Brace yourself folks, we have an extra day incoming!
February is my least favourite month, and every leap year I have to suffer one more day of it. I know it’s essential for the smooth running of the universe, but I wish they’d throw in the extra day during a month that’s blessed with spring flowers, heat-waves or autumn gold.
I’m guessing that’s why Leap Year Day traditions have grown up, just to make February a little more bearable. And most of them, in keeping with the Valentine’s theme from earlier in the month, revolve around L.O.V.E.
It was Julius Caesar the Roman Geezer who introduced Leap Day, with just a little assistance from the Egyptians. He took their calendar, which had 365 days and an occasional extra day, and tinkered with it to add a day to every fourth year.
So was born the Julian Calendar on 1 January 45 B.C.E. However, this was still not quite right and dates like Easter began to drift. Pope Gregory XIII commissioned the Gregorian Calendar.
Still not quite there but only off by about one day every 3,030 years!
A day for marriage proposals
According to an old Irish legend, St Brigid struck a deal with St Patrick to allow women to propose to men every four years.
The idea was to balance the traditional roles of men and women, the way Leap Year Day balances the calendar.
In Scotland, women are advised to wear a red petticoat visible to their love – perhaps to give them fair warning of what’s about to happen!
The cost of a refusal
Queen Margaret of Scotland is said to have passed a law in 1288 that any man who refuses a Leap Year Day proposal should be issued with a fine, which could be anything from £1 to a silk gown.
In some European countries there’s a tradition that if a man refuses, he has to give the woman 12 pairs of gloves, presumably to cover up the fact she is not sporting an engagement ring.
In Finland, a man who declines must provide enough fabric to make a skirt.
Unlucky for some
In Greece, there’s a superstition that marriages made in a leap year will end in divorce.
Scottish farmers have an old saying “a leap year was never a good sheep year” and a German proverb states “leap year will be a cold year”.
So a Leap Year Day proposal may not augur well.
Birthday honours
A person born on February 29 is called a leapling or leaper and is invited to join the American-based Society of Leap Year Day Babies.
Celebrating birthdays is a big deal if you only have one every four years, but most leaplings celebrate the day before in non-leap years.
The town of Anthony, in Texas – which claims to be the leap year capital of the world – hosts a big birthday bash for all leaplings every four years as part of its Worldwide Leap Year Festival. This year, 2024, the festival takes place on the first and second of March.
Since 1,461 days are in each four-year period, the probability that one person is born on February 29 is one in 1,461.
Leap Year babies
The only verified example of a family producing three consecutive generations of leap year babies is, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Keogh family.
Peter Anthony was born in 1940 in Ireland, his son Peter Eric arrived on February 29th in 1964 in the UK and his granddaughter Bethany Wealth was a Leap Year baby in 1996.
And in Norway, the Henriksen family have three children, all born on Leap Year Day. Heidi (1960), Olav (1964) and Leif-Martin (1968) share the same birthday every four years. I guess that saves on cake!
If you’re a Leap Year baby, Happy Birthday! Will you celebrate Leap Year Day in any special way?
And if this special day ends in an engagement, why not make the classic cocktail created by barman Harry Craddock, for the Leap Year celebrations at the Savoy Hotel, London, on February 29th, 1928.
- 2 ounces gin
- 1/2 ounce orange liqueur
- 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
- 1/4 ounce of lemon juice, garnished with a lemon twist.
Cheers!
And finally, if you are looking for a little satirical Leap Year Day reading material, and your French is up to scratch, get hold of a copy of La Bougie du sapeur, a humorous periodical newspaper which appears every February 29th.
Where to next?
• Quirky Christmas traditions
• Gingerbread hearts – perfect for proposals!
• Why we love Philadelphia