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Our year is almost exactly 365-1/4 days long as we corkscrew around our sun and this year we assemble those accumulated four quarters from past years into a whole extra day. We call it Leap Day in Leap Year (or intercalary or bissextile year).
This year, 2012 will have 366 days because the ancient Egyptians first figured it out that the Solar and Calendar years do not exactly jibe. It always takes us a little longer, (about five hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds) and this year it is time to bring ourselves up to date, so to speak.
The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by four, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a Leap Year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar.
This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to March 21 as does the Gregorian calendar.
Another stipulation ruled that no year divisible by 100 would have a Leap Year, except if it was divisible by 400. Thus, 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was! Go figure.
On the International scene, 56 countries will observe Rare Disease Day on February 29, 2012, thus calling for more research into ailments that have no known cures, including figuring when to add a Leap Day.
While Leap Day has helped official Timekeepers, it has also resulted in social customs turned upside down when February 29th became a "no man's land" without legal jurisdiction. As the story goes, the tradition of women romantically pursuing men in Leap Years began in fifth-century Ireland, when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about the fair sex having to wait for men to propose. Patrick finally relented and set February 29 aside as the day allowing women the right to ask for a man's hand in marriage.
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A similar modern American tradition, Sadie Hawkins Day, honoring "the homeliest gal in the hills," was created by Al Capp in the cartoon strip Li'l Abner. In the famous story, Sadie and all other women in town were allowed on that day to pursue and catch the most eligible bachelors in Dogpatch. Although the comic strip placed Sadie Hawkins Day in November, today it has become almost synonymous with February 29.
The day also plays a pivotal role in the fictional The Pirates of Penzance (in Cornwall, England), the Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera that was translated to Broadway and the silver screen. In its story, the hero Frederic, realizes his apprenticeship binds him until his 21st birthday, but since his birthday falls on February 29, it means that technically he, now only a young lad, won't reach his 21st birthday until he is in his eighties!
A boy one day once told me that he had a birthday every four years and that, when he would be 25 birthdays old, one hundred years would have passed, because he had been born on February 29. I thought that he was very clever for thinking that up since, at the time, he was merely three birthdays old, and it would be another 72 years until he would be allowed to drink and vote.
In 1860, on February 29, the first tabulating machine, the forerunner of the desk calculator, was invented by Herman Holerith. It was unfortunate that he chose Leap Day to debut his invention, because that caused the machine to calculate only those numbers divisible by four.
February 29, 1952—New York City pedestrians were told when to walk and when not to as four signs were installed at 44th Street and Broadway in Times Square. Each sign flashed "Walk" for 22 seconds, then "Don't Walk" for ten seconds before the "Don't Walk" turned red for 58 seconds more. We're told that eight out of ten people obeyed the signs—not bad for New Yorkers who will walk right through one door of a car and out the other to get across the street quickly.
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