Monday - 29 Feb/16

It's LEAP DAY!

The idea is nothing new; in fact it dates all the way back to ancient Egypt. The Egyptians were the first to realize the need for a leap year, but it was in fact the Roman's who first brought it into practice in Europe. In 46 B.C., Julius Caesar (Julian Calendar) introduce a leap (day) year.

The problem is that an Earth Year, the time for the Earth to make a complete rotation around the Sun, is 365 days 6 hours (365.2421 days to be exact).

Today a Leap Day (Feb. 29th) occurs in most years that are divisible by 4. However, as the solar year is only .242 days longer and not .25, this actually adds an extra 11 minutes to every year. Years that are divisible by 100, but not by 400, do not contain a leap day. 3 out of 4 "Centuries" are not leap years. This adjusts for the extra minutes and keeps the seasons in place.

Computer timing chips automatically allow for a leap year; however, if you want a mechanical watch that does the same function without having to manually (heaven forbid) adjust it every 4 years get a Patek Philippe Grand Complication Perpetual Calendar. It has a wheel that rotates once every 4 years to trigger the 29th day.

This hand crafted masterpiece (it takes a year and a half to make a watch) only costs $69,000.00 - $229,000.00 (U.S.); but I suspect it does not make the century adjustments (remember those pesky 11 minutes?).

I was thinking of ordering one; however I hate to wait for things. The 2 day shipping fee put it out of my price range (grin).

This calendar adjustment was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII (Gregorian Calendar aka Western/Christian/Business Calendar) in 1582. After 1500 years under the Julian Calendar the seasons were now out of whack. The Catholic Church wanted to bring the date for the celebration of Easter to the time of the year in which it was  celebrated when it was introduced by the early Church. Easter Celebration was originally tied to the Spring Equinox.

Leap Days (Years) have spawned a number of local traditions around the world.

Clearly no one really knows when a woman could propose to a man. Pick one:

     A) A Leap Year
     B) A Leap Month
     C) A Leap Day

It keeps changing.

According to an old Irish legend, or possibly history, St Brigid struck a deal with St Patrick to allow women to propose to men  (not just the other way around) every four years.

Sometime later (it's anybody's  guess) Leap Year Parties originated. A number of newspapers from the late 1800's indicated (with amusement) that dances where being held whereby the traditional roles were reversed and a lady was allowed to ask the gentleman to dance.

This is not to be confused with Sadie Hawkins Day which is an American folk event, It is a pseudo-holiday that originated in Al Capp's classic hillbilly comic strip "Li'l Abner" on Nov. 15,1937. This inspired real-world Sadie Hawkins Dances, where girls ask boys out which occur yearly on the date of the cartoons introduction (Nov. 15).

In some places, leap day has been known as “Bachelors’ Day”. A man was expected to pay a penalty, such as a gown or money, if he refused a marriage proposal from a woman on Leap Day. During the middle ages there were laws governing this tradition.

Queen Margaret of Scotland brought in a law setting fines for men who turned down marriage proposals from women on a leap year. Like many European countries, especially in the upper classes of society, it dictated that the man refusing had to buy the spurned lady 12 pairs of gloves. The intention was that the woman could wear the gloves (a new pair for every month, eh!) to hide the embarrassment of not having an engagement ring.

GLOVE is defined as coming from the Middle English (from Old English) "GLOF". I think it came from the question arising from a lady wearing gloves (whereby a ring could not be seen) ... Got Love? (grin)

In Scotland, akin to Friday 13th in many parts of the world, it used to be considered unlucky for someone to be born on leap day.

Greeks consider it unlucky for couples to marry during a leap year. Getting hitched on Leap Day was a "Double-Whammy".

Finally, it is National Frog Legs Day! I don't want to "LEAP" to conclusions; but I think somehow there is a connection? (grin)

I wonder when National Bacon Day occurs?

After all that... I hope you had a Great LEAP Day!

Last night was my worst so far. .Charlotte is showing a little more improvement. I hope we are now on over the hump and on the road to improvement.

Charlotte felt well enough to head off to Crafts today. We actually changed lots as an economy move to save fuel. She is now a block and a half closer to the Craft Hall (grin).

I had to just close my eyes and rest while she was gone. I woke in time for Jeopardy.

Charlotte made great meatballs and sauce for spaghetti. It was so good. I needed comfort food!

I'm going to try and stay awake long enough to watch Scorpion and CSI Los Angeles tonight; but I have my doubts.