It’s 2024, which implies February 29 made the calendar cut this go-round, making it a Leap Yr.
A rare, storied and wondrous addition to Pisces season, read on to learn more in regards to the history, astrology, numerology, and superstitions that surround Leap Day.
Why is there a Leap Day every 4 years?
It gets math-y, folks.
A mean calendar yr is one year long, roughly the variety of days it takes the Earth to finish its orbit across the sun. The difficulty lies within the “roughly” a part of the equation. In fact, it takes the Earth, 365.25 day to make this orbit. To account for the additional 1/4 day we add a day to the calendar every 4 years.
If we didn’t, over the course of centuries, the seasons would lose their calendrical boundaries and summer would fall in December and all that’s hot, fertile, and holy can be upended.
Many early civilizations observed lunisolar calendars that included entire Leap months. Yet, it was Julius ‘Ides of March’ Ceasar who, inspired by the Egyptian solar calendar, decided so as to add a day to February every fourth yr. Leap Day was born and the Julian Calendar took effect on January 1st, 45 B.C.E.
Why is it called a Leap Yr?
A mean yr spans 52 weeks and sooner or later. Under this type of calendar, in case your birthday falls on a Sunday one yr, it will fall on a Monday the following yr. Yet, the bonus of an additional day during a Leap Yr indicates that your birthday now “leaps” over a day. Should you celebrated on a Sunday last yr, this yr the joyous occasion of your solar return will happen on a Tuesday.
Should you are a ‘leapling’ —AKA certainly one of the dear few whose birthday falls on February 29, — may I suggest you toast your solar return with a Leap Yr cocktail?
This gin-based libation was born on Leap Day 1928. Created by barman Harry Craddock for the Leap Yr celebration at London’s Savoy Hotel, “it is claimed to have been chargeable for more proposals than another cocktail that has ever been mixed.”
The astrology of Leap Day 2024
Along with getting yet one more sun up and sundown out of Pisces season, Leap Day affords us a bonus day for taking our intentions from thought to will.
On February 29, 2024, the sun, Mercury, Saturn, and Neptune will all be doing the backstroke in the paranormal, rose-gold bath waters of Pisces, heightening our collective sense of intuition and opening us to messages, download and lightning bolts of inspiration from the world beyond.
The energy here is hopeful, and the influence of ‘make the immaterial material’ Saturn suggests what will be dreamed will be done.
A positive connection between Mercury, planet of the mind, and Jupiter, the gilded planet of expansion on February 29 indicates that our thoughtful intentions are more primed than ever to guide us to plenty. Consider this Leap Day as a hallowed time to dream the dream and consider in its capability to come back through, and are available true.
Distilling the miraculous nature of Leap Day is Russian-American writer Vera Nazarian who imparts, “Today is an ephemeral ghost…it comprises certainly one of those truly rare moments of delightful transience and light-weight uncertainty that only exist on the razor fringe of things, along a buzzing plane of quantum probability…A day of unlocked potential. Will you or won’t you? Must you or shouldn’t you? Use at the present time to do something daring, extraordinary, and in contrast to yourself. Take a probability and shape a unique pattern in your personal cloud of probability!”
Numerology of two/29/2024
From a numerological perspective, 2/29/2024 is a number 3.
In numerology, 3 is ruled by the lucky AF planet Jupiter and pertains to expression, creativity, divine connection, and ceaseless optimism, tripling down on the hopeful energy of at the present time of days.
All the great juju is a boon for a day that has historically been given a foul rap for bad luck.
Steeped in superstition, cultures throughout the world regard February twenty ninth as a day of doom.
In parts of the Mediterranean, it’s believed that any marriage consecrated on Leap Day will end in divorce. In India, superstition holds that you will need to do “daanam” or charitable deeds to ward off/counteract the day’s in poor health effects.
Why are humans superstitious?
From knocking on wood, wearing lucky underwear, avoiding black cats, ladders and cracks, throwing salt over our shoulders, and crossing our fingers, we’re, universally and historically, a really superstitious lot.
