The leap year comes once every four years. The day 29th February is called the leap day and is considered by many people to hold many spiritual powers. This concept was fabricated by Julius Caesar for ruling out the imperfections in the calendar. This day is rare and thus holds special powers and energy. Many numerologists believe that the 29th of February sends some positive vides within us and helps us leap forward in our lives. This leap day gives us extra time to get over the remanent work and push forward in lives. There are also many customs observed over the globe for the 29th of February.
The leap year capital
Anthony is a small city in Texas that throws a four-day festival on the leap years for the babies born in leap years and thus came to be known as the leap year capital. People throughout the USA and many other places travel to see the festivities fo the town. The participants are of all age groups celebrating their birthdays there.
Leap day babies world record
As per a custom the babies born on the 29th of February are invited to join The Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies. There are world records of people producing children on the 29th of February for 3 generations that are noted in the Guinness Book.
Good luck for the Irish
The Irish people think 29th February refects good luck and prosperity. Men and women are encouraged to propose to their loved ones and are claimed they will not be rejected. However, there are contradictory facts in the history like Saint Patrick turning down the proposal of Saint Brigid of Kildare who proposed to him on the leap day but he gifter her a satin gown instead.
Bad luck for Europe
The Europeans consider the leap day as bad luck. The greeks consider the whole year as a stroke of bad luck and do not say their vows until the year is over. They also do not buy a house or any costly kinds of stuff and wait for the year to pass before buying anything. Many countries are against having babies in the leap year to avoid bad luck.
Are leap years of death related?
Some countries consider that the leap year brings more death than any other year. Though they relate to some ancient event there is actually some scientific reason behind this. The leap year has 24 hours extra than any other year and thus people die more, on the other hand people also are born more during these 24 hours.
Taking birth on the leap day
The people that are born on the leap day are extremely rare, not because they age every 4 years but because of the probability of being born on that day. The probability of being born on the leap year is 1 in 1461 which makes the persons special. A family in Norway has 3 children being born on the leap years.
30th February?
Certainly strange but the Swedish people added an extra day in the February on the leap year to balance the inconsistencies of their Julian calendar. The hobbits still celebrate the 30th of February. J.R.R Tolkien’s of the lord of rings celebrated 30 days of every month.
Women can propose
Queen Margaret of Scotland enacted a law merely at the age of 5 years that any woman can propose to a man on the leap year and if the man rejects her, he will be subjected to pay a fine. Some people believe nothing like that exists but many saw that it does exist.
According to maths, it is not every 4 years
To be a leap year a year must be divisible by 4, but the century years make a problem here. For the century years that end with 00, they must be divisible by 400 and thus, 2000 was a leap year but 1700, 1800, 1900 were not. This concludes that caesar’s idea was great but his maths was a bit weak.
St Ostwald’s day
St Ostwald was the archbishop of New York who died on 29th February, 992 and thus this day is also called St Ostwald’s day as a memorial to him.
Pretty good stuff dude!