Leap Year
February 2020 :
Note: This article may contain outdated information
This article was published in the February 2020 issue of The Skyscraper and likely contains some information that was pertinent only for that month. It is being provided here for historical reference only.
Thirty days hath September. . .
I’m sure you all know the rest. We’ve made a calendar of 365 days to (kind of) conform to the Earth’s revolution period. However, unfortunately, science and humankind sometimes don’t come together as easily as we’d like. We actually travel around the Sun just about every 365.2422 days. What to do?
Julius Caesar, while enjoying life with Cleopatra, mandated that every four years an extra day must be added. He placed it at the end of February, which, legend says had been shortened by some of his relatives, whose commemorative months only had thirty days, and they wanted to have 31, also.
Unfortunately, this addition of a day every four years became a problem for the Catholic Church 1½ millennia later, when the first day of spring - the vernal equinox - made the feast of Easter in the wrong time frame. The Pope at that time, Gregory XIII, tweaked the calendar by disposing of ten days in October, 1582, then dropped leap days in all century years not divisible by 400. 2000 was a leap year, but 2100, 2200, and 2300 will not. It’s still not a perfect system, but it’s better, and closer to actuality.
Incidentally, speaking of the calendar: I’m sure you all are aware of the coincidence of the number of days in each month and the knuckles on your fist? If the knuckle at your first finger represents January, the space next to it is February. The middle finger knuckle is for March, the next space belongs to April. May is the third knuckle, followed by June’s space, then July’s knuckle. Run out of hand? Go back to “January,” and continue through December.
