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Camelot Portraits Photo News and Tips
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Celebrate Leap Year Day 29Friday2008
This entry was posted on 2/29/2008 1:23 PM and is filed under Greeting.
Happy Leap Day
Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar in 46 BC and in 8 AD, leap years were inserted in order to bring the calendar year in line with the length of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. Because the length of time of an actual year is 365.25 days, an additional day is inserted in years which are divisible by 4 except in the case of the last year of the century, then it is a leap year if it's divisible by 400. That formula was added by Pope Gregory XIII when he adopted the Gregorian calendar we use today.
Important Happenings on this day
1504 Columbus uses a lunar eclipse to frighten hostile Jamaican Indians
1940 "Gone with the Wind," wins 8 Oscars
1940 Hattie McDaniel becomes 1st black woman to win an Oscar
1972 Hank Aaron becomes 1st baseball player to sign for $200,000 a year
1980 Gordie Howe becomes 1st NHL player to score 800 career goals
1984 Canadian PM Pierre Elliott Trudeau announced he is stepping down
Every four years we have a Leap Year, which means we have a year
with 366 days rather than the typical 365. That extra day is always February 29.
This change in the calendar was created to maintain a balance with
the natural cycle of the universe. A 365-day year is actually a bit
shy of the natural course of a year, with its four seasons.
If we did not have an extra day every year, eventually those of us in
the Northern hemisphere, would be celebrating Christmas in 90 degree
weather and wearing parkas during our summer vacation months. It wouldn’t
stay that way though. The Summer months would be cold for a while, then
warmer again, then cold again, and so on.
In ancient times, a month was considered a month by calculating the intervals from
new moon to new moon. It was called a synodic month, or lunar month. With that
method, a month was 29.53 days.
A solar year - the length of time required for the Earth to revolve around the sun - is
365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and about 45 seconds. The lunar months were not
equal to the solar year, so the weather conditions during a given month would slowly
change over the years.
For example, think about the kind of weather you had in your hometown September 1.
If not for Leap Day, 50 years from now you would have the kind of weather you'd expect
in mid-October on September 1. In many places on earth that is a significant
difference.
In order to eliminate the extra 3 Leap Years occurring, years ending in
00 must be divisible by 400 to be designated a Leap Year. So the years 1700,
1800 and 1900 were not Leap Years, but the years 1600 and 2000 were.
February 29 is not officially named Leap Day. Because of this, dictionaries do
not capitalize the words Leap Year Day or Leap Day. In addition to that, calendar
companies do not recognize it as a day of importance by putting the words Leap
Year Day in print on February 29. It's a day that celebrates the calendar, and yet,
most calendar companies miss that point.
With that extra day performing such a balancing act for the sake of the calendar
I had hoped calendar companies would include the words LEAP YEAR DAY on
on February 29, 2008, but alas, the majority did not. My hope continues to 2012.
That extra day, February 29, has a valid reason for being there, and it has a name:
Leap Year Day.
It was put in place for one reason only. It's a little day with a lot of responsibility.
Leap Year Day does not receive the recognition it deserves. February 29 must be officially
named Leap Year Day so the calendar companies will recognize it and put it in print!
Leap Year Day is not a holiday. It is Leap Year Day. It doesn't need to be a holiday really.
CELEBRATE THE SPIN!www.leapyearday.com/CelebrateTheSpin.htm
www.hugkiss.com/platinum/leap.shtml
Have your portrait created with your loved one, and friends at the exciting events
you attended to celebrate Leap Year Day February 29, 2008
for this February 29, 2008 Leap Year's Day.
Remember to give portraits for that gift of a life time of memories!HAPPY LEAP YEAR'S DAY
29February2008
CAMELOT PORTRAITS
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