Fishing on the Net

By Bonnie Nelson

Leap Year 2008!

2008 is a leap year, so we add one more day to the year.

Leap years are added to the calendar to keep it working properly. 365 days of our yearly calendar keep up with the solar year. A solar year is the time it takes the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun. That is about one year, but it actually takes the Earth a little longer to travel around the Sunó356 º. So the calendar and the solar year don't totally matchóthe calendar year is a touch shorter than the solar year.

It doesnít seem like much of a difference, but those extra quarter days in the solar year begin to add up. After four years, for example, that extra time would make the calendar fall behind the solar year by about a day. Calculate that over the course of 100 years and our calendar would fall behind approximately 25 days! Instead of summer beginning in June, it wouldn't start until July. Every four years a leap day is added to the calendar to allow it to catch up to the solar year (http:// www.infoplease.com/spot/leapyear2.html).

The Egyptians were the first to come up with the idea of adding a leap day once every four years to keep the calendar in sync with the solar year. Later, the Romans adopted this solution for their calendar, and they became the first to designate February 29 as the leap day.

Leap Year has been the traditional time that women can propose marriage. Today, it is okay for a woman to propose marriage to a man. That hasn't always been the case. When the rules of courtship were stricter, women were only allowed to pop the question on one day every four years. That day was February 29th.

It is believed this tradition was started in 5th century Ireland when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose. According to legend, St. Patrick said the yearning females could propose on this one day in February during the leap year. http://marriage.about.com/cs/holidays/a/leapyear.htm

The first time this practice was documented was in 1288, when Scotland passed a law that allowed women to propose marriage to the man of their choice in that year. They also made it law that any man who declined a proposal in a leap year must pay a fine. The fine could range from a kiss to payment for a silk dress or a pair of gloves.

So, women go get your man!

Bonnie Nelson is a freelance writer living in Fountain, CO. If you have any comments or questions, email her at waltbon@comcast.net

CONTACT THE WRITER • WALTBON@COMCAST.nET

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