Celebrate
the Spin!
by Raenell Dawn

"When is Leap Year?"

"Do you even get a birthday?"

"When do you celebrate then?"

"What does it have to do with me?"

These are just a few of the questions I have heard over the years, and I want to take this opportunity to clear up any confusion
(and misguided angst) some of you may have about Leap Year Day.

The best place to start is with a brief history - Every four years we have a Leap Year, which means we have a year with 366 days
rather than the typical 365. That extra day is always February 29.

This change in the calendar was created to maintain a balance with the natural cycle of the universe. A 365-day year is actually
a bit shy of the natural course of a year, with its four seasons.

If we did not have an extra day every year, eventually those of us in the Northern hemisphere, would be celebrating Christmas in
90 degree weather and wearing parkas during our summer vacation months. It wouldn’t stay that way though. The Summer months
would be cold for a while, then warmer again, then cold again, and so on.

While a little variety may sound nice, we humans are creatures of habit. We need stability with something as important as the
seasons in order to plant and harvest on a predictable basis, and to ensure that our holidays occur in their traditional season.

In ancient times, a month was considered a month by calculating the intervals from
new moon to new moon. It was called a synodic month, or lunar month. With that
method, a month was 29.53 days.

A solar year - the length of time required for the Earth to revolve around the sun - is
365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and about 45 seconds. The lunar months were not
equal to the solar year, so the weather conditions during a given month would slowly
change over the years.

For example, think about the kind of weather you had in your hometown September 1.
If not for Leap Day, 50 years from now you would have the kind of weather you'd expect in mid-October on September 1. In many places on earth that is a significant
difference.

The addition of a Leap Year Day was an idea conceived by Emperor Julius Caesar,
who recognized the need for a stable, predictable calendar. With the help of an
astronomer named Susigenes, Caesar figured out that, first of all, one year with 445
days was needed. He thought that would compensate for past irregularities. That long
year was 46 B.C.

Although Caesar was on the right track, the passing of several
centuries revealed that his system wasn’t going to work. It
created three Leap Years too many every 385 years. The
months and seasons were not matching up as planned.

Certain religious leaders were concerned because some of
their holidays are associated with seasons. The development
of a stable calendar was necessary because, for example, the
spring equinox determines the date of Easter.

Fifteen centuries after Caesar and Susigenes first got the ball
rolling, Pope Gregory XIII and astronomer Christopher Clavius
revised the plan and developed the Gregorian calendar, which
we still use today.

They kicked it off by eliminating 11 days. In the year 1582,
October 4 was immediately followed by October 15.
Additionally, December became the last month of the year.

Copyright 2002 A Nancy Lucas illustration for www.leapyearday.com

Finally, in order to eliminate the extra 3 Leap Years occurring, years ending in
00 must be divisible by 400 to be designated a Leap Year. So the years 1700,
1800 and 1900 were not Leap Years, but the years 1600 and 2000 were.

February 29 is not officially named Leap Day. Because of this, dictionaries do
not capitalize the words Leap Year Day or Leap Day. In addition to that, calendar
companies do not recognize it as a day of importance by putting the words Leap
Year Day in print on February 29. It's a day that celebrates the calendar, and yet,
most calendar companies miss that point.

With that extra day performing such a balancing act for the sake of the calendar
I had hoped calendar companies would include the words Leap Year Day on
on February 29, 2008, but alas, the majority did not. My hope continues to 2012.

Along with adding the words Leap Year Day on the calendar, there needs to be a corrected, updated listing for it in all dictionaries.

Leap Year Day is not a holiday. It is Leap Year Day. It doesn't need to be a holiday really. But if that's what it takes to get it the
recognition it deserves, so be it.

Yes, I was born on Leap Year Day. I have been accused, by the media, of doing this for my sake. They have even gone as far as
suggesting I am doing this as my form of therapy because, as they put it, I don't *get a birthday*. Clearly they do not understand,
which is why I continue to promote Leap Year Day Awareness.

It's not about me. It's about Leap Year Day, February 29. And it's about time.