Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-02-07
Miseellaneous Reaaiu9.
STRANGE STORY OF LEAP YEAR
All Sorts of Queer Things Done to Feb
ruary.

/
down here and padded out there
makes mighty interesting story.
The first European division Of the
year that we know anything about
had only ten months and 304 days
This was the invention Of Romulus
who must have had a lovely time
patching up things so as to come out
even.
They evidently did get into q
pretty bad mess, for Numa Pompil-
ius, the second king of Rome, had to
add two whole months, January and
February. January, named after jan
us, the god who presided over the be-
ginning of the year, was made the
first Of the twelve months.
February, from Latin word mean
ing to expiate, was clapped on to the
end, that being considered the appro.
pirate period for repentance. 1t stay
ed there for 200 years before 1t final
ly got itself promoted to second place
And It has somehow always been
February which was tackled first If
anybody wanted to do anything to the
calendar.
Even with Numa's twelve months
the year had only 354 days. The trou-
BILE was that the ancients had n very
great regard for the moon and were
trying to make the months follow ex-
actlyt the moons revolutions. The re-
suit was that the year was eleven
days too short and the seasons were
climbing over themselves in the most
confusing fashion.
Sanething had to be done. and of
couI7e February was chosen as the
| monsh to be tinkered with. The
change was so clumsy that one wond-
ers Sow anybody could manage dates
at al under such a system.
Btery alternate year a whole month
was donated to the year, but for some
reason instead of putting 1t between
two months 1t was thrust squarely In
to February. between the 24th and
the 25th of that long suffering
month. The length Of this intercalary
m onth, as 1t was called, was Itself al
ternated every alternate year, and so
the length OF the year was made pref
ty riearly correct
tt WIS now one day too long, how
ever instead of being ten days too
shoIt, so that still another clumsy de-
vice had to be arranged for correct
ing this. The year was of different
lengths at different times, but once In
twe1ty-four years 1t came around to
the right point and then started all
over again.
That is, 1t would have come around
all S.sht If it had been let alone. But
the management Of the calendar was
jipat1ss, hands of the priests, who
could alter the length Of the intercal-
ary month-poor February again!-
to suit themselves. These shreWd
gentlemen, therefore, used to spin out
the month when they wanted to hang
on to an office for themselves or
friends, or would cut 1t short If they
were in a hurry for the annual cleo
tions.
AS may we'll be believed, the COM
mon people had no comprehension of
the right way Of running their COM
plicated calendar. They didn't know
whether the priests were doing the
thing properly or not; so 1t was con-
fusion worse confounded as time went
on. until in Julius Caesars time the
year was hopelessly muddled up. The
winter months were in the autumn,
the autumn months In the summer,
and so on.
Something had to be done again,
and Caesar was equal to the occasion.
He planked in two extra months be-
tween November and December, In
addition to the intercalary month In
February; so that the year contained
fifteen months and 445 days. This was
As B. C. and is known as the year of
confusion.
It really was the last year Of con-
fusion. It cancelled all past errors,
and the next thing was to make SUBJ
sequent years the proper length.
Fortunately there was philosoph-
er Of Alexandria, named Sosigenes'
who had the thing all worked out.
Caesar adopted his plan, and the re-
suit is our modern year, even to our
occasional leap year.
But poor old February still had to
come in for some tinkerlng. Caesar
decreed that the months Of the year
should be of thirty and thirty-one
days alternately, except February
which in ordinary years was to have
twenty-eight days, with an extra day
every four years. The only foolish
thing about this arrangement was
| that the extra day was not placed at
the end of the month, as at present.
but between the twenty-fourth and
twenty-ffth, where the intercalary
month had been.
| 1t was Caesar therefore who intro
duced leap year. In order that the
name of Julius Caesar might forever
be associated with this new calendar
the month in which his birthday oc-
Cured was named after him.
1t Is our July formerly known as
Quintilis. This was a very proper rec
ognition of Julius Caesars services,
but it contained the seed of more
trouble for February.
| When Julius died and Augustus sue
ceeded him, the latter was rather
Jealous because Of that month which
perpetuated the first Caesars name
He decided to have one named after
him too, so when his army won some
victories in the month following July
he picked that one out to be called
Augustus.
That was all right as far as 1t went
but there was one serious drawback
Augustus had only thirty days. while
julius had thirty-one.
Horrid thought! Augustus was moi
the man to put up with smaller
month than anybody else, so he calm
1v tooLad another day on to August.