Why were Christmas Day and New Year's Day on different days of the week in 1939?

Answer 1

It's a brain-teaser type of question:

So, it seems like Christmas Day and New Year's Day always fall on the same day of the week. However, in 1939, the year of World War II, Christmas fell on a Monday while New Year's fell on a Sunday. Why? It's a brain teaser.

In any given year, Christmas and New Year's fall on different days of the week.

Think of it like this: Christmas occurs around 51 weeks later in the year than New Year's Day, which occurs in the first week of the year. Every year! The year 1939 was no different.

Explanation: Many people tend to consider Christmas first followed by New Year's exactly one week later. Therefore, it seems as though the two holidays would always occur on the same day of the week. However, the New Year's Day that occurs exactly one week after Christmas Day is actually in the following year (in this case, New Year's Day 1940). That's the trick to this question. New Year's Day always occurs before Christmas Day each and every year, which means they are often (but not necessarily always) falling on different days of the week each year.

In 1939, New Year's Day was on a Sunday and Christmas Day was on a Monday.