Leap Year…

their beaux on February 29.

The origins of this ladies privilege is not really known, however legend has it that in Ireland, St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women not being able to  ask the man they fancied to marry them. According to the folklore, St. Patrick offered the opportunity at a seven year interval, and St. Bridget, being a woman, negotiated it down to every four years.

In Ireland they call it St. Bridget’s Complaint. Here in The United States we call it,  Sadie Hawkins’ Day.

Leap years are added to the calendar to keep it working properly. The 365 days of the annual calendar are meant to match up with the solar year. A solar year is the time it takes the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun – about one year. But the actual time it takes for the Earth to travel around the Sun is in fact a little longer than that-about 365 ¼ days (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, to be precise). So the calendar and the solar year don’t completely match-the calendar year is a touch shorter than the solar year.

So here’s the actual “rules” for leap years:
Every year divisible by 4 is a Leap Year.

But every year divisible by 100 is not a Leap Year
Unless the year is also divisible by 400, then it is still a Leap Year.

Got all that?  No matter. Thankfully, it’s all done for us.