Leap Year: What they didn't tell you!

So February 29th is upon us, but why the hell do we add 24 hours to our year? And why only every 4 years? Well this week we are going to unravel the wonder that is the leap year....

How It All Began
Right this is gonna take some real explaining so bear with me.
We all know that the Roman Empire were the worlds first superpower, and pretty much ruled the known world. (This is a basic backstory!) The original Roman Calendar had ten months, Starting from March to December. This is why September is no longer the 7th month, same goes for October and December and their respective numbers. Then  Numa the second King of Rome added two months to the calender: Ianuarius (January) and Februarius (February). All went swimmingly for the next 600 years, and as the Kingdom of Rome became The Roman Republic, the seasons started to shift out of sync.

The Egyptians now part of the Roman Republic figured out that The Roman calendar wasn't lined up correctly with the solar calendar (365.242199 days), So the leader at the time, Julius Caesar added an extra ten days to the year and added the leap day to come at the end of February every 4 years. The pompous git also changed the month of Quintilis to Julius (July) in his honour. For an added bonus his son Augustus also changed the month Sextilis to...... come on I am sure you can work it out! The clue is in his name! Caesar's reforms actually weren't far off the solar calendar and for the next 1500 years all was good, well apart from the fall of the empire an the world being plunged into the dark ages, but I digress....

In the year 1582 Pope Gregory XIII tweaked the Julian Calendar to the current Gregorian calendar we use today.  The leap day is still at the end of February almost very 4 years. Except the rule is a leap year can only happen on a year that is divisible by 4, but can never happen on a year divisible by 100 unless it can also be divided by 400, not too confusing then! A good example is that 1900 wasn't a leap year but 2000 was. So there you have it a brief and basic history of our calendar, and the leap day!

Interesting Leap Year Facts

• The Gregorian calendar isn't perfect, it will go out of sync with the Solar Calendar by 1 day every 3236 years!
• The Chinese calendar doesn't have a leap day, it has a leap month!
• Sweden (and Finland) had a "double" leap year in 1712, because two days were added to February. That year there was a date February 30, 1712. This was done because the leap year in 1700 was dropped, and Sweden's calendar was not synchronised with any other calendar. By adding an extra day in 1712, they were back on the Gregorian calendar.
• Your chances of being born on a leap day are approximately 1 in 1500. There are about 4 million people in the world who were born on Leap Day.
• If you were born on a leap day, you will celebrate your birthday on either the 28th of February or the 1st of March.
• As the story goes, the tradition of women romantically pursuing men in leap years began in 5th century Ireland, when St Bridget complained to St Patrick about the fairer sex having to wait for men to propose. Patrick finally relented and set February 29th aside  allowing women the right to ask for a man's hand in marriage.

Everything you never needed or wanted to know about leap years summed up in a lovely little blog. Hope you enjoyed it, even if it meant you had to learn something!

Lent: Why not give that up?

So yesterday was the 3rd best day of the year (Behind christmas day and my birthday!) the wonderful festival of cake from a pan, or to normal people Pancake day. I ate loads! Here is a list of the toppings I used: Clotted Cream,  Maple Syrup, The squirty lemon stuff, Chocolate Syrup, oh and sugar. Really its Shrove Tuesday and until now I didn't really know what it means or why the hell we eat pancakes on it either. So let us dive in to the history of the mystery of Lent..

Lent
Well until today I assumed everyone knew what lent was. Until I asked an employee at work what he was giving up for lent, to which he replied "No I didn't lend you anything". What a tit. I then asked weren't you baptized? he stated (and I sh*t you not)  "No I was christened" The tit grows larger...
Anyway, Lent starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday. Typically if you are serious in your faith (which just to be clear I am not) You will fast during this period, whereas most people nowadays give up chocolate for a week, then say well I done a week and then stuff themselves! The story goes that Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert and withstood temptation from the devil, Lent is basically emulating it. Also sundays don't count in Lent so this period is actually longer than forty days.

Shrove Tuesday
Its the day before Lent. Last chance to do all the naughty stuff you can't do for the next forty days except Sundays. There is actually a good reason why its pancakes we eat on shrove tuesday. As I said the most die hard christians fast during Lent. In the olden days your main staple would of been sugar, fat, flour and eggs, Holy crap! Thats the ingredients for pancakes! Get the picture you ate pancakes to use everything up before you started fasting. Kinda makes sense when you think about it.

