Christmas this year falls on Sunday, which means one of us [1] will be spending part of the day at Church. Leann and I both commented to each other that it seems that Christmas falls on Sunday unusually often. While this is no problem for us, it is often disappointing for children since the Lord encourages us to avoid entertainment on the Sabbath Day—i.e. the kids don't get to ride their new bike, watch their new movie, or play their new video game.[2] I decided to check and see if this was really the case, or if we were imagining it.
I plotted out how many Christmases fell on each day of the week [3] since I was born and since Leann was born. I also adjusted for earliest reliable memories (mine is at 3 years old [4] and Leann's is at 4 years old).
So either I have an exceptional memory and Leann is just imagining it, or we both are making things up. I favor the latter explanation. In fact, since Christmas is practically a double holiday (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) I suspect that we 'double count'—if either day occurs on a Sunday we catalog it in our memories as a "Sunday Christmas".[6]
Notes:
[1] Because Lillian was born prematurely, we've been counseled to avoid taking her to public places. This is because people who are sick often ignore propriety and courtesy and venture forth, sharing their diseases with others. Lillian is particularly vulnerable to RSV (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory syncytial virus and this .pdf), so until RSV season is over, Leann and I take turns going to Church while the other stays home with her.
[2] To learn more about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy (from a Latter-day Saint perspective), see here.
[3] For calendar years past, I consulted http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2011.
[4] I can remember things from before that earliest reliable memory, but I don't know if I was still 3 years old or if I was 2 years old when those things happened.
[5] The unusual pattern for this column is due to Leap Years. The Earth revolves around the sun once every 365.24219 days. That fraction of a day is what causes the hitch—in a calendar year of 365 days we slowly get behind. So, every four years in the Gregorian calendar we add an extra day (Feb. 29th, though originally Feb. 24th was considered the 'leap day'). However, this makes a calendar year 365.25 days, which means now we're getting ahead instead of falling behind. So every 100 years we skip a leap year (e.g. 1900 was not a leap year). This makes a calendar year 365.24 days, which has us falling behind again. So every 400 years we don't skip the leap year we would've skipped under the 100 year rule (e.g. 2000 was a leap year). This makes a calendar year 365.2425 days long. It's still not perfectly accurate, but it's close enough that it will take us 8000 years to get ahead by one day.
[6] That would yield 9, 9, 8, and 6 if the table above had a row for Christmas Eve/Day on Sunday, which is perforce larger than any of the other counts.
I plotted out how many Christmases fell on each day of the week [3] since I was born and since Leann was born. I also adjusted for earliest reliable memories (mine is at 3 years old [4] and Leann's is at 4 years old).
Day | Matt (birth) | Matt (memory) | Leann (birth) | Leann (memory) |
Monday | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
Tuesday | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 [5] |
Wednesday | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
Thursday | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
Friday | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
Saturday | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
Sunday | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
So either I have an exceptional memory and Leann is just imagining it, or we both are making things up. I favor the latter explanation. In fact, since Christmas is practically a double holiday (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) I suspect that we 'double count'—if either day occurs on a Sunday we catalog it in our memories as a "Sunday Christmas".[6]
Notes:
[1] Because Lillian was born prematurely, we've been counseled to avoid taking her to public places. This is because people who are sick often ignore propriety and courtesy and venture forth, sharing their diseases with others. Lillian is particularly vulnerable to RSV (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory syncytial virus and this .pdf), so until RSV season is over, Leann and I take turns going to Church while the other stays home with her.
[2] To learn more about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy (from a Latter-day Saint perspective), see here.
[3] For calendar years past, I consulted http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2011.
[4] I can remember things from before that earliest reliable memory, but I don't know if I was still 3 years old or if I was 2 years old when those things happened.
[5] The unusual pattern for this column is due to Leap Years. The Earth revolves around the sun once every 365.24219 days. That fraction of a day is what causes the hitch—in a calendar year of 365 days we slowly get behind. So, every four years in the Gregorian calendar we add an extra day (Feb. 29th, though originally Feb. 24th was considered the 'leap day'). However, this makes a calendar year 365.25 days, which means now we're getting ahead instead of falling behind. So every 100 years we skip a leap year (e.g. 1900 was not a leap year). This makes a calendar year 365.24 days, which has us falling behind again. So every 400 years we don't skip the leap year we would've skipped under the 100 year rule (e.g. 2000 was a leap year). This makes a calendar year 365.2425 days long. It's still not perfectly accurate, but it's close enough that it will take us 8000 years to get ahead by one day.
[6] That would yield 9, 9, 8, and 6 if the table above had a row for Christmas Eve/Day on Sunday, which is perforce larger than any of the other counts.
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