Leap Day

Leap Day is when there is an extra day added in February to align the calendar with the sun's position. Despite there being 365 days in most calendar years it actually takes 365 days and 6ish hours for the Earth to complete a full revulsion around the sun. Over four years 24 extra hours build up so we have a leap day to compensate.
However it doesn't take exactly 365 days and 6 hours for the Earthy to orbit the sun but more precisely 365 days, 5hrs, 49 mins and 16 seconds. On these figures adding a calendar day every four years is an excess of 42 minutes and 52 seconds each time, or about 3 days every 400 years. To compensate for this, three days are removed every 400 years. So the rule to decide when not to have a leap year is if the year is divisible by 100 it is not a leap year unless that year was also exactly divisible by 400. This means that the years 2000, and 2400 are leap years, while the years 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are not leap years. In the Chinese calendar, this day will only occur in years of the monkey, dragon, and rat.


There is a tradition called Bachelor's Day in some countries which allow a woman to propose to a man on February 29th however if a man rejects a woman's proposal on Leap Day, he must buy her 12 pairs of gloves. He must buy her gloves to hide the embarrassment of not having an engagement ring. In Ireland, the tradition is supposed to originate from a deal that Saint Bridget struck with Saint Patrick.

In Greece it is considered unlucky to marry on leap day.

I can't do a Leap Day post without giving a special mention to my friend Jade who was born on Leap Day. You can check out her blog here: http://jwolfety.blogspot.ie/