March 2027: five Mondays and a Saturday equinox
Dispatch from the quarter's engine room. March 2027 runs 31 days, Monday 1 to Wednesday 31 March. Five Mondays, five Tuesdays and five Wednesdays stack the grid's front. Together they hand the quarter its biggest working month, at 23 business days. Our correspondent's eye, though, is on five days in the middle. Super Saturday, a festival in Austin and a college basketball tournament all land between Saturday 13 and Wednesday 17 March. The diary has already surrendered.
The quarter's biggest working month
The month opens on Monday 1 March and closes on Wednesday 31 March. Mondays arrive five times, on 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 March. Tuesdays repeat on 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 March. Wednesdays do the same on 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31 March.
Business days total 23, the largest figure of the first half, against 8 weekend days. ISO week numbers run 9 to 13. Week 13 is shared with April, because the month's last Monday, the 29th, opens a week that finishes next month.
Barcelona and San Francisco, together
The month opened with a split diary. Mobile World Congress ran at Fira Barcelona from Monday 1 to Thursday 4 March. The Game Developers Conference held San Francisco for exactly the same four days. The two shows share nothing but their dates.
Pixar's Gatto reached cinemas on Friday 5 March, the first weekend clear of both conferences. Few travel budgets stretch to both cities in the same week. The industry therefore splits between Barcelona and San Francisco, and the debrief waits until everyone is home. The week after belongs to Austin.
Five days, three weekends' worth
Saturday 13 March is Six Nations Super Saturday. Italy meet Wales and England meet Scotland, before Ireland close against France in Dublin. SXSW then opens in Austin on Monday 15 March and runs to Sunday 21 March. American college basketball begins its national tournament on Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 March at Dayton and Wichita.
The field runs to 76 teams for the first time. The Final Four is booked for Detroit early in April. Anyone following every round should clear the evenings from Tuesday 16 March onward.
Light for the equinox weekend
New moon falls on or near Monday 8 March, so the month opens under dark skies. First quarter follows on Monday 15 March, and full moon on Monday 22 March. Last quarter lands on Tuesday 30 March.
The weekend around the equinox gets the month's brightest moonlight, with the moon filling from Saturday 20 to Monday 22 March. The equinox sits on Saturday 20 March, and spring arrives on a day off for most of the northern hemisphere.
Twenty-three business days, a Saturday equinox and a 76-team field. March 2027 carries the quarter on its back.