The Leap Project

All dates of the year are important but some are special to us for some reasons best known to each person in question. It could be some anniversary of an event, it might be due to the fact that it reminds us of an episode in our lives. Whatever, however, whenever this special date stands, they may be limited to specific geographic region or time. There is only one date that the whole world recognizes and accepts universally as special. February 29th is a date we hold to this level of specialty.

I checked the dictionary for the meaning of special and this is what I found contextually appropriate: "distinguished by some unusual quality; especially : being in some way superior." That implies that February 29 is somehow unusual relative to other dates. So the question is what is so unusual about 29th February? Well, it is special because it the only date on calendar culminates in a whole day on quarterly basis for four different years. That is to say, every year, 6 hours is put aside and added together on the following 4th year as one day. Consequently, there are as many as 89 poems composed to mark this special occurrence. Just take a look at three of them below:

Version 89

30 days hath September
April, June, and November
Excepting February
When comes the time
Every Leap Year gives it twenty-nine

Version 51

30 days hath September,
April, June, and November,
All the rest have 31,
Excepting February which alone,
has 28, and 1 day more,
in which we add in "the year of four"...

Version 17
  Thirty days have September,
April, June and November.
All the rest have thirty-one,
Except February the only one
Which Leap Years change
each fourth time
From twenty-eight to twenty-nine.
Century 100s don’t always leap,
each 400 years that leap we keep.

The question has been asked and asked over, what happens to anniversaries that fall on February 29? You celebrate fewer anniversaries than everyone else and that makes you special and lol allows you to prepare for it in a gargantuan way. By the way, is there a national day of any nation that is February 29? To the best of my knowledge none, you can help me if you know of one and let us share how that country marks its birth. In idealization, this will be good for difficulty and recalcitrant spouses. As for individuals with 29th February birthday, hey they are plenty but they always lose out in group goodies. It is this aspect of the unusual thing that set them apart from all of us. For this, hey 29th February borns, please feel special and always celebrate it in a mega way but never forgive loved ones who skip or forget your special day because it comes just once every four years, what a leap birthday celebration!

February 29 also represents a period of earnest and intense competition. It is the only year in which all of our time expect Bolt to break. Oh my God what am I talking about? Yes we expect Bolt to break, period! In an Olympic year, all eyes are fixed on the top sprinter in the 100 metres dash. This year, 2012, one does not need a crystal ball to predict who that character will be barring all unforeseen eventualities. The Reggae country boy, Usain Bolt. As a period of competition, each of us must endeavour to keep our eyes on the main object lessons of our resolution to ensure that we stay on course and stay in competition. Without competition or better still, inability to survive competition means extinction. The survival of the fittest which is called natural selection. 

A issue we have overlooked is the extra productivity this special date adds to organisation. If you are on salary, it implies extra 8-hours of work every four years free of charge. Since all the resources consumed in the course of production come from and exert pressure on the earth and contribute to global warming, won't it be a good idea to set in motion a new a voluntary mobilisation process to deal with climate change? After all, it is said to whom much is given much is expected. I propose that we impose a US$1.00 each on every business owner on February 29th to fund climate change activities. We need to save our planet in an innovative way.  Let us leap on February 29th to preserve our own. Join the Leap Project.

10 things about the leap year

The "leap day" of 29 February exists for purely astronomical reasons, but has always prompted less scientific curiosities.

Here are 10 things to consider - for one day only. Until 2016, that is.

1. The leap year's extra day is necessary because of the "messiness" of our Solar System. One Earth year (a complete orbit around the Sun) does not take an exact number of whole days (one complete spin of the Earth on its axis). In fact, it takes 365.2422 days, give or take.

2. Until Julius Caesar came to power, people observed a 355-day calendar - with an extra 22-day month every two years. But it was a convoluted solution to the problem and feast days began sliding into different seasons. So Caesar ordered his astronomer, Sosigenes, to simplify things. Sosigenes opted for the 365-day year with an extra day every four years to scoop up the extra hours. This is how the 29 February was born. It was then fine-tuned by Pope Gregory XIII (see below).

