Leap This!

Hokay, it's Leap Day! For those of you who don't know, Leap Year was created to make sure that the Gregorian calendar matched up nicely with the astrological and seasonal year. In order to justify the calendar, and extra day was added every so often in order for things to make sense. Yes, because adding an extra day all willy-nilly makes perfect sense. In any case, here are a few things that you may not know about leap year.

In the British Isles, it is a time-honored tradition that women can only propose to men during a Leap Year, some say only on Leap Day. This spawned many silly jokes and comics about men hiding up trees so that they could not be easily wooed by saucy women.

In Ireland, a woman who was intent on pursuing a man in a Leap Year was required to wear a red skirt so that he could see her coming across the moors and thus have ample time to escape.

Leap Years (in most of the world, anyway), occur only when the year is evenly divided by 4. I am really bad at math, but I will assume that is why 2012 is looking leapy.

Leap Frog is a wonderful schoolyard game that has absolutely nothing to do with Leap Year.

"Leap Year (2010)", starring the abhorrent Amy Adams, is probably the worst movie ever. I would rather carve my eyes out with a spork than ever be subjected to that repulsive dribble ever again.

In Greece, it is a bad omen to be married during a Leap Year. This means that every four years, the Greek bachelorette party industry is crippled, and all of the male exotic dancers are forced to take part time jobs as cheesy lounge singers.

A person born on February 29 is called a "leapling" or a "leaper". This is not to be confused with a "leper", which is something else entirely, and should generally be avoided.

Our favorite "leapling" is Capogiro district manager Sarah, who is celebrating her 7th official birthday today. So accomplished at such a young age!! "Leaplings" generally observe their birthdays on Feb 28th or March 1st, so that they can still have cake and presents and not be socially ostracized and ridiculed by other children. Apparently in East Timor, this is not allowed and Sarah would actually not be able to drive a car or vote until she was 72. Crazy!