Happy Leap Day 2024!

Good old Julius Caesar gave us the first leap day in his Julian Calendar way back in 45 BCE.  Back then Leap day was February 24th and February was the last month of the year.

Julius had the right idea but adding a leap day every four years was just a bit too often and, eventually, in 1582 our buddy Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian Calendar which we still use today.  It has a much more precise way of calculating leap years.

Leap Day is also known as Bachelor’s Day.  It seems St. Bridget was complaining to St. Patrick that women were not allowed to propose marriage.  The ever-accommodating Saint Patrick designated the only day that doesn’t happen every year to be the day on which women would be allowed to propose to men.  In England, if a man rejected a woman’s proposal on Leap Day, he owed her several pairs of fine gloves to help hide that she did not have an engagement ring. 

So happy birthday Leaplings.  You may only get to celebrate your actual birthday once every four years, but you are a very elite group. 

Happy Leap Day from the #supercoololdpeople in the Carondelet Kitchen.