Happy Leap Day!

[published Feb. 29, 2008]

I won’t be able to blog this holiday for another four years, so I better make this one count.

Leap Day is the day that keeps our calendar in line with the sun and the seasons in whack (as opposed to out of whack). The addition of a regular Leap Day every for years as opposed to a lunar calendar or an “intercalary month” added at arbitrary intervals, is what made the Julian calendar (pardon the expression) Leap Years ahead of its Roman predecessors. The rules of Leap Year also necessitated the change to the Gregorian calendar 1500 years later.

But I’ve already blogged about the history and transformation of Leap Day and the calendar at length in Are You Bissextile?“,  “Why January 1 Marks the New Year,” and “Secrets of Dating.”

Instead, just random facts for Leap Day:

For centuries in Western culture Leap Day has been known as the day when women can legally propose to men. One legend has it this is because of a deal St. Brigid made with St. Patrick.

Leap Day hasn’t occurred on a Friday in 28 years.

The Gregorian calendar repeats its cycle every 400 years. During that cycle Leap Day is more likely to fall on a Monday or Wednesday than any other day.

Leap Day has come to be known as Sadie Hawkin’s Day in the U.S., because both holidays allow women to ask out men. But Sadie Hawkins Day, which began in the 1930s, was originally celebrated on November 15.

Sadie Hawkins Day grew out of a comic strip called “Lil’ Abner” by Al Capp. In the comic strip the annual Sadie Hawkins Race had been established by Sadie’s father. He was afraid she’d never find a husband, so he started a foot race between the town’s unmarried girls and beaus. If a woman caught up to the man of her choice, he would be required to marry her. (A good way to keep boyfriends in tip-top shape!)

Today Leap Year Babies celebrate one hell of party, since they won’t have another birthday until 2012.

And guys, be on the lookout!

http://www.leapyearday.com/February29isNOTSadieHawkinsDay.htm

http://www.leapyearday.com/<

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=97139

http://www.timeanddate.com/date/leap-day-february-29.html

Are You Bissextile?

Answer: only during Leap Year…

The great-grand-daddy of our February 29th Leap Day goes back to the ancient Romans. I know what you’re thinking: Don’t we have anything that doesn’t go back to them? Uh, yes: numbers, and thank god for that, or taxes would be an even bigger drag. Also the dates of the month aren’t Roman—for which you’ll be grateful in a minute.

See, back in the day, when the Romans used a lunar calendar, the full moon fell directly in the middle of each month and was called the Ides. And the new moon at the beginning of the month was called the Kalends (from which we get the word calendar). And somewhere in between those two were the Nones. (From which we get the word nine. The nones were nine days before the Ides.)

Instead of saying it’s March 13th, the Romans would say It’s two days before the Ides of March. (Actually they’d say it’s three days before the Ides because they counted funny and that’s another reason you should be glad for Arabic numbers, but that’s neither here nor there.) Instead of saying it’s March 25th, they’d say it’s six days before the Kalends of April, or ante diem IV Kalends Aprilis.

March marked the beginning of the new year. To make up for the fact that the lunar calendar was only 355 days long, every few years a mensis intercalaris, or intercalary month, was tacked onto the end of February. February 23 was the annual Terminalia holiday, in which Romans celebrated Terminus—no, not the god of airports—the god of boundary stones and property disputes. Kind of like the ancient Judge Judy.

Whether a year would have a mensis intercalaris tacked on was determined by the Pontifex Maximus. The problem with this system is if Ponty’s friends were in office, he would have reason to extend the calendar year, whereas if an opposing party had power, he would have reason to shorten it. As a result of this friction and the chaos of the Punic Wars, the intercalary months were added or forgotten for decades at a time. Soon the calendar drifted into entirely different seasons.

Julius Caesar formalized the calendar. Each month was lengthened a certain number of days so the whole calendar would mirror the solar year, not the cycles of the moon—365 days. Instead of a whole month, a leap day was inserted after February 23 (or February 24) every four years.

Only they didn’t call it the 23rd or 24th. Remember we were talking about the Kalends and the Ides?

Since they were counting backwards from the beginning of March—excuse me—from the Kalends of March, they called it “doubling” the day six days prior to the Kalends of March. Or if you really want to get technical, “ante diem bis sextum Kalendas Martii.”

