fell on a Saturday. So, New Year 2022 ALSO HAD to be on a Saturday. No escaping that. A basic truth of mathematics. Can’t mess with that. December has 31 days, so the Christmas & the following New Year are 7 days apart. BINGO. I will confess I did NOT know of this immutable relationship until I was a teenager. A Swiss lady, a family friend, told it to I — matter of fact. I was floored. I had never realized — & I have never forgotten.
So, it was 11 years ago when Christmas last fell on a Saturday. Ditto, New Year. Same factors at play — to be precise the Leap Year in 2016. IF NOT for that Leap Year, New Year 2017 would have been on a Saturday. It wasn’t. Hence, the long gap.
IF you are into calendaring (as I am) you will immediately seize upon that ’11’. 11 is significant. It is 7+4, i.e., the number of days in a week (7) & the number of years between leap years.
Next New Year on a Saturday will be in 6 years — 2028 (as you can see from the top image). The 2024 Leap Year just makes us jump over a Tuesday. Got that.
Happy New Year.