It’s Leap Day!
What It Is and How to Celebrate It
What It Is and How to Celebrate It
What is “Leap Day” Anyway?
Leap Day, or Leap Year Day, is a day and date added to the month of February in most years that are divisible by four in solar calendars (those calendars that are based on Earth’s revolutions around the sun). When a Leap Day is added to the calendar, that year becomes a Leap Year. Most of the world uses the Gregorian Calendar as the standard designation for years, and leap years and leap days are added for years divisible by 100, but not by 400. Because of that unique rule, the past years of 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not designated as Leap Years, but 1600 and 2000 were. In the Chinese calendar, leap years only occur in the years of the Monkey, the Dragon, and the Rat. 2020 is the Year of the Rat, so it will also be a Leap Year in the Chinese Calendar.
Why Were Leap Days Added to the Calendar?
Most of us learned in school that leaps days were originally designed centuries ago to compensate for the lag that happens because each year is approximately six hours longer than exactly 365 24-hour days. Adding a leap day realigns the calendar with the position of the Earth in the solar system.
Until the 16th century, the Christian part of the world used the Julian calendar, which added a leap day every four years. However, it was found that approximately three days were added to the calendar every 400 years by this system, which also shifted the dates of the winter and summer solstice and spring and autumn equinoxes.
February 24 has been the official Leap Day since about the 3rd century AD and that date is still the official Leap Day in Britain, Sweden, and Finland, but since the end of the Middle Ages, adding the extra day to the end of February has become the de facto standard.
Were You Born on February 29?
If your birthday falls on February 29, you are called a “leaper” or “leaping” and there are legal ramifications for observing your day, depending on your location. In much of the western world, if a person is born on February 29, their “legal” birthday is considered to be March 1. In New Zealand and Taiwan, however, leaplings legally observe their birthdays on February 28.
Many leaplings decide whether they will unofficially observe their actual birthday every four years, making them many years younger than people born one day earlier or one day later in the same year. That may be fun for birthday parties, but leaplings still must adhere to their legal birthday status in the jurisdiction where they reside.
Five Fun Ways to Celebrate Leap Day
How many times have you said: “There’s just not enough time for me to get everything done!” Well, in this Leap Year, you’ll have an entire extra 24 hours! Look at your long to-do list and pick one or more items to actually complete this time.
This year, 2020, Leap Day falls on a Saturday. What a great day and a wonderful excuse to have a party! Get together with family and friends and celebrate, just because.
Make a Leap Day time capsule. Write a letter to yourself, seal it, and add it to a box of tangible memorabilia that you’ll keep closed until the next Leap Day in 2024. Opening your Leap Day Box four years from now will be much more personal and eye-opening than the Facebook memories that always pop up on your page.
In some western countries, Leap Day was the time when women could propose marriage to men. Why if you’re a woman who’s been waiting for her beau to propose, I guess you could do that, but I think a more memorable and heart-warming action would be to contact someone you’ve been missing and have a great phone call or do a fun activity together to renew your bond.
Get ready for spring. In 2020, the spring equinox will occur less than three weeks after Leap Day, on March 19. Since you have an extra day, why not start preparing your wardrobe and your home for the upcoming season? Then when spring actually finally gets here, you won’t have to waste those precious beautiful spring days cleaning the house or rearranging your clothes!
Leap Day only comes around once every four years. Time to celebrate and find fun and practical activities for those extra twenty-four hours! What will YOU do on Leap Day 2020?
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