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An ode to leap day
It should be a holiday
Leap day
Today we celebrate Leap Day! It’s a special day partly because it is a rare day, but I think it is so much more. I think of Leap Day as a holiday celbrating the impact of science on society.
In order for a society to have Leap Day, the society must have a team of dedicated astronomers studying the stars for an extended period of time who are smart enough to notice that the stars shift a bit each year. Then the society has to trust those astronomers enough to listen to them to add a day to the calendar every four years to make up for the difference. What’s really cool about it is that all across the world different ancient societies independently developed ways to keep the calendar in sync with the stars. Some added a day every four years, some added a month every few years, but they all recognized that the star gazing people were onto something. It really points out how much humans universally tend to trust science.
I’m just imagining astronomers in ancient Egypt, going to the pharaoh and saying something like, “Great Pharaoh, I’m sure you already know this since you are also a God, but I have been carefully recording the orientation of the stars every night for many years (which is not a crazy thing to do!) and I couldn’t help but notice that they get shifted a little bit each year. This is pretty problematic because, as we all agree, the orientation of the stars and planets have an enormous amount of impact on our day to day lives, and the shifting stars is messing up our horoscopes. So now its hard to tell if people born in mid winter are intoverted Aquariuses or empathetic Pisces. I think we should add a day to the calendar every four years to fix it.” And the Pharaoh is like, “Say no more, add the day.”
Bold accomplishments like this desererve to be recognized. That is why I will always celebrate Leap Day as a holiday!
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