Ash Wednesday
Thats it if you didn't enjoy all the good stuff yesterday, TOUGH! It's too late because now its fasting street for the next forty days (apart from sundays!) The reason its named so is because this is the day you go to church to repent, and we all know how christians love to repent! While you're in the church repenting like you have never repented before, You will have the symbol of the cross drawn on your head with what? Thats right you guessed it, ashes. To those who said crayon shame on you!  The ash cross is to symbolize mourning and why not, more repentence. It is predominantly done from the ash of palms burnt and blessed from the previous years Palm Sunday. The wearer must not wash off the cross but rather leave it till it wears off naturally. This is of course optional in the modern day society.

So there you have it, pretty much the long and short of it dumbed down to these three paragraphs. Whether you are religious or not, its good to have these traditions where we can try and change something in our lives we are not happy with. So whether you are fasting or only giving up chocolate, stick at it. After all its only forty days bar sundays....

Valentines Day: The Celebration of Love

So its Valentines Day again, the one time of the year where some have a great day and others, well don't! But whats it all about? Where did it start? So I thought I would enlighten you to the secrets of Valentines Day...

Saint Valentine
Saint Valentine is actually the culmination of two people, Valentius of Rome and Valentine of Terni.
Despite popular belief neither of these people actually had nothing to do with romance or love, There is no credible reason for them to be connected to the holiday! go figure..

The Legend of St Valentine
Story 1 says that St Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by the Roman emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer.
Story 2 is a slightly differnet version. Which portrays Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail.
There is an additional modern embellishment widely repeated despite having no historical basis whatsoever. On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first "valentines" card himself, addressed to the blind daughter of his jailor Asterius, signing as "From your Valentine."

The Beginning of the Holiday
So in the 14th Century, a man who is considered one of the greatest english poets Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the poem 'Parlement of Foules'  this was the first time that St Valentine was referenced to romance. Over time he became more and more entwined with love and in 1797 the first valentines card was produced. It became so popular that by the 1840's the first cards were being mass produced instead of being handwritten. In the U.S the practice of  giving roses and chocolates soon took hold and spread all over the world. Seeing how popular the day has become the diamond industry decided to jump on the bandwagon and in the 1980's started promoting giving jewellery as gifts. This all helped it become the commercial holiday it is today.

So there you have it. And you thought it was just about giving a card to a loved one. I have thought long and hard about it, and I have also heard some complain about the holiday. But I think that its good to have a day where you can show how much someone means to you, Life is a constant battle and sometimes you do lose sight of things. At the very least it makes you realise whats important to you. Even if the card and chocolate companies try to corrupt Valentine's that doesn't mean you should ignore it. Follow your heart and show someone you care...

Old People: You Gotta Love 'em!

So today my gran decided to take it upon herself to buy a new mobile phone. Why do they do it?
Let me take you to the beginning of the story, My gran bought her first mobile phone years ago, She didn't know how to use it. Fair enough I was more than happy to show her. Two weeks later I was happy to show her again. For the next few years I kept being pestered to teach her the same things over and over again!

Just as she got used to it, and the cries of "How do I unlock my phone?" stopped, she bought a new phone (because it was pink I might add!). Instead of buying a silver phone similar to the one she was used to she bought a pink one that was totally different. I knew what was coming, "can you teach me how to use it?". Fine no problem, so repeat the whole frigging process except change unlock to "What does silent mean?"

It has been 3 weeks since her last phone drama, I thought I was scott free. I could see light at the end of the tunnel, only for God to say "ummm don't be silly!". So here we are I walk through the door see the empty phone box and instantly wish  I was a small bug and that someone will step on me!  First she couldn't find the R button, (just so we are clear its number 7) I show her and then run. But I will tel you for someone that is waiting for a new knee she moves really quick! I was chased down the hall and realised there was no escaping it. I was going to have to be smart. this is how the conversation went:

"are you busy?"
" uh I was gonna go for a run"
" Well I want you to sit down with me and show me how to use this phone"
I looked at the phone realised I've found my way out  "I don't know how to use this phone, I have never seen or used this make before"

Thinking I had won, I wanted to help but just couldn't I didn't know how to work it. Devious I know but this is phone 5 and I am losing the will to live!

"Thats ok you look at it, figure it out then teach me"
 Is she kidding me?!
"let me get this straight, you want me to learn how to use the phone and then teach you? You already know more about the phone than me, carry on learning yourself then you don't need me"
" No thats ok, your the smart one. No one has got the brains like you"

Son of a bitch! She has beat me at my own game, even used a bit of flattery to hook me. So instead of a relaxing evening, I will be banging my head against a wall, telling her over and over that to get to R you have to push 7 three times! Have a great night everyone...