March 2025: ten weekend days and twin eclipses
March 2025 opened on a Saturday and paid out in weekends: five Saturdays, five Sundays and five Mondays in 31 days. That is ten weekend days, the monthly maximum, spread across weeks 9 to 14. The month closed on a Monday, having staged two eclipses and an equinox on the way through. For anyone who counts Saturdays first, March 2025 was the year's jackpot.
How ten weekend days happen
A 31-day month beginning on a Saturday sets the table: five Saturdays, five Sundays and five Mondays. That leaves four of every other weekday, 21 business days and 10 weekend days. Five Saturdays, and the month spent every one of them.
The moon ran first quarter on March 6 and last quarter on March 22. Full came on March 14; new on March 29. The full moon did not just sit there. It went into eclipse.
Two eclipses and an equinox
On Friday, March 14, the full moon slid into a total lunar eclipse: the Blood Worm Moon. Two weeks later, on March 29, a partial solar eclipse finished the month. Between them, on Thursday, March 20, came the equinox. Spring began in the northern hemisphere; autumn in the southern.
Two eclipses in one month is a double feature the sky rarely books. No other month in the first half of 2025 had any eclipse at all.
The month in the world
March carried heavy news. On March 28, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck central Myanmar along the Sagaing Fault. Buildings fell in Mandalay, and a skyscraper collapsed in Bangkok. The death toll climbed past 3,700.
Wildfires in South Korea became the largest and deadliest in that country's history. The fires killed 32 people and destroyed an ancient temple. Monitors documented more than 800 killings of civilians along the Syrian coast in early March.
On March 18, strikes across Gaza ended the January ceasefire. Gaza officials reported more than 400 people killed in a single day.
There were brighter notes. India won cricket's Champions Trophy on March 9, beating New Zealand by four wickets for a record third title. Anora took five Oscars on March 2. The same day, Firefly's Blue Ghost lander made the first fully successful commercial soft landing on the Moon.
Luther, by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, held the Billboard number one all month. Disney's live-action Snow White opened at number one late in the month, then faded fast. US tariffs of 25 percent on most Canadian and Mexican goods took effect on March 4.
Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines' former president, was arrested in Manila on March 11. He was flown to The Hague on an International Criminal Court warrant.
Ten weekend days is the ceiling, and March 2025 reached it. April restored order with a plain 30-day grid.