Isn't it an interesting day today? (Part - I)

Isn't it interesting to know that: Human beings are the only species on planet earth that has a calendar system for recording time into systems of days, weeks, months, year & so on. We as human beings acknowledge - Equinox, Solstice and Celebrate New Year etc.

Therefore, it isn't a surprise to be regarded as the most intelligent amongst the natures animal hierarchy (i.e. in terms of using their consciousness and developing self-capability to outgrow their external environment).

On a side note - sometimes human being fear their own creation e.g. computers, robots, AI etc. as they might overpower them if ignored their presence.

However, today is bit different unlike any other day of the calendar. As this day doesn't recur every year, some people make an extra effort to make it memorable day for themselves - consider me included in it :)

What's in the date? (let's get a quick glimpse of the history of its beginning)

The concept of Leap Day dates back to ancient times when the calendar systems weren't as precise as they are today. Aren't we blessed to have the most updated version of time system?

Early civilizations, including the Egyptians and the Romans, used various methods to align their calendars with the solar year.

However, it was Julius Caesar who implemented the Julian calendar in 45 BCE, introducing the idea of adding an extra day to February every four years to account for the slightly longer solar year.

Later, the Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, further refined this system by establishing the rules for determining leap years.

According to these rules, a year is a leap year if it is evenly divisible by 4 but not by 100 unless it is also evenly divisible by 400. This adjustment helps keep our calendar year synchronized with the solar year more accurately. Wish there could be other possible ways to adjust which results us an additional day!!!

Have you heard of Leapfrog term and is it any way linked to Leap day?

Let's plunge ourselves now into the below mentioned Interesting facts, superstitions and traditions around the leap day and find-out the

1. Leap Year Capital: Anthony, a town in Texas, USA, proudly proclaims itself as the "Leap Year Capital of the World" and hosts a festival every Leap Year to celebrate.
2. Leap Day Babies: People born on February 29th are often called "leaplings" or "leap year babies." They only get to celebrate their actual birthdate every four years, making their birthdays a unique and special occasion.
3. Leap Seconds: Just like Leap Day helps adjust our calendar, leap seconds are occasionally added to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to synchronize atomic clocks with the Earth's slowing rotation.
4. Mathematical Oddity (Statistics): The occurrence of Leap Day can create some interesting mathematical quirks, like the fact that the chances of being born on February 29th are roughly 1 in 1,461.
5. Bad omen for leap day marriages: In accordance with Greek customs, marrying during a leap year, particularly on a leap day is considered unlucky as reports state that the marriage could lead to divorce, per 'The Quint'.
6. Leap Year tradition in Ireland: In Ireland, February 29 is known as Bachelor's Day or Ladies Privilege, when, tradition has it, women can propose to men rather than waiting to be wooed. While some claim only a "Yes" answer is allowed, others say the man can decline, but must buy his admirer a gift.
7. Suffering for leaplings and rise in deaths?: In Scotland, there exists a belief that people who are born on a leap day will experience a life filled with hardships. Not just this, but overall, some consider leap year as a bad year for farmers. Some reports of superstitions linked to the year are that the number of deaths also suddenly rises and many people die in that particular year.
8. Special newspaper: In France, a special newspaper is published every four years specifically on February 29th, The Travel Leisure has reported The tradition of publishing the newspaper La Bougie du Sapeur tradition has been since in 1980. The La Bougie du Sapeur, translates to Sapper's Candle, is named after leaping character Sapper Camember, featured in an old French comic strip. On this day, the news paper is available in France, Luxemborg and Belgium and is considered to see huge sales every time on stands.
9. Not every four years is a leap year: The rule is that if the year is divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400, leap year is skipped. The year 2000 was a leap year, for example, but the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not. The next time a leap year will be skipped is the year 2100

Some unsaid facts

• No extra pay - For employee you got to work on 29th Feb, without expecting any additional incentive. This is presuming that an employee is on a monthly payroll. Wish there was some special incentive. However, February is she shortest month in terms of no. of days compared to any other calendar month.
• Annual renewal/due-date check - If you happen to have availed any service or subscription on 1st March then your annual renewal would come on 28th Feb next year and not 29th Feb (unless its a leap year).
• Study day - For a Student if their exams are scheduled in the month of March then this would be a blessings in disguise to have this add-on day to their side for preparation.

And there could be much more... (a frog leaping was spotted on doodle today)

Would be glad to hear from you what resonated with you and what other interesting facts could form part of this list. Anticipating rains of your pointers...

Caution note: Above Interesting facts are a Compilation of information around leap-day and doesn't claim to be an exhaustive list in itself. All information is for general knowledge sharing purpose only.

No information either in part or full is in anyway intended to support or promote any of the traditions, superstitions.

Also, readers are advised to their own consciousness over blindly start following any popular-beliefs. Evaluate all the information in the light of wisdom else consider the ignorance is bliss for non-relevant information.

We have just begun to scratch the surface of this topic; let's build further on this curiosity drive to arrive at a desired state of mind.

There is another unsaid aspect of today (Leap day) which i wish to delve on.

Therefore, urge you to refer to part - II wherein another aspect of today (leap day) is shared. And complete your reading journey.