Leap Day - Did you know?

Why do we have an extra day this year?

"The earth actually takes longer than 365 days to complete its trip around the sun—five hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds longer, to be precise. To accommodate this discrepancy, an extra day is added to the calendar at the end of February every four years (but not in “century” years unless evenly divisible by 400, e.g., 1600 and 2000, but not 1700).

There’s an old tradition that women could propose marriage to men during Leap Year. The men had to pay a forfeit if they refused. It is for this reason that February 29 is sometimes referred to as Ladies’ Day or Bachelors’ Day."

It's difficult to say how many marriages resulted from this tradition, but it was a approach taken to heart by some. A handbook published in 1880 titled, How to Get a Husband! : Leap Year Manual claims to contain, "A veritable list of some of the best looking, wealthiest, and most reliable single and marriageable men of the Country, with their Post Office addresses." The author reminds his readers, "We give you many fish in our list to angle for, you only want one to bite; the law won't allow you any more." The full text of this book is available to read online at the Library of Congress.

Leap Year Day. (2010). In Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/hfcwd/leap_year_day