It's Leap Year....

OK so it's Friday, nothing special you may say. Well thats true during most years, but this year is a leap year and so this Friday is special...
I wanted to know more about Leap year so I dug up a little dirt on it:

Leap Year

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.

NOUN:

1. A year in the Gregorian calendar having 366 days, with the extra day, February 29, intercalated to compensate for the quarter-day difference between an ordinary year and the astronomical year.
2. An intercalating year in a calendar

The traditions of marriage proposals change, as a matter of fact, When the rules of courtship were stricter, women were only allowed to pop the question on one day every four years. That day was February 29th. And if the man says no then he must pay a fine, the fine can be anything that the girl desires from a simple kiss to a very expensive piece of jewelery. Of course now in this day and age, you can ask a shoe to become your true love and get married in Vegas!

A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1st March.

For legal purposes, their legal birthdays depend on how different laws count time intervals. In England and Wales the legal birthday of a leapling is 28 February in common years . So a leapling born on 29 February 1980 (example) would have legally reached 18 years old on 28 February 1998. I guess because Leap Year is only every 4 years....

According to English law, February 29th was ignored and had no legal status. So a crime on the day is no crime at all. (of course now I don't think they think this way)

It was the Romans who first designated February 29 as leap day. Later, a more precise formula was adopted in the 16th century when the Gregorian Calender fine-tuned the calculations to include a leap day in years only divisible by four.

In Scotland it is thought unlucky to be born on a Leap Year"s Day.
A law once existed in Scotland forbidding a man to refuse a proposal made to him on February 29th. Punishment for such an offense was a large fine.

A person born on February 29 may be called a "leapling". In common years they usually celebrate their birthdays on 28 February or 1 March.

For legal purposes, their legal birthdays depend on how different laws count time intervals. In Taiwan, for example, the legal birthday of a leapling is 28 February in common years, so a Taiwanese leapling born on February 29, 1980 would have legally reached 18 years old on February 28, 1998.

“

If a period fixed by weeks, months, and years does not commence from the beginning of a week, month, or year, it ends with the ending of the day which proceeds the day of the last week, month, or year which corresponds to that on which it began to commence.　 But if there is no corresponding day in the last month, the period ends with the ending of the last day of the last month.[10]

”

In some situations, March 1 is used as the birthday in a non-leap year since it then is the day just after February 28.

There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out to be based on counting only their leap-year birthdays.

So here it is, the facts of leap year, I'm sure I didn't get all of them but some of the more interesting ones....
As always,
~~Everyone needs a little Sugar~~