Leap year only comes once in a while, which probably makes it a special year. There are many traditions and superstitions around leap year, some more well known than others.
Even if you do know a few things about leap year, here are a few facts you probably didn’t know:
1. One Earth year takes 365.2422 days. The leap year is thus necessary to balance out the messiness of our solar system and calendar years.
2. Until Julius Caesar came into power, people observed a 355 day calendar with an extra 22 day month every two years.
3. Under Julius Caesar February had 30 days, but when Caesar Augustus came into power he was not happy that his predecessor’s month, July, had 31 days while his, August, only had 29. He decided to move the extra days from February to August to give the month 31 days like July..
4. The tradition of women proposing on leap year day has been attributed to St. Brigid of the fifth century who complained to St. Patrick that women had to wait too long for men to propose. He then gave her a single day once every four years, 29 February, where women we allowed to propose to men.
5. A prayer has been written by a female cleric for people planning a leap year day marriage or proposal. It goes as follows: God of love, please bless N and N as they prepare for the commitment of marriage. May the plans for the wedding not overtake the more important preparation for their lifetime together. Please bless their family and friends as they prepare for this special day and may your blessings be upon them now and always – Amen.
6. The chance of being born on a leap year day is said to be one in 1 461. Four years is 1 460 days, adding one for leap year day makes that ratio 1:1461.
7. Traditionally, women either have to wear breeches or a scarlet petticoat if they intend to propose on leap day.
8. People born on leap day are called “leapers” or “leaplings”.
9. The poet Lord Byron was born on a leap day.
10. The plot of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance revolved around Frederic’s discovery that, because he is a leapling, he must remain apprenticed to pirates and serve another 63 years before he can join Mabel, his one true love.
11. 29 February is also Rare Disease Day.
12. Astrologers believe people born on 29 February have unusual talents and abilities.
13. Hugh Hefner opened his first Playboy Club on 29 February 1960.
14. The frog is a symbol associated with leap day. The Australian rocket frog can leap over two meters.
15. Pope Gregory XIII coined the term “leap year” and declared that a year divisible by 100 but not by 400 is not a leap year. That included the year 2 000, but excluded the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 as leap years.
16. In Russia it is believed that a leap year is likely to bring more freak weather patterns and a greater risk of death all round. Farming floklore says that beans and peas planted on a leap year will grow the wrong way.
17. In the traditional Chinese calendar a leap month rather than a leap year is added, known as embolismic month. They also believe that children born in the leap month are more difficult to raise than children born in normal months.
What do you believe about Leap Year?
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