Proposals, noodles and a special cocktail: Leap year celebrations around the world
By ITV News Producer Hannah Ward-Glenton
Every four years February gets an extra day and the quadrennial date comes with lots of traditions and superstitions.
So, how do people celebrate February 29, why do we have leap years, and what would happen if they didn't exist? ITV News explains.
What is a leap year?
It takes around 365.25 days for Earth to orbit the Sun.
Most years this is rounded down to 365 days, but once every four years there is an additional day to make up for those extra four quarters of a day.
The end of February may seem like an odd day to tack on the extra 24 hours, but it lines up with the end of the Roman calendar year.
The idea of annual catch-up dates originated from Ancient Rome, based on phases of the moon, as people had noticed the calendar was falling out of sync with the seasons.
Several tweaks were made to the system before today's method of adding an extra day to February every four years became well established.
Traditions and superstitions
Perhaps the best-known Leap Year tradition is that women are allowed to propose to men on February 29, and the lore once had legal weighting in Scotland and England.
Legend has it Irish Saint Bridget and Saint Patrick struck a deal that women could take the reigns and propose to a beau on one day every four years after she complained that men were too slow to pop the question.
And the refusal of a Leap Day proposal can get expensive. Historically in Ireland a rejected proposal has to be compensated with a gift, typically in the form of gloves, a silk gown or a fur coat.
In Scottish tradition any women looking to propose should wear a red petticoat while getting down on one knee.
Unlucky marriages
Some folklore suggests that starting anything new during a Leap Year is unlucky.
In Greece and Ukraine, marriages that commence during a Leap Year are likely to be full of misfortune, including divorce or even the death of a spouse.
Leapling dinner in Texas
Antony, Texas in the US is the self-proclaimed Leap Year capital of the world, and hosts a big festival to celebrate people born on February 29, who are known as 'leaplings'.
A special dinner is thrown for the leaplings on February 29, and festivities continue over the following two days.
Pig trotter noodles
In Taiwan older people are more likely to pass away during a Leap Year, according to superstition, and so daughters are encouraged to cook up a dish of pig trotter noodles for their parents.
The meal is thought to bring good health, fortune, and promote longevity in the elderly.
Bad crops
Farmers from a number of countries, including Scotland and France, believe that Leap Years are likely to be full of bad weather, making it an unpredictable time for crops.
The expression "Leap Year was never a good sheep year" has been widely circulated in reference to the unlucky farming period.
A special French newspaper
La Bougie du Sapeur is a satirical newspaper published once every Leap Year.
It is thought to be the world's least frequent newspaper and was born out of a joke between two friends who wanted to create a publication of articles, funny stories, fake adverts and comic strips.
May Day romance
Every year in the Rhineland region of Germany, love-struck men are encouraged to place a small birch tree, decorated with ribbons, on the doorstep of their crush on April 30, the night before May Day.
In a Leap Year, women can reciprocate and leave small decorated plants outside a crush's house. Men are also excluded from the May Day maypole dancing during a Leap Year.
A fancy cocktail
London's Savoy Hotel created a Leap Year beverage in 1928 to toast the special occasion.
The boozy concoction was first mixed by renowned mixologist Harry Craddock, and contains gin, sweet vermouth, Grand Marnier and lemon.
The bittersweet drink is believed to have been responsible for more proposals than any other cocktail as the heady mixture meets marriage-based traditions on February 29.
What if we didn't have leap years?
Without Leap Years the alignment of when farmers plant their crops and how seasons align with the sun and the moon would be skewed.
“Without the leap years, after a few hundred years we will have summer in November,” Younas Khan, a physics instructor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said.
“Christmas will be in summer. There will be no snow. There will be no feeling of Christmas.”
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