Bis sextum literally translated to doubling or splitting of the sixth day. Hence, leap years were known throughout the Middle Ages as “bissextile years.”

When Roman dating was replaced by the trusty 1-31 system, Leap Day was moved from February 25th to February 29th. Today, even though February is the 2nd month, we continue the 2000 year-old Roman tradition of placing the intercalaris at February’s end.

In simple English:

“When there is the double sixth day before the first day [of March], it matters not whether a person was born on the first or on the second day, and afterwards the sixth day before the first [of March] is his birthday; for those two days are regarded as one, but the second day is intercalated, not the first. And so he that was born on the sixth day before the first [of March] in a year in which there is no intercalation has the first day as his birthday in a leap year. Cato is of opinion that the intercalated month is an additional one, and he takes all its days for a moment of time, and Quintus Mucius assigns it to the last day of the month of February. But the intercalated month consists of twenty-eight days.”

–translation from Institutes and History of Roman Private Law with Catena of Texts, Salkowski & Whitfield

“Cum bissextum kalendas est, nihil refert utrum priore an posteriore die quis natus sit, et deinceps sextum kalendas eius natalis dies est, nam id biduum pro uno die habetur; sed posterior dies intercalatur non prior: ideo quo anno intercalatum non est sexto kalendas natus, cum bissextum kalendas est, priorem diem natalem habet. 1. Cato putat, mensem intercalarem additicium esse, omnesque eius dies pro momento temporis observat, extremoque diei mensis Februarii attribuit Quintus Mucius. 2. Mensis autem intercalaris constat ex diebus viginti octo.” –D. 50, 16, 98

[published Feb. 28, 2008]

Happy Death Day Julius Caesar

Osculating the Bissextile Way

Ladies First on Leap Day

Wikipedia: Leap Year

Wikipedia: Roman Calendar

Time and Date: Leap Day

Peace Memorial Day – Taiwan

February 28

228 Peace Memorial Park – Taipei

It started with a woman selling cigarettes.

February 27, 1947: Lin Jian-Mai was peddling black market cigarettes at a portable stand on Taiping Road in Taipei, Taiwan (then Formosa), when she was caught and arrested by anti-smuggling police from the “Kuomintang” (Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist Chinese government). During the arrest she yelled and struggled with the agents, who had taken her wares and her cash. As a gathering crowd watched the commotion, an overzealous agent pistol-whipped the woman, hard.

The angry crowd surrounded the officers, who then fired warning shots to make an escape for themselves. One of the shots hit and killed a pedestrian.

Word of the incident spread. People were already angry at the corruption of the Chinese government, and the living conditions that had necessitated the black market.

A mob gathered outside the police station, demanding the guilty officer be brought out. When their demands were refused by the captain, the crowd grew angrier and set fire to a police vehicle.

The next day, February 28, amid anti-government demonstrations, the Governor’s security force fired upon the demonstrators with machine guns. Formosans rebelled, attacked mainlanders, and took over part of the city’s infrastructure. On March 7 Chiang Kai-Shek’s army arrived from mainland China for back-up. That’s when the slaughter really began.

The beating of the cigarette vendor may have triggered the 228 Incident, but tensions leading to something like this had been brewing for two years, ever since Chiang Kai-Shek’s government won back Taiwan in 1945 after a half-century of Japanese control.

Corruption and nepotism grew rampant. Taiwan was treated like a colony of the mainland. The Governor Chen Yi controlled the island’s economy and forced Formosans to pay unimaginable amounts for common  goods. The Taiwan Company, for example, was run by Governor Chen’s nephew. The company bought coal at 200 yen a ton and sold it to the people for 4,000.

“With his Chinese aides and ‘monopoly police’ [Chen] took over and expanded the Japanese system of government industrial and trade monopoly (sugar, camphor, tea, paper, chemicals, oil refining, cement). He confiscated some 500 Jap-owned factories and mines, tens of thousands of houses.”

Snow Red and Moon Angel, Time Magazine

Chen ran everything from “the hotel to the night-soil business.” And that included the cigarette factory.

It was in this crucible that Chen’s monopoly police beat a woman vending non-sanctioned tobacco—cigarettes that weren’t manufactured by Chen’s government-run companies. It was the spark that set the island aflame.

