Imagine being one of the 4.1 million people who only get to celebrate their birthdays once every four years. “Leapers” or “leaplings” is the term used to describe people born on February 29^th of a leap year. They sometimes get teased about looking old for their age but get to brag that they got their driver’s license when they turned 4 and started drinking at age 5.

There’s a lot more to leap year and February 29^th than some confusing birthdays, though. There’s actually evidence that ancient Egyptians instituted some sort of leap year, trying to get their calendar to align with the sun. But what we usually think of as leap year happened about 3000 years later.

Calendaring the Days

Let’s start with Caesar. Julius Caesar. You know, the Ides of March and all that. He created a 12- month, 365-day calendar based off that of the Egyptians - but it didn’t quite work.

His mathematicians and astronomers pointed out to him that it takes the Earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds to rotate around the sun. That meant we had an extra almost 24 hours every four years.

So the Emperor came up with a plan. For any year evenly divisible by four, the Julian calendar would add an extra day. Problem solved! Except for that pesky math thing. 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds adds up to 1395 minutes every four years. Or 23.25 extra hours. Not quite 24 – and no, we can’t add that missing 45 minutes to Daylight Savings Time.

Basically, Julius Caesar gave us too many leap years.

Confusion from a Pope

By the time Pope Gregory XIII put on the tall hat and accepted Peter’s keys and fishing ring in 1572, the calendar was way off - like almost a whole month of Sundays off.

So the Pope hired Neapolitan astronomer and physician Luigi Lilio Ghiraldi and his Jesuit friend, mathematician Christopher Clavius, to figure out how to fix the Julian mistake. It took them ten years (during which Ghiraldi died), but on February 24, 1582, the Gregorian calendar was announced.

The first step was skipping a lot of October. October 4 was followed by October 15. Then they explained the new, corrective measures. Now, we have a leap year every year that is divisible by four, except for years that are both divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400.

That fixed it – for most of Europe anyways. After all, it was just 50 years into the Protestant Reformation – who knew what the Catholic church was up to?

Role Reversal

If you’ve seen the 2010 Amy Adams movie, Leap Year, you may already know some of the story. Traditionally on Leap Day in Ireland, if a woman proposes to a man, he must accept. But that’s where things get murky.

Depending on who you talk to, the Sadie Hawkins of the matter is either a religious exemption or a satirical backlash for some papal punishment.

Supposedly, Saint Bridget complained to Saint Patrick that while he was driving snakes out the ladies were waiting far too long for the menfolk to step up and marry them. So she begged him to give the women at least one day to take control of their own fate. He did – every four years or so.

Was there a Celtic tradition from the 1300s? We don’t know, but in the 1500s, supposedly Queen Margaret of Scotland, in between marriages, declared that February 29^th was Bachelor’s Day (which technically didn’t exist in the English calendar) and that any man who refused to marry a woman who proposed would be fined.

In the 1700s a British play debuted that mocked the practice, saying February 29^th was a day when women should trade their dresses for “breeches” and act like men. It was supposed to be a joke – but some feminists took it seriously and it became quite popular in the 1900s. Some British retailers even offered discount packages to women popping the question.

The Good, The Bad and the Miscellany

Some people see Leap Day as good luck. Some are far more wary of those extra hours in a year. There’s an old Scottish saying, “leap year was ne’er a good sheep year.” Greek & Ukrainian folks believe it’s bad luck to get married in a leap year – it will surely end in divorce.

On the other hand, The Topeka Daily Capital published an article in 1912 that declared, “Both sexes are more susceptible to love during leap year than in any other year. Marriage during leap year is sure to be lucky; the husband will not be fickle nor the wife extravagant.” As long as it’s not a double wedding or the man goes off to war, he might come home to find his wife an unrepentant vixen.

Every leap year, a special, satire-filled newspaper is published in Paris - La Bougie du Sapeur. Along with a heaping helping of charming humor and the answers to a four-year-old crossword puzzle, all proceeds from the sale of the paper go to Parisian charities.

In northern Italy, 2024 is l’anno della balena or the year of the whale because they believe that whales give birth only during leap years.

Here on the Gulf Coast of Florida, we’ll miss out on the worst issue of this leap year. For only the second time since the United States has existed, two cicada broods will be sweeping the South and Midwest. Brood XIX and Brood XIII haven’t joined each other in more than 220 years.

Thankfully, they’re only annoying but not harmful to humans or animals.

But if you’ve got other troublesome insects in your home, we can help. Our Go Green Perimeter Plus eliminates ants, roaches, spiders, silverfish and more from your house. And our treatment is safe for your family and pets. For more information, please give us a call!