Why can we as humans create the conditions of superstition?
Karen Cunningham, a licensed marriage & family therapist, explains.
“People need things to make sense. Anxiety exists once we deal with things that we don’t have a solution to. Our brains are anticipatory; we would like to know what to anticipate, and we would like to know why things are the way in which they’re. Superstitions can provide a way of control in a chaotic world; when someone holds a belief that, ‘if I do that, then that can follow,’ for instance, ‘if I wear my lucky underwear, then my football team will win,’ it allows the anticipatory a part of the brain to rest in some comfort of what’s to come back.”
Comfort through a feigned sense of control, bless it.
Leap Yr superstitions/traditions
Leap Day comes correct with its own set of superstitions and traditions. Read on to learn more.
1. Reverse proposal
The Irish call Leap Day “Bachelor’s Day” or “Ladies Privilege.” A touch outdated by modern standards, the tradition gave women the ordained choice to propose marriage on February 29. Popularized within the nineteenth century but dating back to the fifth, legend holds that “Ladies Privilege” began as a option to satisfy impatient, horny nuns. In that earlier era, nuns were permitted to marry but not many among the many habited were fielding proposals.
St. Bridget appealed to St. Patrick to permit the babes of Ireland to ask for a person’s hand in marriage annually. The pair settled on once every 4 years on Leap Day.
Should you select the road of reversed proposal you’ll join the daring, asking ranks of power Pisces Elizabeth Taylor, Judge Judy, Diane von Furstenberg, Pink, Jenna Bush Hager, Sarah Snook, Kristen Bell, Rita Ora and Britney Spears.
Anastasiya Pochotna, a dating expert on the dating app Flirtini suggests a contemporary tackle this tradition.
“It’s 2024 — Anyone can get down on one knee at any time when they please, but completely satisfied couples can still use the occasion to have some fun. That is the day you let your female companion take the lead and plan the date of her dreams. She gets to eat and do what she wants. Likewise, for same-sex couples, it’s the right opportunity to plan your dream date together and have fun that the world is much less stuck in its ways than it once was.”
I like to recommend some weird nun role play, but you do you, folks.
2. High price of rejection
The custom of the reverse proposal caught on and in 1288, Scottish law granted women the best to propose during Leap Years. If a person rejected a lady’s marriage proposal on February 29, he needed to pay her a pound for pain and suffering. In Denmark, the worth for ‘no’ is twelve pairs of gloves to cover the unwed ring finger of the dejected damsel all year long ahead. In Finland, if a bachelor refuses a proposal on February twenty ninth he owes the lady enough fabric to fashion a skirt.
3. Red for luck
Scottish superstition holds that a Leap Day romance will only prove successful if the bachelorette in query rocks a red petticoat. While petticoats have (tragically) gone the way in which of pocket watches and monocles in recent times, the tradition can still be honored by wearing red underwear or penguin feeding your partner red wine.
4. A dish for death prevention
In Taiwan, superstition states that oldsters usually tend to pass away during a Leap Yr. To combat early expiration, daughters would traditionally return home on or around Leap Day to organize pig trotter noodles for his or her parents. The dish is believed to support health, wealth, and survival. Noodles for salvation, can dig, dig in. See this recipe for inspiration
5. Fertile whales
Apropos of Leap Day falling within the watery heart of Pisces season and based on the idea that whales only give birth during Leap Years, Italians within the Province of Reggio Emilia, discuss with the yr as “l’ann d’ la baleina” or “the whale’s yr.” Anastasiya Pochotna, a dating expert on the dating app Flirtini recommends honoring this tradition and the spirit of fertility by spending Leap Day on, or by, the ocean. Alternatively, for the lovelorn or landlocked, a marathon of the “Free Willy” franchise or a somber screening of “Black Fish” might suffice.
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, popular culture and private experience. She can also be an achieved author who has profiled a wide range of artists and performers, in addition to extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Amongst the numerous intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.