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Leap Day, 29 February 2000

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Little Known Fact: The Gregorian Calendar allows us to leap like a frog

Most people know that the length of a solar year is 365.2425 days.

Most people know that Julius Caesar first instituted the "leap year" concept in 46 B.C., adding one day to the year out of every four in the Julian Calendar.

And most people know that because the solar year is not exactly 365.25 days, Pope Gregory XIII, following the recommendations of the Council of Trent (1545 - 1563), readjusted the calendar in 1582, eliminating 10 days that year, and establishing that the first year of any new century will not be a leap year, unless that century itself is divisible by four.

However, what most people do not know is that near the end of Pope Gregory XIII's famous papal bull in 1582 is an amendment which reads

I further decree that, to celebrate God's grace and bounding glory, on those days in which the leap year shall be observed in the first year of a new century, all men shall be granted the privilege of making one giant leap into the air as if he has been constructed in a manner resembling a frog.

The origin of this rather odd declaration is unclear, but most sources attribute it to a disgruntled (and, unfortunately, anonymous) scribe who had been regularly disciplined for his peculiar and often mis-placed sense of humor. Others have suggested that the pope himself wished to test his supposed infallibility, and desired to (privately) discover if he could actually and effortlessly bound in the air in the year 1600. With much chagrin, Gregory XIII died in 1585 and was never able to put his faith to the ultimate test.

Nevertheless, on 29 February, 2000, at a small (yet festive) gathering in the residence of one Kristen Harknett, an attempt was made by one graduate student to "leap like a frog". The untouched photographs displayed above are considered by many to be indisputable proof that many mysteries of the universe will never be explained by Modern Science. Unfortunately, we shall have to wait until February of 2400 to conduct further experiments of the phenomenon.

Sources:

Gregorian Reform of the Calendar: Proceedings of the Vatican Conference to Commemorate its 400th Anniversary, 1582-1992, ed. G. V. Coyne, M. A. Hoskin, and O. Pedersen (Vatican City: Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Specolo Vaticano, 1983).

Jean Meeus and Denis Savoie, "The history of the tropical year," Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 102 #1 (1992): 40-42

more photos from the holiday extravaganza !

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posted: 03/02/2000 03:15 PM
revised: 06/01/2006 11:53 AM