Leap Year Day is nigh

2020 is a Leap year (exactly divisible by 4) and so there is a 29^th day this month.

One Leap Year tradition I do recall is that women get to do the proposing on Leap Year day – so all you men need to hide.  If you refuse a proposal you will, by tradition, have to buy the lady 12 pairs of gloves or a silk gown!  Just as well we have all moved on.

Did I mention that it's Leap Day??

Leap Year day

It is Leap Year day today.  I thought leap years occurred every 4 years but looking it up on Wikipedia I find that it is more complicated than that.  Years that are divisible by 100 are not leap years unless they are also divisible by 400 – so 1600 and 2000 were leap years but not 1900!  So having thought that every Leap Year would also be an Olympic year is not right.

I was going to list famous leaplings (yes, that’s what they call people born on this day) but actually found them to be a pretty nondescript lot.


This is a link to an article in The Telegraph about ladies popping the question http://www.telegraph.co.uk/relationships/9103884/Pop-the-question-now-ladies-before-he-humiliates-you-with-his-proposal.html