Archive: Around Town

It takes our planet 365.242199 days to circle the sun.  That .242199 of a day adds up to almost a whole day that has to go somewhere.  Over 2000 years ago Julius Caesar decided to do something about it.  He added a leap day every four years.

But that didn't account for the 0.007801 of a day that didn't accrue in a year.  1500 years later the Gregorian Calendar corrected the mistake.  It aligned the calendar with the equinox, dropping a number of days when the change was made.

Not everyone accepted that, though.  Sweden was slow to adopt the Gregorian calendar, and by the time they did they needed two leap days to catch up.  So Sweden had February 29 and 30 in 1712.  One can only hope they made the weekend longer!

In Scotland a February 29 birthday is considered to be unlucky, on a par with Friday the 13th.  But in England the 29th gets its own Saint -- the day is named St Oswald’s Day to commemorate the death of the Archbishop of York on February 29, 992.  In the 17th century women were to wear breeches on Leap Day,

According to legend Saint Bridget struck a deal with Saint Patrick to allow women to propose to men one day on leap years.  In Denmark tradition required men who refused marriage proposals on Leap Day to buy their suitor 12 pairs of gloves.  In Finland he had to buy her fabric to make a skirt.  In some countries men were actually fined for refusing a marriage proposal on leap day.  In Greece it is downright bad luck to get engaged on Leap Day.

Singer Dinah Shore was born on leap day in 1916.  She died in 1994.  Does that mean she was only 19 1/2 when she died?

Norwegian Karin Henriksen gave birth to 3 children on consecutive February 29s starting in 1960.  She holds the record for giving birth on Leap Day.

Other calendars deal with the problem in different ways.  The Chinese and Hebrew Calendars have a Leap Month.  The Hebrew Calendar also adds days by a day or two so that certain holidays fall in the proper relation to the Sabbath and the New year is never on a Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday.

This year Leap Day falls on next Wednesday.  At the time of this writing I have two items on my calendar.  One is a reminder to take out the trash, the other a Town Sewer Committee meeting.  Do I detect a theme here?  Should I even get out of bed next Wednesday?

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