What is in leap year? Eternal youth, wedding bells and technological bugs
Leap years have been with us since the 16th century.
Paris:
An extra day every four years, what’s not to like? The calendar oddity of February 29 keeps us in sync with the seasons, but it has also given rise to numerous rituals and superstitions, not to mention computer glitches, which AFP exposes here:
Why one more day?
Leap years have been around since the 16th century, when the Gregorian calendar was invented to deal with a troublesome fraction in the solar year.
Considering that the Earth takes approximately 365.2422 days each year to revolve around the Sun, the extra snippet (about six hours per year) adds up over time.
Leap days keep things in check – without them we would fail to keep up with the weather, affecting farmers and their crops as well as school holidays.
Most leap years occur every four years, but since the extra snippet is not exactly six hours, they exclude years exactly divisible by 100.
However, years such as 1600, 2000 or 2400 are leap years because they are exactly divisible by 400.
Forever young
For Leap Day babies, or Leaplings, being born on February 29 may mean four times less birthdays, but it is, as some like to claim, also the key to eternal youth.
At least, that’s what much-loved French screen star Michelle Morgan liked to say during her lifetime, which continued till the ripe age of 96.
Other famous or infamous jumpers include Spanish Premier Pedro Sanchez, American rap star Ja Rule and serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who was embodied by Charlize Theron in her Oscar-winning performance for “Monster.”
With a child’s chance of being born on Leap Day at about one in 1,500, there are an estimated five million Leaplings in the world today.
marry me!
In Ireland, February 29 is known as Bachelor’s Day or Ladies’ Privilege, when the tradition is that women can propose to men instead of waiting to be wooed.
While some claim that only “yes” answers are allowed, others say that the man can refuse, but must buy his admirer a gift.
This tradition received the Hollywood treatment in 2010 with “Leap Day”, starring Amy Adams, who follows her boyfriend to Dublin in order to trick him into marriage by asking the question that day.
In 2004 the Irish government celebrated the 10th anniversary of the International Year of Families by giving a gift of 100 euros to every child born on 29 February.
free of cost
Rare days on the calendar are also a chance for businesses to try to increase business.
In the Northeast US, the Legal Sea Foods restaurant chain is offering a discount on the region’s favorite delicacy, lobster, on February 29.
Pizza chain Papa John’s used Leap Day in 2008 to launch its Perfect Pan Pizza with the tag line: “One Giant Leap for Pankind.”
Leap years also generate special deals on hotels and flights.
As American flyer Virgin America said in one of its promotions: “Why jump when you can fly?”
System cannot calculate
The existence of an extra day, about twice a decade, has also caused a fair share of online mayhem, never more than in 2000.
The destruction’s prediction that there would be a complete information shutdown on January 1 never came true, but on February 29, an alarming series of system errors occurred around the world.
This included sending faulty weather reports by the Japan Meteorological Service and shutting down Montreal’s tax service.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)