Leap, Leap Away on Leap Day

Today is Feb 29th. A very special day for the 2 people, I know, who celebrate their birthday only once every four years.



By 18years of existence on this planet, I've come across a few many leap years, to be precise 5. But I only remember 4. And the way I remember it, is simply with the Olympics. I remember being a tiny little girl watching the Atlanta opening ceremony. Then 2000, and the big hallebellu about Y2K and what not, and not to forget the Sydney opening ceremony close to home. Olympics was next seen in its birthplace of Greek. I remember vividly, when a Greek friend was telling me ' The Olympics shouldn't move, it should just stay in Greece'. But I'd forget the leap years! Then well, this year, we are yet to see the magnificence of the Beijing Olympics.



This year is not only special for Beijing and China, who are preparing to show cast their potential the world, but it is also special, because leap day lands on a Friday. There are a number of reasons for this to be special. Firstly, as my mum claims, the 'English calender', or as it is properly known as the Gregorian Calender, only repeats itself once every four hundred years. That is, the same days will fall on the same dates only four hundred years later. For the stingy, this means, this year's calender can only be re-used in 2408. That means this year is once in a life time opportunity! More ever, if you note, this month began with a Friday. Leap day has also fallen on a Friday. Snazzy, huh? According to maths and statistics, leap day and the first day of Feb are only the same day once every 28years, which isn't that bad if you think of it as only 7leap years ago. But the last time this happened was in 1980. Now it seems like yonks ago and it will only happen again in 2036, by which time Abdul Kalam's India 2020, and Kevin Rudd's 2020 year, would have passed. Now that makes it seem even longer. And even in 2036, it will be a Thursday. Not as special as a Friday. And in 2052, its a Thursday again.

There are immense folklore associated with Friday and leap day being the same. But the more fascinating myths that have existed are those outright associated with all leap days and leap years. Since Leap day, when first introduced, was seen as a very anti-traditional thing to do, fixing and meddling with some inadequacies of the calender, some very anti-traditional beliefs have also evolved on that day. Leap day, also known as Bachelor's day in some parts of the world, was historically reputed for the day when women could propose. Having gotten tired of waiting for coy men to propose, this was the day women could do it, just as the earth had gotten tired of the calender being constantly behind its cycle.

Some Greek myths also exist, and I suspect Indian tradition would heed to this as well. Leap day marriages are considered unlucky in the ancient country. To this day, 1 in 5 Greek couples try and avoid a leap year marriage. And the world probably follows in step in regard to leap day marriage, for the sole practical reason that you can only celebrate your marriage anniversary once in 4 years.

Being a budding lawyer, I can't forget to mention the all important law. If you were born on a leap day, most countries recognise your age as the number of common years that have passed. Among the famous, and for your trivia, these people were born on this day ; Rukmini Devi Arundale, Indian dancer and founder of Kalakshetra , Dee Brown, American writer , Dave Williams, American singer. Want more names, head to wikipedia. By skimming the list, it seems, with my own little predictions, that if you were born on this day, you are very outgoing, spoken and charismatic person. You have immense capability to become famous, born with the leadership skills to get you there. HEHE. I'll quit the rubbish.

I've always wondered why it had to be Feb 29th, already the smallest month. Well, the truth is not very exciting. February used to be the last month of the king's calender, so he added the day there. No other special reason. How boring?

Even with this leap day, our calender isn't perfect. My mum reckons the Tamil calender is the best. But in reality, nothing is perfect, but we can always try our best!