The Roman Empire's enduring gift - LEAP YEAR

[zengrifter]

Independent.co.uk

Seize the day: The magic and mystery of leap years

It's the Roman Empire's enduring gift to the world – an extra day every four years. A source of mystery, intrigue and controversy, Christopher Hirst explores the most colourful date in the calendar

Thursday, 28 February 2008

For most of us, the arrival of 29 February means one extra day at work, another day on the mortgage and 24 hours' delay in the arrival of the pay cheque. No wonder a leap year is universally regarded as unlucky. This is particularly the case for those unfortunates who can only celebrate their real birthday once every four years. For some reason, musicians tend to be born on 29 February – they include Rossini, the late avant-garde trombonist Paul Rutherford and the rap artist Jah Rule – but the most eminent UK leap-year baby is Joss Ackland, who will be 20 next Friday, though he has been on this Earth for 80 years.


Hugh Hefner opened the first Playboy Club
on 29 February 1960 © AFP/Getty Images

Only in America is any attempt made to redress this gross injustice. Tomorrow, leap-year babies will be "honoured guests" at the Sixth Worldwide Leap Year Festival at Anthony, New Mexico. Celebrations are to include a chuckwagon breakfast, hot-air balloon rides and a huge birthday cake ("These people have been waiting for four years!"). At the Fourth Worldwide Leap Year Festival in 2000, musical entertainment was provided by Graham Nash, whose wife Susan is a leap-year baby, but he has not reappeared. Maybe once every four years is a little too frequent to hear Nash's maudlin hit "Teach Your Children".

But why do we need this calendrical hiccup every four years? What, exactly, is the point of it? "The leap year is basically down to humans trying to make sense of natural rhythms," explains David Rooney, curator of time keeping at the Royal Observatory. "If you're trying to run a calendar by the natural cycles of the Sun and the Moon, it doesn't work and you have to intervene. The technical term for this intervention is 'fudge factor'. The leap year is a fudge."

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[jack,jackson]

Did you know we still have add 1 second to the day, on Dec 31, of every year to compensate for the discretion as well.

[aslan]

Originally Posted by jack,jackson

Did you know we still have add 1 second to the day, on Dec 31, of every year to compensate for the discretion as well.

I didn't know that. No wonder my watch is off!