"Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one
Excepting February alone:
Which hath but twenty-eight, in fine,
Till leap year gives it twenty-nine." :-)
"Thirty Days Hath September" rhyme

Cake Design by  Santoni's Market  Copyrighted 2000-2004

^{Februray 29th - Leap Day - 2000 
If you're like most people, you shudder at the thought of one more Y2K 
headache, millennium bug, computer glitch, or Spam-storing person camping out 
in a makeshift fort waiting for the world to end.  The world did not end and 
it's not going to.  But this thought was real-- just momentarily for some, 
yet in others' minds for years: how to get around potential disasters 
resulting from a few misplaced numbers? 
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Which brings us to today, February 29, a day created just to get around 
potential disasters.  Leap Day, a day born long ago out of calculation 
dilemmas similar to those we faced more recently. Despite thousands of 
high-paid techies and millions of dollars in innovative software, we were 
still left struggling in Y2K with a number crunch equal to the one faced by 
 team of abacus-toting scientists and mathematicians in 1582.  How 
far have we come? It took nearly 1600 years of fine-tuning our modern-day 
calendar to avoid such disasters as snow falling in July and sunbathing in 
November. The flaws encountered within the otherwise ingenious Roman Calendar 
make for Leap Day's unique history. 
------------------------- 
The original Roman 355 day calendar had an extra 22-day month every few years 
to maintain the correct seasonal changes. By the time Julius Caesar took 
reign, the seasons no longer occurred during the same months they once had. 
Panicking, he remedied this in 44 B.C. by tossing the extra month and adding 
the extra day to a few months instead.  He threw in a month in honor of 
himself (Julius-- July) and died a happy man having solved the calendar woes. 
Not quite. Still creating seasonal confusion, the calendar was again changed, 
first from an extra day every 3 years, to one every 4 years in 8 A.D.  It was 
then finally perfected  with some complicated logic by Pope Gregory XIII in 
1582 (who predicted Easter and Christmas would eventually fall on top of each 
other without his divine intervention). He determined that Leap Day should
fall on any year divisible by 4 but not 100 (except when the year is 
divisible by 400), setting up a calendar nearly identical to that of Mother 
Nature.  Thus, today our year is 365.2425 days, off from our solar year by 
.00031, or one day's error over 4,000 years.  Not bad.  And without this
extra day, who knows of the chaos that might have ensued? 
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If you're a "Leaper," you will celebrate today with passion close to the 
fervor of this past New Year's Eve.  Party till you drop; make up for the 3 
years you spent watching friends and family hit milestone birthdays on days
that actually exist.  Cherish the fact that you have beaten the 1,506 odds 
against being born on Leap Day, into this secret society, a parallel universe 
that flashes before our eyes every 4 years restoring order to all mankind. 
Sigh some relief that you don't have to spend Birthday 2000 on February 28th 
or March 1st, pretending again. If you're 40, convince yourself you're 10 and 
reconnect with your inner child. Throw a party with Frog Legs, Hops, and 
Grasshopper Pie on the menu, and serve Leap Year Cocktails. Join the 
Worldwide Leap Year Birthday Club and attend the Worldwide Leap Year 
Festival. And buy one of those annoying desktop zodiak calendars you've 
always wanted, to read your real birthday horoscope! 
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If you're a woman, wait no longer for that engagement ring-- today, Sadie 
Hawkins day, is your day to propose marriage. This tradition originates in 
Ireland in the 5th century, when St. Bridget convinced St. Patrick to allow 
one day that a woman could propose.  If the man refused, he was fined 
(incidentally, St. Bridget proposed to St. Patrick that day; he said no).
1,600 years later, the fine has been ousted (who's idea was that?), but women 
still have only this one day every 4 years set aside to profess their love 
and commitment for the men in their lives. Again, just how far have we come? 
-------------------------------------------- 
For most not fortunate enough to celebrate a birthday today, it may be simply 
an extra day we have to trudge to work without getting paid. Even so, it's
one special day out of every 1,460 that somehow, in the grand scheme of 
things, prevents seasons from colliding and keeps life interesting. 
by AS Dawson 2/23/2000 ©}