April 2024: 30 days, a Monday opening and a total eclipse
April 2024 opened on a Monday and closed on a Tuesday: 30 days, 22 of them business days, five Mondays and five Tuesdays. The month's headline was written in the sky. On Monday 8 April a total solar eclipse crossed Mexico, the United States and Canada. Roughly 44 million people lived in the path of totality. Sport matched the sky. On Sunday 14 April, a second Masters green jacket and a first Bundesliga title arrived within hours of each other.
The working count
Five Mondays, from Monday 1 April through Monday 29 April, anchored the month. Tuesdays also ran to five, from Tuesday 2 April through Tuesday 30 April. Every other weekday ran to four.
That made 22 business days against eight weekend days, across ISO weeks 14 to 18, mid-leap-year. The month sat inside a leap year, with February's 29 days two months back. ISO week 18 then ran on past the month's edge, with Tuesday 30 April falling mid-week.
Four weekends, eight weekend days, kept the month's balance even. April 2024 opened on a Monday, so the week and the page turned together, the tidiest of starts. It then left quietly on a Tuesday, 30 days counted and none spare. The month kept its disorder for the sky instead.
The Sunday 14 April double
Scottie Scheffler pulled away over the back nine at Augusta to win his second Masters by four strokes. It was a second green jacket in three years. Ludvig Aberg, a debutant, finished four back in second.
Hours earlier in Germany, Bayer Leverkusen had beaten Werder Bremen 5-0. It sealed a first Bundesliga title in the club's 120-year history. The win ended Bayern Munich's 11-year run with five games to spare.
The month's culture ran loud as well. Taylor Swift released The Tortured Poets Department on Friday 19 April, a surprise 31-track double album. It became the first album to top 300 million Spotify streams in a day. A billion streams followed within the week.
The eclipse and the moon's diary
The total solar eclipse of Monday 8 April crossed 15 American states from Mazatlan in Mexico to Newfoundland. The next total eclipse over the contiguous United States waits until the 2040s. In eclipse terms, April 2024 was the one to have.
The moon's diary bent around it. Last quarter fell on Tuesday 2 April; the eclipse new moon came on Monday 8 April. First quarter arrived on Monday 15 April; the full moon rose on Tuesday 23 April. A blank April grid takes all four quietly, one small square at a time.
May 2024 came next with the fullest working month of the half-year. April kept the arithmetic simple: two weekdays at five, the rest at four, one Monday of consequence.