Leap Day

(Feb. 29 , 2012) Today is "Leap Day," an extra (intercalary) day added during a Leap Year, making the year 366 days long — and not 365 days, like a common (normal) year. Nearly every four years is a Leap Year in our modern Gregorian Calendar.

Leap Years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun. It takes the Earth about 365.242199 days (a tropical year) to circle once around the sun. If we didn't add a day on Feb. 29 nearly every four years, we would lose almost six hours every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by about 24 days.

The ancient Roman Calendar added an extra month every few years to maintain the correct seasonal changes. But Julius Caesar implemented a new calendar — the Julian Calendar — in 45 BCE (Before Common Era) with an extra day added every four years. At the time, Leap Day was Feb. 24, because February was the last month of the year.

In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII refined the Julian calendar with a new rule that a century year is not a Leap Year unless it is evenly divisible by 400. This transition to the Gregorian Calendar was observed in some countries including Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain. The transition took longer for other countries; Great Britain started using the Gregorian Calendar in 1752 and Lithuania in 1915.

Leap Day as a concept has existed for more than 2,000 years, and still is associated with age-old traditions, folklore and superstition. One of the most popular traditions is that women may propose to their boyfriends.

An American folk celebration for the day is Sadie Hawkins Day, a pseudo-holiday that originated in Al Capp's classic hillbilly comic strip, "Li'l Abner" (1934–1978). This inspired real-world Sadie Hawkins dances, for which girls ask boys out.

In Li'l Abner, Sadie Hawkins was the daughter of one of Dogpatch's earliest settlers, Hekzebiah Hawkins. The "homeliest gal in all them hills," she grew frantic waiting for suitors to come a-courtin'. When she reached the age of 35, still a spinster, her father was even more frantic about Sadie living at home for the rest of her life. In desperation, he called together all the unmarried men of Dogpatch and declared it "Sadie Hawkins Day." Specifically, a foot race was decreed, with Sadie in hot pursuit of the town's eligible bachelors — and matrimony as the consequence.

Read about current traditions and more in Recorder Community Newspapers and their blogs online here at newjerseyhills.com. Anyone interested in joining the growing group of Recorder bloggers may e-mail me at panderson@recordernewspapers.com for more information on this free 21st century communication tool.