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For
anyone who doesn't know yet--where have you been???--I will be
celebrating my 19th Leap Year Day birthday next month on February
29--for those who are bad at math you could also say I will be 76!!!
Starting next week I will be doing a 8-9 part series about how I have
celebrated my birthdays previously. I DO NOT celebrate the in-between
years. It does surprise me how many people know very little about the
day and year, how it came about, the reasons, what it means, traditions,
etc. so I decided to round up some information from the Internet. A lot
of this information comes from the leapyearday.com web site. Oh
yes, don't worry--before the series ends and giving you plenty of time I
will post my birthday wish list --oh, come on, that surprises you?!?!?
Obviously you don't know me!!
From leapyearday.com
February 29th is special...
It's the reason that a season comes at the same time every year.
If you're born on Leap Day... Welcome Home!
Just 48 days to our next birthday!
From wikipedia.com
A person born on February 29 may be called a "leapling " or a "leaper ". In common years they usually celebrate their birthdays on February 28 or March 1. In some situations, March 1 is used as the
birthday in a non-leap year since it is the day following February 28.
Technically, a leapling will have fewer birthday anniversaries than their age in years. This phenomenon is exploited when a person
claims to be only a quarter of their actual age, by counting their
leap-year birthday anniversaries only. In Gilbert and Sullivan 's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance , Frederic the pirate apprentice discovers that he is bound to serve the pirates until his 21st birthday rather than until his 21st year.
For legal purposes, legal birthdays depend on how local laws count time intervals.
These events are or were held every four years during leap years
- UEFA European Football Championship
- Summer Olympic Games except 1900
- Republic of China presidential election, 1996 in Taiwan and subsequent elections
- United States presidential election
- Winter Olympic Games through 1992
A leap year (or intercalary or bissextile year) is a year containing one extra day (or, in the case of lunisolar calendars , a month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year . Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat in a whole number of days, a calendar that had the same number of days in each year
would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to
track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating ) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year that is not a leap year is called a common year . ( I DO FEEL SORRY FOR YOU COMMON PEOPLE!)
For example, in the Gregorian calendar (a common solar calendar), February in a leap year has 29 days instead
of the usual 28, so the year lasts 366 days instead of the usual 365.
Folk traditions
On the British isles, it is a tradition that women may propose marriage only on leap years. While it has been claimed that the tradition was initiated by Saint Patrick or Brigid of Kildare in 5th century Ireland , this is dubious, as the tradition has not been attested before the 19th century. Supposedly, a 1288 law by Queen Margaret of Scotland (then age five and living in Norway), required that fines be levied if a
marriage proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from
akiss to £1 to a silk gown, in order to soften the blow.
Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was
in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to the modern
leap day, February 29, or to the medieval (bissextile) leap day,
February 24.
According to Felten: "A play from the turn of
the 17th century, 'The Maydes Metamorphosis,' has it that 'this is leape
year/women wear breeches.' A few hundred years later, breeches wouldn't
do at all: Women looking to take advantage of their opportunity to
pitch woo were expected to wear a scarlet petticoat—fair warning, if you
will."
In Finland , the tradition is that if a man refuses a woman's proposal on leap day, he should buy her the fabrics for a skirt.
The following is from infoplease.com
What are your chances of being born on leap day?
About 1 in 1500.
The rules for determining a leap year
Most years that can be divided evenly by 4 are leap years.
Exception: Century years are NOT leap years UNLESS they can be evenly divided by 400.
April, June and November
All the rest have thirty-one
Save February, and it alone,
Has twenty-eight we do confine
Till Leap year gives it twenty nine
Don't fired me cause I am handsome.
Did you ever hear this little parody? I first heard this when I was a teenager, back in the dark ages.
Thirty days hath September, April, June, and no wonder.
All the rest eat peanut butter. Except Grandmother. She drives the Buick.