May 2028: five Mondays, 23 business days
May 2028 did not so much arrive as sit down at the desk. The month opened on Monday 1 May and went straight to work. Thirty-one days follow, finishing on Wednesday 31 May. The middle of the week does the heavy lifting: five Mondays, five Tuesdays and five Wednesdays. Weekends stay lean at 8 days. The moon manages five phases inside the month. The Derby, a hockey world championship, a golf major and a Champions League final fill the gaps.
Midweek, five times over
May spans ISO weeks 18 to 22 and packs in 23 business days, level with March as the half's heaviest. Mondays run on the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th. Tuesdays add the 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th. Wednesdays finish the sequence on the 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st.
Every other weekday appears exactly four times. Weekend days total 8, the same lean figure March carried. The month's first day is a complete working day, with no soft landing attached. A month that starts on a Monday skips the warm-up lap, and May does not pretend otherwise.
A five-phase month
First quarter arrives on Tuesday 2 May. The full moon follows on Monday 8 May. Last quarter comes on Tuesday 16 May and the new moon on Wednesday 24 May. A second first quarter closes the month on Wednesday 31 May.
Five phases in a single month means something to spot in the sky about every six days. The moon squeezes a full cycle into the month and starts another before the page turns. The pattern holds only here in the first half of 2028.
The month begins and ends with the same phase, a neat pair of brackets. The moon is not usually this symmetrical.
A month of finals
The Derby runs on Saturday 6 May at Churchill Downs in Louisville, the 154th running. First Saturday in May, as it has been since 1875: consistency most sports gave up on generations ago. Louisville, for one week, becomes the centre of the sporting world.
Ice hockey's world championship plays from Friday 12 May to Sunday 28 May across Paris and Lyon. France hosts the top division for the first time. Golf's PGA Championship follows, from Thursday 18 to Sunday 21 May. San Francisco's Olympic Club hosts it for the first time.
The Champions League final fills the Munich Football Arena on Saturday 27 May. It is the third final the stadium has staged, after 2012 and 2025. Four weekends carry four anchor events.
May closes on a Wednesday, trophies distributed and phases counted. June takes over on a Thursday, and the host summer begins: Euro 2028 opens in Cardiff on Friday 9 June.