Mental Floss

The Last Palindrome Week of the Century Begins Today

undefined undefined/iStock via Getty Images
undefined undefined/iStock via Getty Images | undefined undefined/iStock via Getty Images

If you’ve overlooked Palindrome Week each year for the last decade, it’s our civic duty to ensure that it’s on your radar this time. After all, the stats show that it’s the last week in this century during which the dates will look the same both forward and backward. Want to take your palindrome party to the next level? Pull up in a race car, belt out those karaoke solos, refer to all your guests as madam, then send them home with a kayak.

As AL.com reports, Palindrome Week starts today with 9-10-19 and continues through next Thursday, 9-19-19. You can see the full list of dates and their un-punctuated, five-number palindromic sequences below.

In order to properly write the dates as palindromes, there are a couple stipulations: One, the month must come first, then the day, then the year. The UK-favored order of day, month, year will jumble the palindrome. Second, you can’t include a zero before the first number, the way that forms and other documents often request.

9-10-19 (91019)
9-11-19 (91119)
9-12-19 (91219)
9-13-19 (91319)
9-14-19 (91419)
9-15-19 (91519)
9-16-19 (91619)
9-17-19 (91719)
9-18-19 (91819)
9-19-19 (91919)

TimeandDate.com explains that you can find the same pattern of palindromes in every year since 2011, when Palindrome Week started on January 10 (1-10-11). Each year since then, Palindrome Week has moved to when the month’s number matches the last digit of the year. March corresponds with 3, for example, so March’s Palindrome Week occurred in 2013. Since you omit the first two numbers of the year, the same decade of Palindrome Weeks happened in 1911, and will repeat itself in 2111.

Though this may be the last full week of palindromes in this century, there are still plenty of single Palindrome Days to celebrate in our lifetimes. If you’re willing to add a zero to the beginning of the date, you can look forward to February 11, 2020 (02-11-20) and February 22, 2020 (02-22-20). Otherwise, mark your calendars for December 11, 2021 (12-11-21) and December 22, 2021 (12-22-21).

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