Leap Year
2024
Happy New Year!
2024 is a leap year, a year with an extra day to balance the calendar year with the solar or tropical year. An astronomical year lasts slightly less than 365 and one quarter days. Without an adjustment every four years our calendar would soon become out of synchronisation with the tropical year; in four years, it would be out by about one day and in 100 years it would be out by approximately 25 days.
Julius Caesar introduced the leap year in 45 BC. The Julian calendar ruled that any year number divisible by 4 would be a leap year but this resulted in many leap years. Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582 to regulate this. The Julian calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. It is still used in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church as well as in Oriental Orthodoxy and by the Berbers in parts of North Africa.
Leap years occur every four years except for years that are divisible by 100 but not 400. 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was. For most of us, at least until 2100, if the last two numbers are divisible by 4, the year is a leap year.
The summer Olympics are held every four years, usually in a leap year. The 2020 Olympics were postponed for a year because of Covid. This year, Paris is hosting the summer Olympics from 26th July to 11th August.
The opening ceremony is usually entertaining though sometimes needs to be interpreted by the commentators, as the dance/drama sequences can be quite mystifying. I wonder why, when all the nations of the world can put aside their differences for two weeks to participate, such willingness to cooperate cannot translate to daily life. Of course, the athletes are competing for medals, not attempting to annex other people's lands. The spirit of apparent goodwill does not last. Consider the 1936 Olympics in Germany, which so incensed Hitler.
What state will our world be in by the summer of 2024?
Goodwill does not last :(
ReplyDeleteThe 1936 Olympic Games should have been moved or cancelled by the world's democracies but the Germans were delighted to show off their great sporting strengths. Every authority figure was present at the sporting events, proud of the nation's medal winners. Hitler only stormed out when a black athlete from the U.S ran superbly, apparently humiliating the white German athletes.
It's a dilemma when sport has to be balanced against politics. Defy, deny or teach by example.
DeleteVery interesting information on Leap Year. I have no idea of its history or that it went back that far!
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing (or very little) new under the sun;-)
DeleteI didn't know there were exceptions to leap years, not that I will ever see one.
ReplyDeleteWe're quite safe for now, dividing the last two digits by 4 to determine a leap year;-)
DeleteAnd, did you know that Ethiopia, is the country that
ReplyDeletefollows a 13-month calendar, and is 7 years behind
the rest of the world....!
🙏🐾😽💞🙏🐾😽💞🙏🐾😽💞🙏🐾😽💞
More than 7 in many respects . . .
DeleteAge is such a wonderful thing, it makes us forget half of what we have already learned. I had forgotten how leap year is not an absolute every 4 years. We do hope that the Olympics go off without Terror attacks or accidents or terrible incidents.
ReplyDelete. . . and so say all of us! Security has to be so tight on such occasions.
DeleteI am glad that my birthday is not 29th February. I get so few birthday presents anyway!
ReplyDelete. . . but just think how young you'd be!
DeleteVery interesting! Wishing you all the best for 2024! Sal 😁
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sal. Happy 2024 to you, too.
DeleteI, for one, am not going to look into the future here. My country is in turmoil. So is the world.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't do to look too closely at what is going on - it's going to be a fingers crossed sort of year, I think.
DeleteI had no idea there were exceptions to leap year, nor that we would be 25 days out of sync in 100 years if didn't have them. And as I'm determined to stay positive I'm not going to think ahead to the Summer of 2024, at least not beyond my Summer holiday! xxx
ReplyDeleteYou're right - take each day as it comes and cross all your digits! x x x
ReplyDeleteSo much fun information, thank you. As for our country and the world in a year where so many countries are holding presidential elections, one can only hope for the best.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting read, and you've posed a very good question.
ReplyDelete'What state will our world be in by the summer of 2024?'
I will take each day as it comes, and do the best I can.
Go forward with hope for a more peaceful world.
All the best Jan
We can do no more than see what each day brings. It will be a year of even greater speculation than usual so that by the time we get to the events they will seem old hat.
ReplyDelete