Leap Day - Part One

One of greatest legacies of the Roman Empire is the Julian Calendar (named of course for that most famous Ceasar), with its division of the year into eleven months of either thirty or thirty-one days, and one month of twenty-eight days.  The short month, our February, consisted of twenty-NINE days every four years.  But why add another day every four years?  The Julian Calendar, while fairly accurate, falls a few minutres behind the solar calendar every year.  Not a big deal, unless a few centuries pass.  Then ten minutes here or eleven minutes there becomes several days.  Over an even longer period of time, as the Julian Calendar falls days or weeks behind, we would eventually experience winter in the middle of July. Just imagine going to Schlitterbohn while snow falls and ice begins jamming the Comal River.  It would make "tubing" a terrible ordeal.

But don't worry, my fellow lovers of summer; we were saved from such an awful fate several hundred years ago by Pope Gregory XIII.  The good Pope realized that the Julian Calendar was accurate enough as far as it went.  It just did not go far enough.  You see, the Romans were right in adding a Leap Day, but, as I noted earlier, even with the Leap Day added every four years, the Julian Calendar cotinued to fall behind the solar calendar.  By the time Ugo Boncompagni was elected to the Papal Office and assumed the name Gregory XIII, the Julian Calendar had fallen ten days out of sync with other calendars in use in Europe and Asia.  To correct this inaccuracy Pope Gregory XIII ordered that the date be changed throughout the Catholic empire, and advanced ten days.  But Pope Gregory also decreed that there would be no Leap Year in century opening years that were divisible by one hundred.  Thus the "Gregorian Calendar" was created and eventually became the official calendar for most of the world.  Obviously some segments of the world population did not adopt the Gregorian Calendar.  Muslims, Hebrews, as well as many "uncivilized" societies, continued to use their own calendars or other means of reckoning the changing seasons.

So we see that if it were not for that somewhat nutty invention we call Leap Year, we might be heading to Angel Fire or Cloudcroft in the middle of July to get in some good skiing time.  Maybe you know someone who was born on February 29th.  That person never gets tired of reminding you that while you are fifty going on sixty-three, he or she, on the other hand, is only twelve and a half years old.  Of course children born on Leap Day do not appreciate a birthday party only once every four years.  Most parents of such children elect to let the child pick another day to on which to celebrate his birth and get a whole new year's supply of toys. 

Now that I have entertained you with several factoids concerning Leap Year and Leap Day, I would like to invite you to read tomorrow's installment of my blog as I write about Leap Day - Part Two.  I will make a humorous, yet semi-serious, suggestion as to what would constitute a great use for a day of celebration that only comes round every four years.  Until then, take care and have a great Leap Year's Leap Day!