In 2020, February has 29 days, but why? Leap days are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the Sun. That is because it takes the Earth a little longer than a year to travel around the Sun — 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, to be exact.
This phenomenon was first recognized by the Egyptians. Sometime in the 29th and 28th Century BCE, the Egyptians formulated a 12-month lunar calendar of 28 days. Because their lunar calendar was 10-11 days short, they would add a 13th month, known as Thoth, every few years to sync the lunar calendar with the solar year of 365 days. However, this posed problems throughout the empire as the calendar over time would not align with the agricultural seasons including the flooding of the Nile. In 238 BCE, the Egyptians made the change a calendar with varying month lengths to include a ‘leap day every fourth year’.
While leap day helped official timekeepers, it also resulted in social customs turned upside down when February 29 became a “no man’s land” without legal jurisdiction.
As the story goes, the tradition of women romantically pursuing men in leap years began in 5th century Ireland, when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about the fair sex having to wait for men to propose. Patrick finally relented and set February 29 aside as the day set aside allowing women the right to ask for a man’s hand in marriage.
The Honor Society of Leap Year Babies is a club for people born on Feb. 29. More than 10,000 people worldwide are members. Some famous people born on February 29
Born 1984 – Cam Ward, hockey player
Born 1984 – Cullen Jones, Olympic Gold Medalist in Swimming
Born 1976 – Ja Rule, rapper
Born 1972 – Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain
Born 1960 – Tony Robbins, speaker
Born 1944 – Dennis Farina, actor
Born 1916 – Dinah Shore, singer
Born 1904 – Jimmy Dorsey, bandleader
Born 1792 – Gioacchino Rossini, Italian opera composer
