The Leap Year Festival is held every four years in Anthony, Texas.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Leap Year Festival
February 28, 2024 - 7:30 AM
For all those who feel the Leap Year is a great reason to celebrate should be prepared for a long, long drive to truly celebrate.
A town in Texas, which has declared itself the Leap Year capital of the world is hosting the first Quadrennial Leap Year Festival starting on Leap Day Feb. 29, of course, until March 2.
Anthony, Texas, is about 26 kilometres north of El Paso, and according to Google it will take you about 30 hours to drive the roughly 3,000 km from Kelowna.
The festival kicks off with a dinner for people born on Feb. 29, followed music, games, food and other entertainment, according to the festival's website. Since there are only two hotels in Anthony, you better book early.
So why is there a Leap Year every four years?
It’s needed in order to keep the 365-day annual calendar in line with reality since each year is actually almost one-quarter of a day longer, or five hours, 46 minutes and 48 seconds, according to NASA.
“If we never had leap years, all those missing hours would add up into days, weeks and even months,” NASA said. “Eventually, in a few hundred years, July would actually take place in the cold winter months.”
Since the time it takes the Earth to travel around the Sun is less than six hours, a further three-day per 400 years adjustment is needed.
As a result, years that are divisible by 100 don't have leap days unless they’re also divisible by 400. That means 2000 was a leap year but 2100, 2200 and 2300 won’t be.
READ MORE: We have to turn our clocks back again because of US politics
That’s a good thing for those, like the ancient Scots, who believed Leap Years were unlucky. Those born on Feb. 29 were dubbed Leaplings and were said to be destined for untold suffering.
On the other hand, there’s a tradition dating back hundreds of years that allows women to propose marriage to men on Feb. 29, sometimes known as Bachelor’s Day.
In 1288, Queen Margaret of Scotland passed a law saying that any man refusing such a proposal could be fined one pound or more. In Denmark, the fine was 12 pairs of gloves so the woman could cover her ringless hands for a year. Fines varied in other countries.
In the U.S., Al Capp in his Li’l Abner comic strip introduced a twist on that theme by creating Sadie Hawkins Day in 1937.
It was a day for women to ask men for a date or to dance, and triggered a number of such days, dances and races where women would attempt to chase down their chosen men.
On the more serious side, some countries have legislated that those born on Feb. 29 have Feb. 28 as their designated birthday in off years. Other countries have chosen March 1 instead.
In 1988, the Honour Society of Leap Year Day Babies was created in the U.S.
It was created by Peter Brouwer and Raenell Dawn who had a membership list on their website up until 2016.
“Over 11,000 people from all over the world joined over the years,” the website said. “The internet turned into a dangerous place for membership systems, so at the moment, we have this membership system on a memory stick safely stored off the internet.”
Its initial goal was to promote Leap Year Day Awareness by in part connecting journalist to Leapers but again given the impact of social media, that’s no longer a feature.
While the Honour Society seems to have faded, Sadie Hawkins day is still alive in some circles and is promoted as National Sadie Hawkins Day.
“National Sadie Hawkins Day is the perfect time to work up your courage and ask out that person you’ve always wanted to be asked out by, no matter what your respective gender identifications are,” a site dedicated to the holiday said.
“The worst that can happen is they say no, and if they say yes, you’ve got a brand-new relationship!”
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