By Catherine Ellerton
Moapa Valley Progress
We made it! Another Leap Year….another Leap Day…here at last. They only occur every four years and are calculated to keep the calendar year synchronized with astronomical or the seasonal year. In other words, they keep the calendar in alignment with earth’s revolutions around the sun. Otherwise, we would be in danger of losing 6 hours every year.
Leap Day is added to the calendar in Leap Years as a corrective measure, because the earth does not orbit around the sun in precisely 365 days.
Of course there are several calendars – Julian, Coptic, Gregorian, Roman, Thai, Hindu, National and on and on – each calendar with its own magical formula.
In 46 BC Julius Caesar introduced the Julian Calendar which accounted for Leap Year. However, as the magical calculation was only a division of 4 there were too many Leap Years.
That mis-calculation had to be corrected later by the Gregorian Calendar. There are three criteria that must be met per the Gregorian Calendar before a year is considered a Leap Year. The year is evenly divisible by four; if the year can be evenly divided by 100, it is not a leap year, unless; the year is also evenly divisible by 400. Then it is a Leap Year.That is unless it is divided by four, except years divided by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. (Per the revised Julian Calendar which, in some ways, agrees with the rule for the Gregorian Calendar.)
Who dreams up this stuff?!
So to get it down to specifics – the average number of days per year is 365 plus ¼ minus 1/100 plus 1/400 which equals 365.2425 resulting in 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds in each year.
Did I mention – there are also LEAP SECONDS? This year, 2012, we will get one whole second added by June 30. (Trust me, you don’t want to know why and how!)
There are many traditions and/or superstitions credited to Leap Year. Per a ‘dubious’ Irish legend a woman may propose to a man during a Leap Year. In Denmark, if the man refuses the proposal, he must buy her 12 pairs of gloves. That way she can wear gloves to hide the fact of not having an engagement ring. In Finland, the reticent man must buy fabric for a skirt for the woman. In Greece, marriage in a Leap Year is considered unlucky.
People born on Leap Day (this year, Wednesday, February 29), are called ‘leaplings’ or a’ leaper.’ They celebrate birthdays only every four years. For legal purposes, legal birthdays of these Leap Day babies depend on how local laws count the time intervals.
Famous Leap Year babies include Pope Paul III, the composer Rossini, singer Dinah Shore, and baseball player Al Rosen.
Some major events that are/were held every four years during Leap Years are the Summer Olympic Games, the U.S. Presidential election and the Winter Olympic Games until 1992.
Have nice Leap Day. Thank goodness we’re all caught up – once again!