3. Every fourth year is a leap year, as a rule of thumb. But that's not the end of the story. A year that is divisible by 100, but not by 400, is not. So 2000 was a leap year, as was 1600. But 1700, 1800 and 1900 are not leap years. "It seems a bit arbitrary," says Ian Stewart, emeritus professor of mathematics at Warwick University. But there's a good reason behind it.

"The year is 365 days and a quarter long - but not exactly. If it was exactly, then you could say it was every four years. But it is very slightly less." The answer arrived at by Pope Gregory XIII and his astronomers when they introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582, was to lose three leap days every 400 years. The maths has hung together ever since. It will need to be rethought in about 10,000 years' time, Stewart warns. But by then mankind might have come up with a new system

4. Why is February 29, not February 31, a leap year day? All the other months have 30 or 31 days, but February suffered from the ego of Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, says Stewart. Under Julius Caesar, February had 30 days, but when Caesar Augustus was emperor he was peeved that his month - August - had only 29 days, whereas the month named after his predecessor Julius - July - had 31. "He pinched a couple of days for August to make it the same as July. And it was poor old February that lost out," says Prof Stewart.

5. The tradition of a woman proposing on a leap year has been attributed to various historical figures. One, although much disputed, was St Bridget in the 5th Century. She is said to have complained to St Patrick that women had to wait too long for their suitors to propose. St Patrick then supposedly gave women a single day in a leap year to pop the question - the last day of the shortest month. Another popular story is that Queen Margaret of Scotland brought in a law setting fines for men who turned down marriage proposals put by women on a leap year. Sceptics have pointed out that Margaret was five years old at the time and living far away in Norway. The tradition is not thought to have become commonplace until the 19th Century.

It is believed that the right of every woman to propose on this day goes back to the times when the leap year day was not recognised by English law. It was believed that if the day had no legal status, it was acceptable to break with tradition.

6. A prayer has been written by a female cleric for people planning a leap year day marriage proposal. The prayer, for 29 February, asks for blessings on the engaged couple. It reminds them that wedding plans should not overtake preparations for a lifetime together. The prayer has been taken from Pocket Prayers of Blessing by the Venerable Jan McFarlane, Archdeacon of Norwich:

"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 blessing be upon them now and always. Amen."

7. The practice of women proposing in a leap year is different around the world. In Denmark, it is not supposed to be 29 but 24 February, which hails back to the time of Julius Caesar. A refusal to marry by Danish men means they must give the woman 12 pairs of gloves. In Finland, it is not gloves but fabric for a skirt and in Greece, marriage in a leap year is considered unlucky, leading many couples to avoid it.

8. The chance of being born on a leap day is often said to be one in 1,461. Four years is 1,460 days and adding one for the leap year you have 1,461. So, odds of 1/1,461.

But Stewart points out that is very slightly out, owing to the loss of the three leap years every 400 years. In any case, babies are more likely to be born at certain times of the year rather than others, due to a range of other factors, he says. Babies born on 29 February are known as "leapers" or "leaplings".

9. Other calendars apart from the Gregorian require leap years. The modern Iranian calendar is a solar calendar with eight leap days inserted into a 33-year cycle. The Indian National Calendar and the Revised Bangla Calendar of Bangladesh arrange their leap years so that the leap day is always close to 29 February in the Gregorian calendar.

10. Explorer Christopher Columbus used the lunar eclipse of 29 February 1504 to his advantage during his final trip to the West Indies. After several months of being stranded with his crew on the island of Jamaica, relations with the indigenous population broke down and they refused to continue helping with food and provisions. Columbus, knowing a lunar eclipse was due, consulted his almanac and then gathered the native chiefs on 29 February. He told that God was to punish them by painting the Moon red. During the eclipse, he said that God would withdraw the punishment if they starting co-operating again. The panicked chiefs agreed and the Moon began emerging from its shadow.

Also of a supernatural nature, on 29 February 1692 the first warrants were issued in the Salem witchcraft trials in Massachusetts.