All this birthday talk has me wondering, do any of your friends have bdays

[RayOfHope]

that fall in clusters?

We are very good friends with 2 other couples. Among the grownups and our kids, our birthdays fall into three distinct clusters: my husband and best friend were born the same day (not same year tho) and my bday is 5 days later, July is the next cluster with 3 more birthdays, and August 5 and 6 is the next cluster (2 have bdays on the 5th and my son on the 6th). Of course there are a couple 'outliers', lol, but I find the grouping fascinating.

What sort of significance, if any, would you attach to this? It reinforces to me that my tribe is together this go-around :)

[elleng]

1. Yes, bunch of Scorpios swarming around me forever! Same week!

(different years)

Father, 'stranged husband, mother- and brother-in-law, several 'boy' friends. Don't understand significance!

[southerncrone]

3. Is your Mars in Scorpio?

That may be why you are attracted to them.

[I Have A Dream]

2. I have one date that is relevant.

My sister, her daughter, 2 cousins (one on my paternal side and one on my maternal side), a manager (who was also my friend), and a member of my work team with whom I worked closely.

[Kookaburra]

4. Not so much friends, but my entire family

was born between 5/22 and 7/7 -- nieces, nephews and sister-in-law included. That always seemed sort of weird to me.

[Oak2004]

5. that random events cluster.

That's something I learned as a first year physics major: random events clump. The proof is very nearly trivial: if events were evenly spaced, they would have a pattern, and therefore would not be random. If births are random events, a subsample of them would consist of one or more clumps of data -- i.e., birthday clusters.

That said, randomness should not be confused with purposelessness.. If I wanted to learn a language I might want to shuffle my flashcard deck to create something like a random order. If I wanted to practice skeet shooting, I might want the clay pigeon to pop up more or less at random. If I wanted to encrypt something, I'd want a bunch of random noise I could use when creating my encryption. Just because something appears random does not mean it is purposeless.

[Celebration]

6. my birth family had a bunch of May birthdays

And I married someone with a May birthday.

But this is the most interesting--

My dad died on his son's May birthday.

My father in law died on his son's May birthday.

[mysticalchick]

7. In our office of 15 people ...

We have 11 with birthdays between August 15 and Nov 7. That's weird, isn't it? Five in October alone.

Halfway through we are all sick of cake and try to get creative with the treats! heh

[FirstLight]

8. Two clusters in our family

Dad and my sister 7/21 & 7/22

My firstborn son 8/24 my sister's firstborn son 8/23 my sister's husband 8/26

weird huh?

[SheilaT]

9. Yep, there are clusters

of birthdays in my life.

Maternal grandmother, sister-in-law, and my now ex were all born on the same date.

My sister's first child was born on my birthday. Another sister's first grandchild was born on my oldest's birthday. And so on.

Usually, if it comes up in conversation, most people seem to report such clusters in their lives.

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. I've had two friends with the same birthday (different years) and others who are very close-by.

I'm no longer friends with the majority of them.