Hello & welcome to another fortnightly GK Nugget. It’s
the last Sunday of February and the week has seen multiple messages being sent
on Whatsapp about how all groups will be shut for maintenance on the 29th,
30th & 31st of this month. It takes a second for it
to register that this month has only 28 days, and 29 days in a leap year. So
today I’m bringing you some cool trivia about the 29th of February.
Now, as is general knowledge, a leap year has 366 days as
opposed to a normal year which has 365 days. A leap year occurs every four
years to help synchronize the calendar year with the solar year, or the length
of time it takes the earth to complete its orbit about the sun, which is about
365¼ days.
The Roman calendar used to have 355 days with an extra
22-day month every two years until Julius Caesar became emperor in the 1st
Century and ordered his Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes to devise something
better. Sosigenes decided on a 365-day year with an extra day every four years
to incorporate the extra hours, and so February 29th was born. And so in 46 BC,
Julius Caesar created a calendar system that added one leap day every four
years.
But why does February have 28 days? All the other months
in the Julian calendar have 30 or 31 days, but February lost out to the ego of
Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus. Under his predecessor Julius Caesar, Feb had 30
days and the month named after him - July - had 31. August had only 29 days. When
Caesar Augustus became Emperor, he added two days to 'his' month to make August
the same as July, taking those days out of February.
Did you know that Leap years are also marked as a time
for women to propose to men? One theory is that the custom dates back to the 5th
Century when, legend has it that, an Irish nun called St Bridget complained to
St Patrick that women had to wait too long for their suitors to propose. St
Patrick then supposedly gave women the chance to ask the question every four
years.
The chances of having a leap birthday are one in 1,461.
People who are born on February 29 are referred to as "leaplings", or
"leapers".
Did you know there is a Leap Year Capital? The city of
Anthony which straddles Texas and New Mexico in the US, is the self-proclaimed
Leap Year Capital of the World. A four-day leap year festival is held there
each leap year that includes a huge birthday party for all leap year babies. Festivities
begin on February 25 and continue until February 29, when there is a parade
followed by a birthday dinner.
The Summer Olympic Games are always held in a Leap Year.
Greek couples often avoid getting married in a leap year as they believe it is
bad luck.
Food for thought: If you work on a fixed annual wage, February
29th is just one more day's work than you would usually have to do
for your salary. So you’re basically working for free on 29th
February.
The frog is a symbol associated with February 29. The
Australian rocket frog can leap over two metres.
Comics of the 1960s through 1980s describe Superman's birthday
as February 29. Clark Kent, meanwhile, would celebrate his birthday on June 18,
the date the Kents first found Clark.
Motivational speaker Tony Robbins & Singer Khaled are
also born on February 29th.
According to Western astrology, those born on a Leap Day
are born with special powers and extra good luck. According to Chinese
astrology, those born on a Leap Day are unruly, difficult to raise, and
unlucky.
That’s all in this fortnight’s GK Nugget. See you next
time.