Leap years have been with us since the 16th century.
Paris:
Why not get an extra day every four years? The calendar weirdness of February 29 keeps us in sync with the seasons, but it’s also spawned a host of rituals and superstitions, not to mention computer glitches, as AFP explains here:
Why is there one more day?
Leap years have been with us since the 16th century, an invention of the Gregorian calendar designed to deal with the troublesome part of the solar year.
Keep in mind that the Earth takes approximately 365.2422 days to rotate around the Sun each year, with additional segments (approximately six hours per year) adding up over time.
Leap days regulate things – without them we would be out of sync with the seasons, wreaking havoc on farmers and their crops, as well as school holidays.
Most leap years occur every four years, but since the extra segments are not exactly six hours, they exclude years divisible by 100.
However, years such as 1600, 2000, or 2400 are leap years because they are divisible by 400.
forever Young
For leap day babies, or leap day babies, being born on February 29th may mean four times fewer birthdays, but as some like to claim, it’s also the key to eternal youth.
At least, that’s what beloved French screen star Michelle Morgan liked to say during her lifetime, well into her 96th year.
Other famous and infamous jumpers include Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, American rap star Ja Rule and serial killer Aileen Wuornos (incarnated by Charlize Theron in her Oscar-winning performance in Monster).
The chance of a baby being born on a leap day is about 1 in 1,500, so there are an estimated 5 million leap days in the world today.
marry me!
In Ireland, February 29 is known as “Bachelor’s Day” or “Ladies’ Privilege”, a day when women can traditionally propose to men rather than wait to be wooed.
While some claim that only “yes” is allowed, others say the man can refuse but must buy his admirer a gift.
The tradition was popularized by Hollywood in 2010’s “Leap Day,” starring Amy Adams, who follows her boyfriend to Dublin to try to survive the day. Propose to lure him into marriage.
In 2004, the Irish government celebrated the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family by giving €100 to every child born on February 29.
freebies
The rare days on the calendar are also opportunities for businesses to try to boost trade.
In the Northeastern United States, the Legal Sea Foods restaurant chain will offer discounts on lobster, the region’s most popular dish, on February 29.
Pizza chain Papa John’s took advantage of Leap Day in 2008 to launch Perfect Pan Pizza, with the slogan: “A giant leap for Pankind.”
Leap years also bring special deals on hotels and flights.
As US airline Virgin America says in one of its promotions: “Why jump when you can fly?”
The system cannot calculate
The existence of an extra day roughly twice every decade has also caused quite a bit of network chaos, especially in the year 2000.
Doomsayers’ predictions of a total information shutdown on January 1st never materialized, but on February 29th, a series of shocking system errors occurred around the world.
This included Japan’s meteorological service issuing erroneous weather reports and Montreal’s tax department shutting down.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