When Chiang Kai-Shek’s troops arrived from mainland China, they engaged in:

“‘three days of indiscriminate killing and looting. For a time everyone seen on the streets was shot at, homes were broken into and occupants killed. In the poorer sections the streets were said to have been littered with dead…There were instances of beheadings and mutilation of bodies, and women were raped,’ said one American witness.”

—   New York Times

Witnesses estimated as many as 10,000 people were killed. But there are no official tallies. The government banned Formosans from even mentioning what came to be known as the 228 Incident.

The riots and massacres would trigger the era of “White Terror” in Taiwan. The violence was further fueled by the Chinese Civil War between Mao Zedong’s Communist army and Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist forces. The Communists eventually won everything but the tiny island of Taiwan, which calls itself, the Republic of China.

Even so, martial law in Taiwan didn’t end until 1987.

…I am reminded of the brief note I put down on my diary after seeing the movie, The Last Emperor. The note simply says, “A good and interesting movie, but a wrong title.” By a wrong title I meant that Pu-yi was not the last Emperor of China; there have been many since…One would include among them, Yuan Si-kai, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Each of the them certainly behaved as emperor and wanted others to so treat him. The tradition of authoritarianism of the ruler is still deeply engrained in the minds of both the rulers and the ruled in Chinese culture. A forceful example can be found as recently as June 4, 1989 at Tienanmen Square. For the rulers, only glory and power count. Human rights, freedom of equality or respect for the lives of people have to surrender to the might of the rulers.”

—Tsung-yi Lin, from the Preface to Formosa Betrayed, by George Kerr

Independence Day – Western Sahara

February 27

Independence does not mean PeaceA common theme in decolonization. When Western powers depart from their former colonies, old claims over the newly-independent territory resurface, and neighboring powers assert that the new nation was a territory prior to its European annexation.

Morocco and Western Sahara are neighbors but their history is like night and day.

Morocco was an independent nation back when America was still a colony of Britain. Morocco was one of the first nations to recognize the fledgling United States in 1777, and the Moroccan-American Friendship Treaty remains the U.S.’s longest unbroken treaty.

Morocco’s colonial days were relatively brief. Morocco’s status as a French protectorate was finalized in 1905, but it became one of the first African nations to gain independence in 1956.

African Nations by Independence, 1950-1993

Western Sahara is another matter. Its borders are disputed even today. The region has been claimed by Morocco, Mauritania, Spain, and France, and wasn’t granted ‘independence’ from Spain until 1975. It wasn’t really independence though. Morocco was granted the top 2/3’s of Western Sahara. Mauritania received the remaining third.  Spain’s formal mandate expired on February 26, 1976.

The following day a political faction known as Polisario announced themselves as the true government-in-exile of the country, occupied by Morocco.

The fighting rages on to this day. Donald MacDonald writes, “Since my visit to the camps in June 1993, the political stalemate has dragged on, “disappearances” of Saharawi citizens have continued, and the refugee camps have been devastated by flooding.”

http://www.btinternet.com/~donald.macdonald/poli.htm

The Moroccan press claims, “The Shrawis, who arrived in three groups to El Karkrat, fled the Tindouf Camps (southwestern Algeria) where thousands of Moroccan-Sahara natives are held against their will by the Algerian-backed separatist movement Polisario.”

Currently “158,800 Sahrawi refugees live in camps in the Algerian desert where malnutrition is widespread.”

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnAHM645411.html

Journalists covering the independence movement in Western Sahara have been assaulted, detained or expelled. One journalist who referred to the Sahrawis (Western Saharans) living in Algeria as “refugees” (rather than as “captives” of the Polisario) was taken to court, fined, and barred from journalism for 10 years.

“Media criticism of the authorities is often quite blunt, but is nevertheless circumscribed by a press law that provides prison terms for libel and for expression critical of “Islam, the institution of the monarchy, or the territorial integrity” of Morocco (a phrase understood to mean Morocco’s claim to the Western Sahara.”

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/18/morocc12228.htm

Days of Ha

February 26-March 1

“It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” —Tablets of Baha’u’llah

From February 26th (technically sunset on February 25th) until March 1st millions of Baha’i throughout the world celebrate Ayyam-i-Ha, literally “Days of Ha.”

“It behoveth the people of Baha, throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred and, beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name.”

