Behind the Scenes - 302designs

February is definitely the month for holidays. We have had Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day, Ash Wednesday, President’s Day… and now we have a Leap Year. An entirely extra day that we only get every four years.

I love little tidbits of information so I found some folk traditions about the Leap Year on Wikipedia:

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Brigid of Kildare in 5th century Ireland, but apparently not attested before the 19th century, whereby women may make marriage proposals only in leap years.

Supposedly (but disputed), in a 1288 law by Queen Margaret of Scotland (then age five and living in Norway), fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to £1 to a silk gown, in order to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to the modern leap day, 29 February, or to the medieval leap day, 24 February.

Others regard these supposed folk traditions as unhistorical.

In Greece, it is believed that getting married in a leap year is bad luck for the couple. Thus, mainly in the middle of the past century, couples avoided setting a marriage date in a leap year.

That was just for fun… what I really wanted to post about was time. The concept of an extra day in the year is kind of odd to me, but it’s a nice thought to have more time. (Does anyone else get warm and tingly about Daylight Savings Time, when we get an extra hour of sleep? I do.)

Time is a precious resource that we often take for granted. Ben Franklin said that time is money, and even the business world accounts for its worth (“opportunity cost”). I feel that time is important because it enables and empowers us to do all kinds of things. I need time for my writing, time for my reading and learning, time for refreshing myself and growing as an individual. This year, when we are given the gift of a little extra time, what will you do with it?