{"id":23424,"date":"2016-02-29T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=23424"},"modified":"2016-02-28T16:48:15","modified_gmt":"2016-02-28T21:48:15","slug":"leap-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/leap-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Leap Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The earth takes 365 1\/4 days to go around the sun. \u00a0So for our calendars to reflect the seasons of the year, we account for that quarter day by adding a day to the calendar every four years. \u00a0And since we stick it on to the shortest month of the year,\u00a0that day is today!<\/p>\n

You could complain that you have to work an extra day this month without any extra pay. \u00a0Or you could be glad that you are getting an extra day of rent free. \u00a0But you should look\u00a0at February 29 as a bonus,\u00a0the gift of a day.<\/p>\n

I want to give special congratulations\u00a0to those of you born on February 29 and so only have a birthday, technically, every four years. \u00a0(How do you celebrate your birthday otherwise? \u00a0On February 28 or March 1? \u00a0Do any of you Leap Year babies just wait to celebrate every four years?)<\/p>\n

I remember as a kid reading the comic strip Little Orphan Annie<\/a>. \u00a0<\/em>There had been lots of jokes about how the strip had been running for 44\u00a0years, though its heroine was still a young girl. \u00a0Then its creator Harold Gray said that Annie was born on Leap Year, so that after four\u00a0decades, she was only 11. \u00a0(As the strip went on, up to Gray\u2019s death in 1968, he reportedly aged her one year for every four years that passed. \u00a0The strip carried on with other writers and an ageless Annie until 2010.)<\/p>\n

\n

According to the folk tradition in many countries,\u00a0women may\u00a0propose to men during a leap year. \u00a0In some versions, the man has to accept, and if he doesn\u2019t, he has to pay a fine of giving the woman a present. \u00a0In some cultures, women may propose marriage to a man any time during the year. \u00a0In others, it has to be on \u201cLeap Day\u201d; that is, February 29. \u00a0Some of you may want to take advantage of this.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The earth takes 365 1\/4 days to go around the sun. \u00a0So for our calendars to reflect the seasons of the year, we account for that quarter day by adding a day to the calendar every four years. \u00a0And since we stick it on to the shortest month of the year,\u00a0that day is today! You […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1269],"class_list":["post-23424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holidays","tag-leap-year"],"yoast_head":"\nLeap Year<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The earth takes 365 1\/4 days to go around the sun. \u00a0So for our calendars to reflect the seasons of the year, we account for that quarter day by adding a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/leap-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leap Year\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The earth takes 365 1\/4 days to go around the sun. \u00a0So for our calendars to reflect the seasons of the year, we account for that quarter day by adding a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/leap-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-29T11:00:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-28T21:48:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/leap-year\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/leap-year\/\",\"name\":\"Leap Year\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-29T11:00:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-28T21:48:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"The earth takes 365 1\/4 days to go around the sun. \u00a0So for our calendars to reflect the seasons of the year, we account for that quarter day by adding a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/leap-year\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/leap-year\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/02\/leap-year\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Leap Year\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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