constant strings, MySQL first tries to convert the string to a DATE and then to perform the comparison. When the conversion failed, MySQL executed the comparison treating the DATE as a string, which could lead to unpredictable behavior. Now in such cases, if the conversion of the string to a DATE fails, the comparison fails with ER_WRONG_VALUE. (Bug #29025656) https://dev.mysql.com/doc/relnotes/mysql/8.0/en/news-8-0-16.html