So, if you are anything like me, every 4 years you forget WHY we have a leap year. I tell you, if I "learn" something that is not all that interesting to me, it is bound to only stick in my brain for 6 months, tops.The reasoning of leap year for example, has always been explained in some ridiculous way...
"A leap year is any year whose date is exactly divisible by 4
except those which are divisible by 100 but not 400."
Uhm what? You lost me at divisible.
[math challenged]
With it being leap day and all, I decided to google leap years and see what interesting information I could find that would make me remember WHY we have it and what it means once and for all.
Now I'm caught up and thought I would share my findings with you!
Here is the perfect explanation of WHY we have leap years:
"One of the convenient fictions we live by holds that there are exactly 365 days in a year. In point of fact, the earth turns roughly 365 and a quarter times on its axis by the time it has completed a full year's orbit around the sun, which means that periodically the calendar has to catch up, thus the convention of leap years. A leap year contains one extra day, February 29, for a total of 366 days."
[An explanation I understand? It's a leap day miracle!]
Folklore:
If you are born or start dating/get married on Leap Day, you technically only have a birthday/anniversary every 4 years. Had I been born on Leap Day 28 years ago, I would have technically had 7 Birthdays thus far. Clearly, Leap Day babies/couples would just celebrate the day before... but you know the fellas would be trying to get out of buying an anniversary gift with the leap day excuse ;)
Things get wonky:
There is SAID to be a whimsical tradition on leap day that, in keeping with the theme of things gone awry, women have the "privilege" of proposing to their fella. There is also some strange rule about her wearing a red petticoat and something about if he turns her down then he has to buy her a silk gown and give her a kiss or something. Like I said, wonky. I proposed to MR via our daily work email today & he gladly accepted. He said he was planning on proposing to me in person and all, but this way saves him a lot of money. My proposal was immediately retracted... plus, it totally didn't count because I completely forgot to put on my red petticoat first.
So, did you know all of this? Why in the world didn't you tell me sooner?
all of this info is based on an article via About.com from David Emry's research
LOL!!
ReplyDeletewhen you and the MR get married, that may be the one I finally travel down for ♥
happy leap day hun!!
Oh leap day you such a weirdo! My parents got married on leap day, also weirdos! Cute post :)
ReplyDeleteHi! Did you have a Give away?
ReplyDeleteTake care, Leslie
I think I vaguely remember hearing the reason for leap day at some point in school growing up. Thanks for the reminder! :) My mom was born on on Feb 28th on a leap year... The day just before leap year! If she had been born one day later, she'd be 14 years old this year. What 14-year-old do you know with a nearly 25-year-old daughter? Weird.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you weren't wearing your red petticoat so that your proposal didn't quite count. I have a feeling a proposal from MR will make a good blog post. ;) Had you talked about these plans of his before? Or was this e-mail followed by excitement overload?