The Baha’i celebrate through feast, song, and prayer. Themes of the holiday are hospitality, charity and service to the community.The 4-day holiday—five in leap year—prepares celebrants for the upcoming month of Ala. Ala is the last month of the Baha’i, during which people fast for the entire month. They fast during the day only.The Baha’i calendar consists of 19 months of 19 days each. Count ‘em up, that’s 361 days. The “Ayyam-i-Ha”are the additional 4 days (or 5 for Leap Year) inserted after February 25.The tradition of tossing extra days after February 25 is not unique to the Baha’i. In fact, such an intercalary goes back thousands of years to the Ancient Romans…

Happy Ayyam-i-Ha! (pronounced “I am eeha!”)

Liberation Day – Kuwait

February 26

Kuwaiti Flag
Kuwaiti Flag

“Liberation Day (February 26) celebrates the liberation of Kuwait by a multi-national force from seven months of traumatic Iraqi occupation on February 26, 1991. Each year the day is marked with public gatherings and get-togethers. However, the day is also tinged with sadness as Kuwait remembers and honours the martyrs who lost their lives fighting Iraqi oppression and the 605 Prisoners of War still held captive in Iraqi jails.”http://ikuwait.blogspot.com/2007/02/kuwait-deserves.html

This week Kuwait celebrates not one but two national holidays: National Day and Independence Day.

National Day celebrates independence of Kuwait from Britain in 1961 and the reign of Sheikh Abdullah Al Salim Al Sabah, the Emir who guided Kuwait during this transformation and who earned the moniker “Father of the Constitution.”

On this day teens and adolescents celebrate by spraying untold volumes of silly string on passing motorists on the Gulf Road. What the connection is, I don’t know, but as one motorist writes:

“…despite our best efforts to avoid gulf road, there is no getting away [from] these foamy sprays. They will run after you. Chase you down the road. They will even open your door, because having white foams sprayed on your car interior is even funnier than the outside.”
http://anafilibini.blogspot.com/2007/02/kuwait-national-day.html

The area that is now Kuwait was largely uninhabited up until the 18th century although archeologists have found indications of settlements as far back as 4500 BC.
The same family of Sheiks have ruled Kuwait since the 1750s, when Kuwait’s location on the Persian Gulf made it a thriving port. The sovereignty of Kuwait gets shady in the late 19th century due to conflicting claims by the Ottoman and British Empires and by Kuwait itself.


(Kuwait and the Persian Gulf)

Kuwait enjoyed the ambiguous status of a “caza,” an autonomous city by the Ottoman Empire, but in 1899 it began a fungible relationship with Britain, sacrificing some autonomy in return for British naval protection. Britain wanted to secure access through the Gulf—a major transit point between England and India—and block Germany and its Ottoman allies.

In the 1930s the discovery of oil changed the fate of the country overnight. At that time pearl-diving was a leading occupation for Kuwaitis; two decades later the small nation would be one of the largest oil exporters in the world.

Kuwait gained independence from Britain on June 19, 1961, and the following year Kuwait became the first country in the Gulf region to adopt a Constitution and parliament.

In 1974 Kuwait nationalized the Kuwait Oil Company, created by British Petroleum and Gulf Oil in 1934.

Thirty years after independence Kuwait suffered another threat to its sovereignty. Iraq invaded its neighbor to the south after the country refused to reduce their oil exports.<

Iraq had tried to lay claim to Kuwait immediately after it declared its independence in 1961, but annexation attempts were blocked by the UK. According to British diplomat Sir Anthony Parsons, “In the Iraqi subconscious, Kuwait is part of Basra province, and the bloody British took it away from them.”

Kuwaitis insist they were never a possession of the Ottoman Empire.

Following 7 months of occupation a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraqi-occupied Kuwait. After only a few days of fighting Saddam Hussein pulled his troops from the country on February 26, 1991. Since then February 26 has been celebrated as a second Independence Day or Liberation Day.

Other facts about Kuwait:

National elections are held every four years for the 50-member parliament. The Prime Minster and President are appointed by the Emir.

The population skyrocketed from 200,000 to 3 million over the past 50 years. An estimated 2 million are non-nationals. Residents must have lived in the country for 20 years to vote.  Women weren’t granted suffrage until 2005.

