Every four years we added an extra day to our shortest month, February, and called it a leap year. But what would happen if we didn’t add that extra day?
by Victor Cherubim
2020 is a leap year. Every four years a year comes along that has one more day than the 365 days we are accustomed to reckon in a normal year. It is a day to keep the calendar synchronised with the astronomical year or seasonal year.
The Earth completes one revolution around the Sun in around 365 days 6 hours. Over a period of 4 years, the extra 6 hours from every year get added up to become an extra day. The month of February is different to other months. It has the shortest number of days of the year, often 28 days and this extra day is added to it, once in four years.
School children in Sri Lanka used to learn in the kindergarten the old rhyme.
“Thirty days has September
April, June and November
All the rest have thirty-one
Except February which has 28 days
Till Leap year gives it 29”
Besides, there are also four interesting things to note in a leap year.
Leap day goes back to the Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar, who declared it as the last day of February.
Because such days in the year are rarer than the normal years, they have become lucky omens. 29th is an especially important day as tradition states anything started on this day is sure of success. It was on 29th February in the leap year of 1504 that Christopher Columbus, the famous explorer was able to have contact after being marooned in the small island of Jamaica.
A day of reckoning for women
For women February 29th can also be a very successfulday, as once every four years on this day they have the “right” to propose to a man of their choice. This “right” of every woman to propose on February 29th of a Leap Year, goes back hundreds of years when the leap year had no recognition in English Law. It was decided that the day had no legal status, meaning that a break in tradition on this day was accepted. So, on this day women could take advantage of this anomaly and propose to the man they wished to marry. In Scotland since the year 1288, to ensure success they would also wear a scarlet undergarment to make sure it was partly visible to the man when they propose. Today proposing under water or doing a sky dive with a parachute saying: “Will you marry me” are among the top tips for women thinking of popping the question in a leap year. It was reported that any man who refused the proposal would need to pay a fine in the form of a kiss, buy a dress, or at least a fine of One Pound.
Days in other calendars
The Leap Year was also a feature in other calendars. Some calendars like the Chinese, Hindu, Buddhist and perhaps, Arabic and Hebrew calendars are lunisolar, meaning their dates indicate the position of our nearest planet, the Moon, as well as the position of the Earth relative to the Sun, there is as much as a month allowed for a leap year. As there is a natural gap of roughly 11 days between a year as measured by lunar cycles and one measured by the earth’s orbit, such calendars periodically require the addition of extra months, known as intercalary months, to keep them on track.
Birthdays in a Leap Year
It is perhaps, a special birthday technically speaking for those who are born on February 29th of a Leap Year. They only get to cut their birthday cake every four years, But they are very special too. People born on a Leap Day are called “Leaping’s” hardly to be considered as “Weaklings.”I would hardly have been able to calculate the odds of being born on a Leap Day, but my Accountant states that the odds stand at 1 in 1,461.
So much for being born on February 29th
Cultures across time whose calendars relied on the Sun, the Moon or both had different methods to keep their festivals and planting schedules in line with the seasons.
Every four years we added an extra day to our shortest month, February, and called it a leap year. But what would happen if we didn’t add that extra day?
Perhaps, we would get out of whack with the seasons and at some point, we would do Christmas shopping in June.
I know that the weather in UK has been a mixture of showers, rain, sleet and snow with very few really sunny days, since October 2019. How I wish they not only find a miracle cure for coronavirus like our anticipated spring season soon?
But wouldn’t it be wonderful also to research a way to hibernate like animals during the winter, and wake up refreshed in Spring each year, rather than travel abroad with so many contingencies and take a leap into the “unknown”.
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