DEFINITION
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| February 29 - Only in a leap year. |
A leap year is a year wherein it has one extra day, on the month of February, summing itself up to 366 days, and usually happens every 4 years. 2016 is indeed a leap year. Meaning, it is expected that there is "February 29" that is in occurrence only for four (4) years.
Scientifically speaking, the Gregorian calendar, in which the ones we are using right now which is traces back to Pope Gregory, relies on the sun, wherein the cycle takes place and the seasons change on a certain time period. The calculations do come up upon the time spans of one season over the other, is not necessarily a perfect 365 days. In fact, it is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds. In lay man's term, it is 365 and a quarter days. With that comes leap year, with the philosopher's idea that a quarter of a day forms one whole day every 4 years. And that's why leap years do exist.
Now, imagine that there's no leap year. There will be disorientation on our part where seasons don't match with the calendar. Like for instance, spring fell on the month of November or winter fall on the month of April. Such instances do raise confusion among people and thus, having disoriented with time that affects everyday activities.
HISTORY
This comes in a question: Why in a February? It is unfair! A month usually has 30 or 31 days, while February only has 28 or 29 days. Why? The answer? It all starts with the Julian Calendar, which traces back to the Roman Times. The Julian calendar, the one Julius Caesar did usually have February with 30 days, July with 31 days, and August with 29 days. When Augustus Caesar comes into power, he wanted his month to have more days. So he added it totaling 31 days for August. That means taking one day from February.
WHAT MAKES LEAP YEAR SPECIAL?
Now, imagine this: Assume that a person celebrates his or her birthday, anniversary and sorts on a February 29. And we all know that such day only happens every 4 years. That alone makes celebrations a special one, with special treats, and usually, leap day women are encourage to propose. (this link says so)
Now, let us take some information from this Reader's Digest article. And it goes like this:
Here are seven
reasons Leap Day is even more special than you think.
1. The Rule: Leap Day Happens
Every Four Years Unless It Doesn’t
The point of leap years is to help
adjust our Gregorian calendar (aka, the 365-day calendar you can find on your
desk or phone) to the solar calendar, and make sure we celebrate solar events
like the spring and autumn equinoxes with some regularity every year. Even
adding an extra day to February every four years doesn’t quite do the trick,
which is why scientists sometimes call for a Leap Second like
they did last year on June 30 at 11:59:60 pm.
How do you remember if it’s a leap
year? Simple: If the last two digits of the year are divisible by four (e.g.
2016, 2020, 2024…) then it’s a leap year. Century years are the exception to
this rule. They must be divisible by 400 to be leap years—so, 2000 and 2400 are
leap years, but 2100 will not be one. As a bonus, U.S. leap years almost always
coincide with election years, meaning candidates get a free day of campaigning,
and we get a free day of tweeting about how much we hate them.
2. What’s Crazier than February
29th? A Woman Proposing to a Man, Says History
You’re not the only one who thinks Leap
years are silly. After Pope Gregory XIII instituted the Gregorian calendar in
1582, the idea of adding February 29th every four years seemed so ridiculous that
a British play joked it was a day when women should
trade their dresses for “breeches” and act like men. The play
was meant as satire, but some early feminists must have been inspired; by the
1700s, women were using Leap Day to propose to the men in their lives. The
tradition—now called Bachelor’s Day or Sadie Hawkins Day—peaked in the early 1900sand
continues today in the UK, where some retailers even offer discount packages to
women popping the question.
3. What do Ja Rule and Gioachino
Rossini Have in Common?
They are both musicians extraordinaire (Rossini composed The Barber of Seville; Ja Rule charted with a song called
“Thug Lovin,” among others)—but more to the point, they were both born on
February 29th.
The odds of being born on February 29th
are 1 in 1,461, which makes it particularly rare for one leapling, as they are called, to meet another.
Rarer still: The possibility that three
children in the same family would be born on three consecutive Leap Days, but
that’s exactly what happened with the Henriksen family of
Norway. Heidi Henriksen was born on 2/29/1960, her brother Olav four
years later on 2/29/64, and baby Leif-Martin four years after that on 2/29/68.
According to many government agencies, Heidi, Olav, and Ja Rule would not legally be considered
older until March 1ston non-leap years, but this year, we can
officially say, “Happy Actual Birthday, leaplings!”
4. Only Swedes and Hobbits
Celebrate February 30th
February 30th? This even rarer date
occurred in Sweden and Finland in 1712, when they added an extra Leap Day to
February to help catch up their outdated Julian calendar with the new Gregorian
calendar. There is, however, one race of people who celebrates February 30th
every year: Hobbits. The wee folk of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings universe observe twelve 30-day
months every year—including Solmath (translated in the
text to February).
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5. There is an Official Leap
Day Cocktail
And it’s called… The Leap Day Cocktail!
This colorful cousin of the martini was invented by pioneering bartender Harry Craddock at London’s Savoy Hotel in 1928.
According to the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, “it
is said to have been responsible for more
proposals than any other cocktail ever mixed” (see: Sadie
Hawkins Day above). Whether or not you’re in the market for a freshly soused
spouse, you can make your own Leap Day cocktail with Craddock’s original recipe:
Shake, serve, garnish with a lemon
peel, and enjoy the flood of bittersweet flavors. It’s like a marriage, in your
mouth!
6. Not Thirsty? Celebrate Leap
Day with Travel Deals and a Rare French Magazine
How does one celebrate a holiday that’s
not really a holiday? By shopping, obviously. Many businesses observe the
rarity of Leap Day by offering massive deals—as JetBlue did with their one-way $29 fare
promotion (which has, tragically, ended). Take a minute to check in with any
restaurants, hotels, or cruise lines you’ve been curious about; chances
are, they have a promotion
running. And if your travels take you to France, pick up a copy of
the rareLa Bougie du
Sapeur, a French parody newspaper only published once every
four years on Leap Day. Newsstand copies sell for four euro apiece, but
generous investors can buy a lifetime subscription—only 100 euro per century.
7. Is February 29th Good Luck
or Bad Luck? Depends on Who You Ask
According to an old Scottish aphorism,
“leap year was ne’er a good sheep year.” The superstition that Leap Days are
particularly lucky or unlucky has been debated through history and
across cultures, and there’s still no clear winner. For one thing, it’s bad
luck if you’re a prisoner on a one-year sentence that spans a Leap Day. Also,
it is bad news if you work on a fixed annual salary; no extra pay for that
extra day. On the other hand Leap Day is great luck if you’re on a fixed
monthly rent (one free day of living!), or if you’re Hattie McDaniel, in which
case February 29, 1940 is the day you became the first African
American to win an Oscar for your role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind.
CONCLUSION
This one, extra day simply gives a lot
of special things in a special way among those people who celebrate in it.
Furthermore, this day is worth an extra day to do some extraordinary activities
in an extraordinary amount of time which occurs only once every 4 years.
Furthermore, this extra day, makes it
special to each and every one of us considering we can have extra time on each
activities that we do. And on this special day, we do usual things that really
do sense in life and on this day also gives the difference that an extra 24
hours can change a lifetime for some person. Let
us seize this extra day and make it more special to us!
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