Despite being the first democracy in the region, political parties are not allowed. A defied the ban in 2005, creating their own party, and were arrested for plotting to overthrow the government.

Upon leaving Kuwait in 1991 Hussein’s army set Kuwait’s oil reserves ablaze. Kuwait underwent massive infrastructure redevelopment to recover from one of the worst environmental disasters in the 20th century.

The country is predominantly Sunni Muslim.

Links:

Kuwait Oil Company

http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Kuwait.htm

http://kuwaitiesonline.com/Gulf_war/camel-fire.jpg

An expat in Kuwait on the eve of National Day

Turkish diplomat in Kuwait

http://kuwaitiesonline.com/old-kuwait.htm

Kuwait – National Day

February 25

This week Kuwait celebrates two national holidays: Independence Day and Liberation Day.

Though Kuwait officially became independent on June 19, 1961, National Day is celebrated in February in honor of Sheikh Abdullah Al Salim Al Sabah (1895-1965) who came to power in February 1950. [And possibly because it’s too hot to go outdoors in June.] The Emir guided Kuwait during its transformation to modern statehood and earned the moniker “Father of the Constitution.”

On this day teens and adolescents celebrate by spraying untold volumes of silly string on passing motorists on the Gulf Road. What the connection is, no one knows, but as one motorist writes:

“…despite our best efforts to avoid gulf road, there is no getting away w/ these foamy sprays. They will run after you. Chase you down the road. They will even open your door, because having white foams sprayed on your car interior is even funnier than the outside.”

http://anafilibini.blogspot.com

Although archeologists have found indications of settlements as far back as 4500 BC, the area that is now Kuwait was largely uninhabited up until the 18th century.

The same family of Sheiks has ruled Kuwait since the 1750s, when Kuwait’s location on the Persian Gulf made it a thriving port.

The sovereignty of Kuwait gets shady in the late 19th century due to conflicting claims by the Ottoman and British Empires and by Kuwait itself.

Old Kuwaiti Gate

Kuwait enjoyed the ambiguous status of a caza, an autonomous city by the Ottoman Empire, but in 1899 it began a fungible relationship with Britain, sacrificing some autonomy in return for British naval protection. Britain wanted to secure access through the Gulf—a major transit point between England and India—and block Germany and its Ottoman allies.

In the 1930s the discovery of oil changed the fate of the country overnight. At that time pearl-diving was a leading occupation for Kuwaitis; two decades later the small nation would be one of the world’s leading oil exporters.

Kuwait gained independence from Britain on June 19, 1961, and the following year Kuwait became the first country in the Gulf region to adopt a Constitution and parliament.

In 1974 Kuwait nationalized the Kuwait Oil Company, created by British Petroleum and Gulf Oil in 1934.

Other facts about Kuwait:

The population skyrocketed from 200,000 to 3 million over the past 50 years. An estimated 2 million are non-nationals. Residents must have lived in the country for 20 years to vote. And women weren’t granted suffrage until 2005.

Despite being the first democracy in the region, political parties are not allowed. A group of activists defied the ban in 2005, creating their own party, and were arrested for plotting to overthrow the government.

Kuwaiti kids in the days before silly foam
Kuwaiti kids in the days before silly foam

International Sword Swallowers’ Day

Last Saturday in February

In the category of “Holidays We Are Not Making Up” today is Sword Swallower’s Day. Sword Swallowers’ Association International (SSAI) recognizes “those who can swallow a non-retractible sold steel blade at least two centimeters wide and 38 centimetres long.”

Sword swallowing is not fake or a ‘trick,’ and it’s very dangerous.

We present the case of a 59 year-old man who sustained an esophageal perforation as a result of sword swallowing. An esophagogram established the diagnosis, and surgical repair was attempted. However, 19 days later, a persistent leak and deterioration of the patient’s condition necessitated a transhiatal esophagectomy with a left cervical esophagogastrostomy.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov

Yard Dog Road Show – Sword Swallower

Seriously, I can’t even finish watching this. In college I knew a guy who could snort spaghetti up his nose and pull it out his mouth. That’s about as much as I can stomach.

I prefer ‘word wallowing.’ Much safer, less throat lacerations.

“Dan Meyer swallowing a sword underwater in a tank of sharks and stingrays.” (Click to enlarge)