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Missing Leap Day
Well, there is no extra day this year, and that might be for the better - especially for those who have just endured freakish storms of winter and are boiling water and slipping and sliding on streets where they live. When Leap year passes through, it is usually a day to celebrate. This year we just walk on by it and don’t even acknowledge that extra day when people can rejoice for 24 hours their birthday or anniversary. Sigh.
 In the gospel of John, we learn about Nicodemus who was “born again”. It may have been just a normal Sunday, but the distinguished Nicodemus took a risk and went to Jesus by night and called him Rabbi. He acknowledge that Jesus came from God and so Nicodemus asked how to be born again from above. He approached the idea as if it had something to do with old and young ages, and how did one reverse to go backward to being a baby to be able to be born again. Jesus set him straight. It didn’t matter what day it was or what kind of year. Through God’s beloved Son, those who believe in him, would have eternal life, and I’m sure Nicodemus walked away in peace.
Well, back to Leap Year. How did it occur? It means counting days and months and years, something mankind had organized centuries ago. It often disturbs me and I wonder about those living the pre-Gregorian calendars - were they counting down to zero? In my genealogy pursuit, when one gets back far enough, one has to start putting 18 BC or 200 BC as if it counts down, not up, as we do. Our days on earth are counted from the day we are born going upward. But when one discusses anything historical, before the birth of Jesus the Christ, it goes backward - it’s like births were counting down to year 0 when Christ was born, even though millions of people didn’t even have knowledge of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, the son of God. Only the Hebrews, who had a relationship with God, anticipated such a coming of a king, but had no idea what day or year He was to arrive. Did people who posted year one, have another system? Or did no one care about it and each day was alike as the world turned? Was there a Leap year when Jesus was walking on the mountains of Galilee and through Jerusalem? He could have had 8 leap years in his life on earth.
We, and most of those on earth today, depend on the Gregorian system. Every four years an extra day has to be inserted so that that when the sun and moon do their thing, sun for day, noon for night, plants birthing and flowering and leaves budding and falling, the sun hot or the sun freezing cold, when weather is somewhat predictable, we know the day and the month by rote, depending on the calendar when we can’t remember dates.
Now sometimes there is a block of sorts, and they cannot get the extra day in. This happens in years like 1700, 1800, 2100, 2200 etc. But the exceptions were 1600 and 2000 - that turn of the century when we all re-through a lot about our lives. Now 2400, which you and I will not be here to enjoy, will also be a leap year. It’s just a twitch in the Gregorian calendar
Google has untangled some of this wild naming of years for me, telling me how to know if a year is a leap year or a common year, when most of us were birthed. If the year is not divisible by 4, then it is a common year. If the year is not divisible by 100, then, it is a leap year. (so hang on to your knowledge of division.) Otherwise, if year is not divisible by 400, then it is a common year, else wise it is a leap year. Confused yet? My brain is twisted into a knot.
Remember all this numbering of days was the invention of Julius Caesar in 46 BC. See he was counting down, I guess. Was he counting down or did they have another system of counting days? How did he know Jesus Christ was going to be born on day zero and things would become progressive after that? His style of calendar was called a “lunisolar” calendar and it named days after the syzgies of the moon or whatever that meant. There are strange names of the different systems that so twist my brain I cannot delight in it. So I’ll leave it here.
There are all sorts of calendars: Bengali Calendar of Bangladesh and the Indian National Calendar (who also has a leap year). The Thai solar calendar uses Buddhist Era (BE) but was synced with the Gregorian in 1941. There is the Coptic calendar and Ethiopian calendar, similar to ours, Chinese calendar is lunisolar but has a leap month. The Islamic calendar has no leap days but adds an extra day in the last month of the lunar year in 11 years of a 30 year cycle in the month of Hajj.
The Hebrew calendar is lunisolar with an “embolismic” or extra month. I won’t go into detail about that style, but the Hebrews have postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. Bit Gime in the Hebrew week is the Sabbath, and neither the first day of a Hebrew year nor the Passover can ever fall on Wednesday or Friday. The Passover also can never fall on Monday Wed or Friday. Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Hebrew calendar, can never be next to the weekly Sabbath nor fall on a Friday or Sunday. It can fall on Saturday but never be adjacent to it. (?) I pity the poor calendar writer for each year.
Now there are some traditions about Leap Year. In Ireland and Britain, women can propose marriage only in leap years. This was not initiated by Saint Patrick or Brigid of Kildare in Ireland. Also women can wear breeches on that day, and in order to pitch woo, needed to wear a scarlet petticoat. In Finland, if a man refused a woman’s proposal on leap day, he must buy the female fabric to make a skirt. In France, a newspaper is published only on leap year. And in Greece marriage on that day is unlucky.
Among people born on Leap Day were Pope Paul III, John Byron the English poet, and many I have never heard of, but the craziest was a man who I guess they called Adolph, a German, who had a Christian name using every letter in the alphabet - shortened to Mr. Wolfe Plus 585 Sr. and his last name was: Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenberdorft St. .
So what does one get to do on Leap year in our country? I’d try to squeeze in something special on Feb 29 - or take an extra long run or get bucked off a horse, or sleep late or eat a pint of ice cream - something you’d really like to do, but wouldn’t dare to do normally. It’s a free day, I’d say. And you can meditate it away and communicate with God and watch the daffodils pop up to begin springtime along with fragrant hyacinth and the tiny, trusty purple crocus. Meanwhile the trees, whose branches were denuded by fall and winter, will start to sprout tiny green buds replacing all those gorgeous colored leaves that fell to the ground in October-November.
It is such an amazing cycle. And glory to those who created the calendar so we don’t get lost - but still, I wonder who designated 0 (zero) - or did someone? Did they know before, after or how long after, that Jesus the son of God was born on 0. Who got it right?
~ Rev
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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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