History, holidays, Seasons, Uncategorized

Leaping Ahead

34 Comments

Happy Leap Day!  My cousin Duane was born on Leap Day. He got his picture in the Pipestone, MN newspaper when he was 4 because he finally had an actual birthday  to celebrate.

Starting in Ireland  centuries ago,  then spreading across Europe,  Leap Day was the day every four years when women could propose to men. In Scotland, the woman had to wear a red skirt when she proposed. There were penalties if the men refused. In some places, the man had to purchase twelve pairs of gloves for the woman. In Finland, he had to give her enough cloth to make a skirt. Currently  in France, La Bougie du Sapeur, a satirical magazine, only publishes on Leap Day.

I was fascinated to read that during 1930 and 1931, the Soviet  government added February 30th to the calendar and made all the other months have 30 days so that all the weeks of the year could have 5 days.  I don’t know why they dropped the plan.

How would like to see Leap Day celebrated? How would you change the calendar if you could?

34 thoughts on “Leaping Ahead”

  1. 30 x 12 = 360. That doesn’t sound like a system you could maintain. I wonder what the Soviets did with the extra 5 1/4 days left over?

    Maybe they just started in on a new year after 360 days. It would all work out eventually…

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      2. I think I was wrong, but I can’t remember how I was calculating (in my head). If the calendar starts five days earlier every year, it would take 72 years to come back to 360. But to accommodate that pesky 1/4 day, you have to multiply by 4. That makes 288. I think I multiplied by 4 twice. As I said, I was working in my head.

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        1. I suspect the exact calculation is more complicated. A terrestrial year, after all, isn’t 360 days. I’m hoping this won’t be on the quiz.

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    2. I just read that a couple of scientists developed a 360 day calendar in which all holidays are on Monday and you just add a week to one month every 4 years or so to make it align with the celestial occurrences that calendars have to align with. They were hoping that if they got 30 minutes to explain it to 45, he would see the logic and endorse it.

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        1. Let’s not give 45 the idea he can mess with the calendar. As Renee describes it, you would have to add three weeks every four years to make it work out.

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      2. The idea of five day weeks and 30 day months is interesting, though it likely would meet objections from biblically-oriented folks who believe that the seven day week was instituted with creation and you would have to get rid of two days of the week. Which ones? The two day weekend would probably go away for a while.

        But every Monday would fall on the 1st and 6th, etc. Holidays can go on Mondays if you want.

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        1. There still is the matter of the extra 5 1/4 days. I propose a stub month of 5 days, 6 every fourth year. The days would have different names from the other weeks so that they wouldn’t disrupt the regularity of the weeks when 6-day stub months came along.

          The stub month wouldn’t have to fall at the end of the year. It could be in the middle somewhere and it could be unassigned time.

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        2. but if you did a 5 day week and a 30 day month and then made the 7th week a week of rest i think i’d be good with that. maybe a 5 day sabbath to give to your soul a serious recharge then a 30 day push to the next would be good. just do it like we did in modular scheduling. never mind the day specifically like february 29 simply make it month 2 week 6 day 4.
          then at the end of week 6 there is a 5day week of rest. then on to month 3 for 6 5 day weeks and a week of rest. if you simplify and make it 10 months long and use the remaining 15 1/4 days to be used as summer or winter vacation you end up with 300 non vacation days and 65 1/4 personal sabbath days to divvy up. put that 15 1/4 day chunk at the end of a 5 day sabbath and you have one special 20 day chunk 3 years in a row and a 21 day chunk on the 4th
          your birthday instead of being february 23 would simply be day 54 which falls in there at the same time every year and just has a new name
          bless the people with birthdays on the sabbath weeks they can party every year

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        5. If you had five day weeks and a thirty day month, you wouldn’t have a seventh week. You could use the sixth week as a week of rest and that would give you 60 (or 65 1/4) days of rest each year. Right now people have about 100. (104, but some coincide with vacation days). That would mean giving up a lot of free days.

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  2. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I am celebrating today by taking an art class. I also got all five answers on the Bing test correct this morning—all about Leap Year. Woo Hoo.

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  3. Did all of my normal Saturday errands on Thursday and Friday. So I am celebrating Leap day in my studio. I have already done my Saturday morning chores and I am in here with my cup of coffee and my old westerns playing on the TV

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  7. Husband just showed me what’s involved in doing our/my mom’s taxes by having me fill out one form. Back and forth to the computer to print out forms and read instructions… It almost makes my head hurt (as did the above calendar alternatives mentioned above!) I have a new appreciation for Husband, and will cook him something special for dinner tonight. (…And for Linda, who volunteers doing this for people at this time of year).

    Tonight there is a Leap Dance event – first of some free community dance evenings that grew out of a play performed recently in our newly renovated Masonic Hall stage – will feature special lighting, sound equipment, a D.J. booth and fully stocked bar. : )

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  9. I finished my paperwork while lying on the sofa with my work laptop on my lap, a fluffy cat on my knees, and another one curled up by my feet. They are so helpful, especially when they start chewing on the power cord and monitor.

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  13. Since leap years coincide with presidential election years, maybe we could take a day on February 29th to give our national leader a performance evaluation and e-mail a summary to the White House.

    In 2024, I hope I will have some nice things to say in my missive.

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