Leap year 2024: what it means and what are the myths surrounding it

There is a reality: there are many Myths and legends which revolve around February 29th, that “ghost day” which, every four years, is added to the calendar and gives us leap year like this 2024.

“Leap year, few eggs in the basket”, “Leap year, neither vineyard nor orchard”“say some well-known proverbs underlining the little luck what they would bring.

But there is a phrase that tries to represent this belief in all its grandeur: “leap year, left year”…Or just the opposite? Let’s see what’s behind it myth?

Leap year 2024: temporal curiosities

The expression “leap year” comes from Latin “bis sextus dies before the calende martii” (sixth day before the repeating month of March) which referred to one more day than the Romans They fell between February 23rd and 24th.

Far from mysticism and fairy tale, the explanation of what a leap year is comes from the hand of astronomy: 366 day years work as “clock regulators”.

The fact is, in reality, each year has 365 days, 5 hours, 48 ​​minutes and 45 seconds. All this excess time adds up and forms the February 29.

Making history, astrologer Patricia Kesselman explains that: “Our current calendar looks a lot like that Egyptian calendarwhich consisted of 12 months of 30 days each, for a total of 360 days.”

He adds: “However, noting that the time was out of adjustment, they added 5 more holidayswhich the Greeks called epagomeni and which, according to their beliefs, corresponded to the birth of the gods Osiris, Seth, Horus, Isis and Nephthys.”

But we had to wait until 1582, for the Pope Gregory XIII establish the Gregorian calendarwhich is what governs today.

They are currently being considered jump years divisible by 4excluding those divisible by 100, unless the latter are divisible by 400 (as happened in the year 2000).

Leap year 2024: bad reputation and other traditions…

In justifying their position, all those who argue that years with 366 days bring the bad luckexamples abound.

In 1912 the Titanic sank; In ’48 they assassinated Gandhi; twenty years later to Martin Luther King and, in 1980, to John Lennon; In 2020, the Covid pandemic brought the world to a standstill. Yes, no need to google, it was all of them jump.

To the February 29 In particular, the Scots consider it to be such a day bad luck like Tuesday the 13th in some countries or Friday the 13th in others.

Added to this idea are the Greeks who also believe that getting married in a leap year leads to failure of the couple.

Across the road, in Ireland, this day is told Good luck.

Among its traditions, this day is also known as Bachelor’s Day -Singles’ Day-, in which women propose marriage to men. If he refuses the proposal, in the past he had to buy the lady a silk dress.

This custom originates from a legend which tells that in the 5th century, Saint Brigid and Saint Patrick (both patron saints of Ireland), agreed that this would be the only day on which a woman could propose marriage to a man.