leap year day | top 25 facts
don't be fooled by the calendar. there are only as many days in the year as you make use of ~ charles richards
while we'd love our readers to think we share interesting tidbits here and there just for them, that's only true in part. truth is, the WizWog family has always been avid learners.
here's what we learned today -
1 - the original roman 355 day calendar had an extra 22-day month every few years to maintain the correct seasonal changes. by the time julius caesar took reign, the seasons no longer occurred during the same months they once had.
2 - this was remedied in 45 BC by removing the extra month and adding the extra day to a few months instead.
3 - julius caesar proclaimed the last day of february as Leap Year Day, skipping it three out of four years. back then, february 30th was the last day of the last month of the year, which is why he picked it.
4 - julius also threw in a month in honor of himself (julius - july)
5 - around 10 BC, it was found that the priests in charge of computing the calendar had been adding leap years every three years instead of the four decreed by caesar. as a result of this error, no more leap years were added until 8 AD - then every fourth year after 12 AD, until the gregorian calendar was introduced.
6 - in 4 AB emperor caesar augustus corrected acounting error in leap years. he also had the month of august named after him, and took the last day of february so that august can have 31 days, just like julius' month. now february has 29 days in leap years.
7 - the calendar was finally perfected by pope gregory xiii in 1582 who predicted easter and christmas would eventually fall on top of each other without his intervention.
8 - pope gregory determined that leap day should fall on any year divisible by 4 but not 100 (except whern the year is divisible by 400).
OK, did we all get that??
9 - century years were made leap years if they were divisible by 400. so, 2000 was a leap year, but 1900 was not.
10 - at the same time, pope gregory moved the end of the year to december 31st.
11 - he also moved the end of the year back two months so that easter would occur in the spring.
12 - today our year is 365.2425 days, off from our solor year by .00031, or one day's error over 4,000 years.
13 - leap seconds! some years are longer than others. this is mostly due to weather. every few years, scientists agreed to add or remove a second from a year right at midnight on january 1st or july 1st. this is called a leap second.
but wait - newsflash! scientists have now discovered that the earth is not rotating as fast, and have deemed this practice unnecessary.
14 - leap moons! many countries use a lunar calendar to celebrate religious holidays. whenever the lunar calendar falls behind the solar calendar by more than a moon month, a leap moon month is added to the lunar calendar.
15 - if you're a "leaper," you will have beaten the 1506 odds against being born on leap day.
16 - there is now in existence the worldwide leap year birthday club and the worldwide leap year festival.
17 - leap year was the traditional time that women could propose marriage. when the rules of courtship were stricter, women were only allowed to pop the question on one day every four years - february 19th.
18 - it is believed this tradition was started in 5th century ireland when st. bridget complained to st. patrick about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose. so, according to legend, st. patrick said women could propose on this one day in february during the leap year.
19 - according to english law, february 29th was ignored and had no legal status.
20 - folks assumed that traditions would also have no status on that day. it was also reasoned that since the leap year day existed to fix a problelm in the calendar, it could also be used to fix an old and unjust custom that only let men propose marriage.
21 - the first documentation of this practice dates back to 1288, when scotland passed a law that allowed women to propose marriage to the man of their choice in that year.
22 - they also made it a law that any man who declined a proposal in a leap year must pay a fine. the fine could range from a kiss to payment for a silk dress or a pair of gloves.
23 - in the united states, some people have erroneously referred to this date as sadie hawkins day, with women being given the right to run after unmarried men to propose. designed sadie hawkins day is actually november 15.
24 - there is a greek superstition that claims couples have bad luck if they marry during a leap year. apparently one in five engaged couples in greece will avoid planning their wedding during a leap year.
25 - herman hollerith developed the first computer on leap day 1860. he had been a special agent for the US census, and developed punch cards and electric tabulating machines in time to process the census returns, reducing considerably the time needed to complete the clerical work. hollerith's venture became part of what is now the IBM corporation.
Now that your brain is spinning with leap year explanation facts, here's one more fun factoid:
Q: what are your chances of being born on leap day?
A: about 1 in 1500.
