Today is the “double sixth,” the extra day in the calendar inserted every four years. The story goes that the Romans started their Julian Calendar on the 24th of February, 6 days (sextus=sixth) before March 1st. In Leap Years, they had two 24ths, or bis-sextus (second sixth).
So, Happy Bissextus!
Although…
The Romans considered Bissextus as unlucky, probably because it through off what they considered the natural order of things. People tend to distrust anything out of the ordinary.
We know today as Leap Day because we leap over a day in the week (today would commonly be March 1st, Sunday last year but Tuesday this year, Monday having been leapt over).
The Gregorian Calendar, thankfully, moved this extra day at the end of February so we don’t have two of the same day, just an extra day — February 29th.
February 29th is more peculiarity than evil omen, unless you consider that it falls in US Presidential Election Years (depending on your preferred candidate I suppose).
Or…
If you are born on February 29th, Like Frederic in the Pirates of Penzance, who was promised his freedom from the pirates on his 21st birthday.
When the fateful day came…Oops! he was born on the 29th so technically he had only 5 birthdays, regardless of his 21 trips around the sun (he needed 84 trips to have 21 birthdays).
I call today, BONUS DAY!
Everyone wishes for more days in the week. Well, here’s an extra day in the month. You can get some extra R&R, catch up on some work, spend it with family or invest in yourself by training/practicing a bit more. The choice is yours (hint: it’s a good day to start to change something)
The question is, what will you do with your Bonus Day?
Me, I took down my Christmas lights.