It’s a Leap Year! Today is an extra day and one that we get only once every four years. As I listened to CBC radio this morning there was an article explaining that some salaried workers felt it unfair that they do not get paid extra for working today. An extra day of work should mean an extra day of pay. A contrary opinion was that it is really only a quarter of a day when spread over the four years between leap years so it is no big deal. While I guess I could muster up some sympathy for people who feel they are unjustly treated for working today, it would take an effort that I am not prepared to muster on this extra day I am being given in this month in this year.
I have a cousin born on this day 68 years ago. He is celebrating his 17th birthday – haha – that is the fun of leap year. It also holds the tradition of ‘Sadie Hawkins’ when the women can chase the men for a change – that is an outdated thought now isn’t it?!? One article I read explained that it is “a correction to the Julian calendar which miscalculated how long a year lasts. It got it wrong by 11 minutes and 14 seconds.” While 11 minutes and 14 seconds doesn’t seem like much we all know how mistakes like that accumulate. Eventually there had to be a correction. It was in 1582 when Pope Gregory, concerned about the drift of days, addressed the question by asking astronomers to come up with a better, more accurate calendar system. Hence, the calendar we use now, with a leap year every four years, is, as you know, dear reader, called the ‘Gregorian Calendar’. That first year, 1582, the month of October lost ten days in order to correct for the tracking of days and then ever after there was the system of a leap day every four years to keep us on track.
Despite the history, the rationale and the fun traditions about the day the real question to consider this morning is what am I going to do with this one extra day that I am given? How shall I spend the time that this year affords that next year and the next and the next will not? As I sit here and write to you the sun is shinning brilliantly into my office windows. I can hear the February wind blowing outside and I have before me a day of possibilities. It’s a gift. Let’s make it a great day.
Ah Sadie, I forgot about her. I suppose there is hope yet for shy bachelors like, …never mind. Nancy your blog only reminds us that each day is indeed a gift and to count it as an extra work day to begrudge can only mean you don’t care for what ever work you are doing. To count it as yet another day to serve praise or celebrate can only mean you are aware of the privilege of living at all. Thanks be to God, thanks be to Nancy for bringing it to our attention.