Leap year is here!
Leap year is the perfect time to set new goals for yourself. With one extra day in the year, it can be either the perfect motivation or one extra day to rest before tackling your goals. Leap year occurs every four years and is different from the traditional calendar because of the additional day on Feb. 29.
Leap year folklore exists in many cultures including Greek and Italian where they believe it is bad luck to get married on leap year. The superstitions depend greatly on where you are in the world.
“Leap year,” Krista Spain employee at the Fallen Leaf Books said, “is the holiday where traditionally women are able to propose to men.”
In Ireland, it is tradition for women to propose on Leap day or Feb. 29. The concept of the Sadie Hawkins dance, a dance where women invite men comes from this tradition and used to be scheduled around Leap year.
“Certain holidays just shouldn’t lose their charm,” Pua Smith front manager at the Brown County Welcome Center said. “Embrace holidays before they are gone. I encourage kids to step back and look at special holidays so we don’t lose their celebrations forever.”
Leap year occurs in order to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun.
Julius Caesar was the one who suggested that the Roman calendar makes it consistent with having a Leap year every four years.
“(Leap year is) The correction between the Gregorian and Julian calendars.” A.J. Miller the Deputy Recorder for the Town of Nashville said.
The Gregorian calendar reformed the Julian calendar’s observance of Leap year with rules like the year has to be divisible by four but not by 100. The earth does not revolve around the sun evenly at 365 days so leap year is a corrective measure added at the end of a four year cycle.
“I don’t do it all the time (Leap year),” Jay an employee at Touch of Silver Gold &Old said with a hop. “I only do it every four years. I think about it and about how it throws off my timing.”
