A History Lesson

    Every 1460 days or so, we add in another day, just for kicks it seems. It is commonly called February 29th, or leap day. Uncommonly it is called the bissextile day (read that word again, just so you don’t confuse it with another similar sounding word). A year, in which such a day occurs, is called a leap year or an intercalary year (which sounds like…anyway, let’s move on).

    February 29th occurs every year which is evenly divisible by four, with the exception of the century years, ending in two zeroes, which are not divisible by 400. Leap seconds are added on average every 18 months. Rumor has it one scientist suggested years divisible by 4000 should not be leap years either, but he was lynched by an angry math-challenged mob.

    The leap day has a long history starting way back with the Julian calendar which was introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, just before he had a salad. In the Julian calendar the day following February 23rd, known as Terminalia for the worship of the god Terminus, was to be doubled. That day and the day after were to be regarded as one day. And February 24th was called ‘bis sextum’ which means twice 6th (make sense to anyone?). This single day would have 48 hours, instead of the normal 24. Clock makers protested, but were ignored when they missed their appointment.

    The leap day moved to February 29th in the modern Gregorian calendar, when it was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. The Pope wasn’t quite happy with the old Julian calendar because it’s year was too long, and the day on which Easter was celebrated kept changing too much. Basically, the Pope wanted the holidays to come sooner. A noble thought, that. 

    In addition the Pope decided to drop 10 days from the calendar. The last day of the Julian calendar was to be October 4th 1582, and the next day, the first day of the Gregorian calendar was to be October 15th, 1582. This caused massive amounts of sleep deprivation all around Europe. Historians say it was done to make the seasons occur at the right times, although I suspect the Pope wanted to spend 10 days in bed with his mistress. 

    The purpose for the leap day is so we may celebrate New Year's with the Earth at approximately the same position as last time. Even though we are too drunk to notice what position we are in anyway. Unfortunately, all this leaping about doesn’t quite do it. To add to the confusion, scientists introduced the leap second. These occur on average every 18 months. It is unknown when the next leap second will occur. Although they have confirmed it will not be in 2008, which is unfortunate because I could use the extra sleep.

    All this calendaring seems pretty arbitrary to me. So, why do we not change the calendar to have 73 weeks of 5 days each, with a 4 day weekend and add in an extra holiday whenever we feel like it? I’d suggest it, but I am afraid to be lynched by an angry math-challenged mob.