If you have read posts on my blog other than the 'Life's Little Dramas' series, you will know that I am prone to odd thoughts or flights of fancy. This entry falls into that category.
I am confused by the term Leap Year on a couple of levels. Firstly - and this will probably be very easy to look up - why is it called a Leap Year? What are we leaping??
Secondly, and in my opinion rather more confusingly, I have heard reference to Leap Years, Leap Days and Leap Seconds. The last two of these refer to additional units of time added to 'balance' our calendars i.e. the 29th Feb is a Leap Day that is added every 4 days (except when the Leap Year is on a century year (1900/2000 etc.) and a Leap Second is added to the end of the year at certain intervals. This then begs the question, why isn't a Leap Year, a year that is added? Like a 2011a? That would mean we would have an extra 2011 and next year would be 2012. Imagine what fun we would have if we had Leap Decades :)
Oh well, back to some semblance of sanity now I have got that off my chest!
Keep loving.
Morning! I think the term 'Leap' may date back to pagen times when couples would literally 'leap' a fire (Beltane) to show their commitment. The Ladies asking the guys to marry them I think is more modern. The Leap day also, as you said is to keep 'man made time' in check with Natures own timekeeping!!
ReplyDeleteNow that is why I know intelligent people! They can tell me this kind of information that would have taken me ages to find out!!
DeleteThanks J. Hope the job is going well?