Leap Day

Today is February 29th and that happens only every four years. I wasn't going to post anything today. It's a good day to stay in and catch up on some reading. However, I got curious about how Leap Year came about and thought if I don't write anything today I will have to wait another four years for Leap Day to come back around.

So, I went to Wikipedia and found some interesting facts. There's a lot of mind boggling facts and I could bore you to death with a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo. Fact is I got bored with it myself and decided to keep this simple. Keeping simple is easy for me. It comes naturally.

Quite simply an extra day was added to the Gregorian calendar once every four years so we can match up to the solar year. The solar year is six hours longer than our normal 365 days. It was decided that the date would be February 29th and that date is called Leap Day. Leap Year is any year that can be evenly divided by the number four. The next Leap Year will be 2012.

A person born on February 29th is called a "leapling". The newspapers commemorated a few leaplings in today's editions. For instance Virgil Marelli of ELO was pictured in the ER and has been around for 84 years but today is only his 21st birthday. I surely hope he feels 21. Go buy yourself a drink Virgil. You're legal now. Have a great one.

Some folk traditions that go along with this year is that in most English speaking parts of the world it is permissible for a woman to propose marriage to her man in a Leap Year. In old England it was punishable by law if the man refused. However, in Greece it is considered unlucky to get married in a Leap Year. Go figure. Evidently Sadie Hawkins wasn't Greek.

So fellows if your reluctant to pop the question to your gal watch out. You're fair game to have the tables turned on you this year. Question: if a woman proposes to her man does she have to buy the engagement ring?

Found the picture of the post card above on Wikipedia. It's a hundred years old and they noted it was public domain. You can click on it to enlarge.

So Happy Birthday to all you leaplings. Hope to see you again in another four years.

Now back to the book...

ole nib