By Monica Jones
Leap years exist because it takes the earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 sec-onds to orbit the sun. That’s almost an extra quarter of a day per year. If you count the quarter of a day up for each year, you get an extra day added every fourth year. Yes, a leap year comes around every 4 years and 2024 is it! It probably has some of you quaking in your boots already!
Yes, the most common association is that of marriage proposals. Myth has it that on a leap day, a man cannot refuse a woman’s plea to get married. That stems back to the 1700s, when the Gregorian calendar added the extra day. It was considered so ridicu-lous that a joke was made that on that day “women should trade their dresses for breeches and act like men”. This was meant as a joke, but clearly some women took it a bit more literally and the tradition has continued.
The myth in Europe was that apparently any man refusing a marriage proposal on February 29th had to buy her 12 pairs of gloves as compensation (so the refused lady would be able to hide her ringless fingers).
But there are many more strange myths and legends:
In Greece, apparently, couples choose not to marry in a leap year. And there is even the added superstition that a couple divorcing in a leap year will never find happiness! Really!! We can ignore that one I think!
In Scotland it is alleged that if you are born on February 29th your life will be miserable, so it an unlucky association. But it can also be considered to be lucky. What are the odds after all? 1 in 1461 in fact, so beating those odds is pretty lucky really!
Much more exciting is that there is an official Leap Day cocktail! It was created in the Savoy Hotel in 1928 and was said to be responsible for many a proposal. It sounds rather delicious, and possibly a little on the strong side, so maybe it was the lowering of the guard and the loosening of the tongue after one too many of them! Ingredients are 2 oz gin, 1/2 oz sweet vermouth, 1/2 oz Grand Marnier, 1/4 oz lemon juice and a twist of lemon to serve.
I may ignore the majority of the myths on Leap Day 2024, but I might just try the cocktail!
Whatever you do, enjoy the extra day.