Leap Year Fact Vs. Fiction

Leap years as we all know, happen only once in four years, but apart from this basic information, what else do you know about this special year and day?
We break down some facts and myths or fiction surrounding the leap day and leap year. But first, let’s see why and what the leap year is about.

Why do we need a leap year?
The earth takes about 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds to completely revolve around the sun. These extra 5 hours that we tend to ignore needs to be accounted for, hence we add it all up and once in 4 years give February 29 days instead of 28. This is done to make adjustments to the Gregorian calendar so that it matches or syncs up with the solar calendar. This is in turn done so that solar events like the spring equinox and autumn equinox can be observed with regularity every year.

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Which years are leap years?
A leap year is usually any year where the last two digits of the year are divisible by four, e.g. 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024and so on.
However, it is not just the year that is important, it is the century too. The entire century must be divisible by 400 to have leap years. This is why 2000 and 2400 are centuries that can have leap years, but 2100 will not have any.

Leap Year Fiction
Many counties have different views on what happens on the extra day in February, such as –

• In the UK they have a tradition called Bachelor’s Day or Sadie Hawkins Day, this is a day when women can act like men, and propose marriage to a man (traditionally a man’s task). It started in the 1700s and is carried on even now.

• An old Irish legend says that St. Brigid had a deal with St. Patrick to allow women to propose to men, and the men could not refuse them on this day.

• In Denmark, if a man doesn't accept a leap year proposal, he should give her a dozen pairs of gloves. And in Finland, the fine for refusing a woman’s proposal is a gift of enough fabric to make a skirt.

• The Scottish, and Indians believe that being born on the 29th of February is extremely unlucky. The Scotts even say that those born on this day will have plenty of struggles and suffering. Their old saying goes “Leap year was ne’er a good sheep year.”

• Some astrologers believe people born on the 29th of February have rather unusual talents.

• The Greeks believe that getting married during a leap year is bad luck, they try to avoid it as much as possible. They also believe that couples who get divorced in a leap year will never find happiness or love again!

• In Russia, the leap year is believed to cause freak or unusual weather patterns and a greater risk of death. Some farmers say that beans and peas planted in a leap year “grow the wrong way” according to folklore.

Leap Year Facts

• The leap year is also called an intercalary year or bissextile year.

• It is said that Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus is the one who caused February to be the shortest month. Earlier, in the Julian calendar, all the other months had 30 or 31 days, but Caesar Augustus was unhappy that August had only 29, so he decided to give ‘his month’ 2 extra days and hence February lost its days.

• If you look at the Chinese calendar, it doesn’t have a leap day, but it does have a whole leap month! It is added to the Chinese calendar every three years and the leap month's place in the Chinese calendar varies from year to year. 2014 was the last leap year in the Chinese calendar and this year is another.

• In the Ethiopian calendar, an extra day is added to the last month instead of February, this is also done once in 4 years.

• People born on February 29 are called "leaplings" or "leapers".

[caption id="attachment_5417" align="aligncenter" width="510"] Picture Courtesy - threelittlekittens[/caption]

• The odds of being born on February 29th are 1 in 1,461, but can you imaging being born and dying on a leap day? According to the World Heritage Encyclopaedia, a Britisher called James Milne Wilson was born and died on leap days. He was born Feb 29th 1812 and died Feb 29th 1880.

• There is a special leap day cocktail, it was made in London’s Savoy Hotel in 1928 and this is how it’s made -

1 dash lemon juice
2/3 gin
1/6 Grand Marnier
1/6 sweet vermouth

[caption id="attachment_5415" align="aligncenter" width="651"] Picture Courtesy - nibblesip[/caption]

• In Norway, a woman named Karin Henriksen gave birth to three children on consecutive leap days. The first was her daughter born February 29th, 1960, then a son on February 29th, 1964 and her last son on February 29th, 1968.

• There is a club called the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies. It is only for people born on Feb. 29. The club has over 11,000 members worldwide and their aim is to promote leap day awareness, help leap day babies get in touch and connect them all.

• You are working for free on the 29th of February, this is because you’re working an extra day, but receiving no extra pay. There have been petitions to make the 29th of Feb a holiday (fingers crossed).

• The twin cities of Anthony, Texas, and Anthony, New Mexico call themselves the Leap Year Capital of the World. They have a huge birthday party for all leap babies and this four-day festival is one-of-a-kind.

• The rarest magazine is a French magazine called La Bougie du Sapeur, it is a parody newspaper that is published only once in 4 years!

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