The year 2020 is still young and before we go any further I thought you might like to know this is no ‘common’ year, but a leap year.
Now, besides eternally blessing those born on February 29th (known as leap day) with in-built jokes about how they only have a birthday every four years, what exactly is a leap year?
Well, put in the simplest of terms, a leap year happens because the Earth does not make a full rotation around the Sun in 365 days, the number of days in a ‘common’ year.
The concept was decreed by none other than Julius Caesar under the ‘Julian’ calendar but it would be Pope Gregory XII who would remove ten days from the month of October and made February 29th the official extra day added every fourth year.
It should be noted that the state of Texas gets into the leap year festivities as the town of Anthony marks the occasion with a four day celebration along with its twin-city Anthony, New Mexico.
However, like any thing that is defined as an oddity, leap year also has a reputation for some strange beliefs and behavior, such as the now outdated belief that a woman could only propose marriage to a man on leap day or that the entire year is cursed with bad luck.
You also cannot discuss leap year without talking about those aforementioned leap day born babies, who will usually celebrate their birthdays in other years on the 28th of February or less common the first day of March.
Leap year though is more than just some weird little date that pops up every so often, because without correcting the time differential between the dates on calendars and the time it takes the Earth to rotate the Sun, our clocks would eventually become affected.
The Earth is only ‘late’ getting round the Sun by just under six hours, but without correction it would wreck havoc on our time measurement and hours of daylight.
Amazing that a scientific and mathematical system would later give birth to jokes about athletes wearing ‘jump suits’ on leap day or that the place to get a bite to eat that day is…wait for it…’I-Hop.’
Leap year also regularly occurs on the year of the elections for an American President, which depending on the candidates is often a ‘leap’ of faith of a different kind (and another bad joke one can only make every four years).
Regardless of how one chooses to view leap years, leap day, or how to deal with those pesky slowly aging leap babies, the most solid advice is just to ‘leap’ right in and enjoy the extra day on this year’s calendar.
