By Alex Smith, Columnist
This week is a special one. Today, we have the privilege of an extra day in the month of February.
In honor of the event, I thought it would be fun to explore some of the curiosities and traditions surrounding this most curious of dates.
This interstitial day is a result of the time it takes for the Earth to complete one revolution around the sun—about 365.25 days. This extra quarter of a day makes for some interesting calendar conundrums.
The Julian calendar, by later Romans, had no active way to account for the extra piece of year and, therefore, gained an average of three days every four centuries.
By 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decided that there had been enough of this temporal foolishness and went to correcting the situation.
Under his reform initiative, a new calendar was instituted named, quite fittingly, the Gregorian calendar which reconciled the day problem by adding an extra day every four years.
The system still is used today and is the internationally accepted civil calendar.
From early on there have been traditions surrounding Leap day. Feb. 29 is an odd day, and many of the traditions in it emphasize this fact.
Colloquially amongst the Scottish it is known as a bad year in general and a particularly unpleasant day in specific. In some cultures, children born on this day (known as “leaplings”) are said to be more difficult to raise.
One of the more interesting traditions (perhaps more of a cultural relic at this point) regards marriage proposals.
While no one is certain as to the genesis of this tradition, the idea is this: every Feb. 29, women are allowed to propose to men, if the man rejects the proposal, he is required by custom to pay the proposer with either money or a silk gown.
In some instances the woman is only allowed to collect her payment providing she is wearing a red petticoat at the time the offer is refused. Seems logical.
Regarding leaplings and their birthdays, most choose to celebrate either on the 28th or the first. That being said, every country has official legislation for the determination of the ages of these individuals. Despite how much they argue, they are not only a quarter of their actual age.
Also, just as a note of interest, some famous leaplings include: Gioachino Rossini, Ja Rule, and a typesetter named Hubert Blaine Wolfe, who is noteworthy for having the longest regularly used surname ever.
Since it only happens every four years, there aren’t any modern traditions for this day. Perhaps that’s something that should be done.
We dress up in costumes and go door-to-door taking candy from strangers once each fall. We gorge ourselves to oblivion in November. We cut down a fir and put wrapped packages under it in winter. Why not have a strange tradition for leap year?
Sure, it would only come every four years, but that is more reason for being an awesome celebration.
My vote is for spending the day leaving used shoes on strangers’ doorsteps and eating pizza with spoons. In time it may even become a federal holiday and we could have the day off.
Weird, I know, but hunting for a mutated clover to obtain “good luck” isn’t necessarily normal either.
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