Leape Yeare

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

Leape Yeare

VERY FEW " HAPPY RETURNS !" DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS, — jQJUCH an uncommon occurence as that of February 29 falling on one of our own Saturdays surely calls for due recognition, so I will tell you this week a little about the tradition of Leap Year, and the reason why once in every four years February is given one extra day to make up for the niggardly treatment it has always received since Caesar's astronomers got to work and revised the calendar! One of my own brothers was a Leap Year boy, born on February 29, and, like Peter Pan, he hai never grown up, so far as his real birthdays are concerned, for he is only I 2 to-day, although a middle-aged man, on account of his having lost a birthday in 1900. For some abstruse reason, which only an astronomer could have devised, the full centuries do not count as Leap Years, so that Leap Year folk did not have a birthday between 1896 and 19041 "Who started the thing?" you may well ask. It was the astronomers of Julius Caesar who, some years after the invasion of Britain, took the matter of adjusting the calendar to the astronomical year. It was a thankless and difficult job, owing to the old Roman superstition in the luck of odd numbers for months, but after a lot of chopping and changing, things were finally worked out so that the solar year was fixed at 365 days six hours. These odd hours accumulated, and, as at the end of every four years there was day over, it was decided that this should be given to poor little February, who had been left to struggle along with only 28 days. . , An important tradition associated with Leap Year is that of the privilege o the ladies to propose marriage, and. although this ancient custom is now treated ns a joke, it was regarded as a very serious matter indeed in the Middle Ages. So much so, indeed, that a law was enacted in Scotland in 1288 ordaining that " ilk mayden ladye of bothe highe and lowe estait shal hae libertte to bespeke ye man she likes." And if "ye man" was churl enough to refuse to marry the maiden, the law further enacted that " he shall be mulcted in ye sum ane pundis or less, as his estait may be; except he can make it appere that he is betroth.t ane ither Woman, he then shall be free." An extra penalty to which the unwilling beloved was subject was the provision of a new gowne for the lady, so tha this first move in the direction of establishing Women s Rights was evidently regarded with grave consideration in the days of long ago. , . The ladies of France and England evidently did not like the idea of be ng overlooked where privileges to their sex were concerned, and we read that similar law was enacted in France a few years later. In a book published in I ondon in 1606, it was stated that as often as every leape yeare doth retur, the ladyes have the sole privilege during the time it conhnueth of making love either bv wordes or lookes, as to them it seemeth proper. Time has brought about some strange changes of modesand dvjr ng the centuries, ,„a prob.tlj £» ... ew like little' Peter Pans, unable to attain their majority until they reach the age of eighty-four. , , , . All their lives they will be in a class apart where birthdays are concerned, but ~till we can at least give them a good /t ntart-off, and extend to every little New Zealander born to-day our best wishes for "'MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF / THE DAY!"