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Why are there no leap year days?

As many have noted, February 29 is not counted as a day of the week in the thirteen-moon calendar.

Why?

The Earth orbits the sun in 365.2421896698 days.

Some say 365.24219879 days.

Others say that the Earths rotation is not a constant.

Even the best astronomers are not in agreement as to the precise measurement of the solar year.

It is this .2421896698 part of a day that the Leap Year day accounts for.

Realistically speaking, the Earth does not go around the sun in 365 days some years and 366 days in other years.

The Leap Year day just keeps the current calendar from slipping in regard to the seasons. If no leap year day was kept spring would come earlier and earlier in the year.

Ancient peoples made temples or pyramids where light would shine either on the Equinoxes or the Solstices. This insured that their calendar was in synch with the seasons.

The pyramid of Chichen Itza is one of many examples of this style of architecture, where a serpent appears along the steps on Spring Equinox.

So many cultures recognized that the Earth did not follow a precise 365-day year, but there are many different ways of solving this problem.

Instead of having February 29 every four years, why not have a thirteen-day Wavespell-Out-of-Time every 52 years?

Every 52 years there are 13 leap year days.

Instead of having an extra day on February 29 every four years, these days would be celebrated at the end of 52 years as thirteen Days-Out-of-Time.

These thirteen days would be a Wavespell-Out-of-Time, like the Day-Out-of-Time on July 25, but an entire thirteen week Festival of Peace through Culture.

Currently, since Leap Year is observed, each leap year observed takes one day out of the thirteen-day Wavespell-Out-of-Time (a more in-depth look here).

 

There is evidence that the Earth's rotation is slowing down. If the day length gets just one minute longer, there would be no need to add days to the calendar, as the Earth would go around the sun in exactly 365 days. For more information see global warming's effect on year length (outside webpage)

So!! Why don't you just keep February 29 like everyone else?

February 29 is an arbitrary day… Why isn't it December 32?

The reason it is February 29 has to do with Julius Caesar, not astronomy. *(Read more about the history of February 29 here)

Keeping February 29 would throw off the harmonic perfection of the thirteen moon calendar!

In the current twelve-month calendar Sunday, April 01, 2001 in 2002 becomes Monday, April 1 then Tuesday April 1, 2003 and then Thursday April 1, 2004.

There is no easily recognizable system for what a day will be a year ago or a year from now with the current twelve-month calendar.

In the thirteen moon calendar Sunday, April 01, 2001 is the 25th day of the 9th moon, on Alpha, or the 5th day of the week. A year from now it will still be the 25th day of the 9th moon, on Alpha, the 5th day as it will be a thousand years from now.

That is because the thirteen moon calendar is perpetual and harmonic.

If you are familiar with the Tzolkin, there is an even deeper reason why February 29 cannot be counted (which you can read more about here)

So Leap Year isn't counted... but the sun rises, it is a day isn't it?
I Still Don't Get it!

Yes, it is a day, but it is not a day of the week, nor is it a day on the Tzolkin. It is a void day, 0.0 Hunab Ku.

February 29 is completely arbitrary, a day to make up the .2421896698 of a day difference between the 365 days of the year and the actual amount of time the Earth takes to go around the Sun.

This assures that the seasons are always more or less at the same time of the year (ever noticed how sometimes Spring Equinox is March 21 and sometimes March 22?). This is due to that .2421896698 of a day fraction.

History of Leap Year Days

Why is there a Leap Year Day?

Hexagram 49.
Fire in the lake: the image of Revolution.
Thus the superior man
Sets the calendar in order
And makes the seasons clear.

Our calendar comes originally from a semi-lunar calendar, this is why the word month is so similar to the word moon. The twelve months followed the actual lunar movement by adopting months of 29 and 30 days alternately. This result gave a year of 354 days, which followed the moons, but was far short of the 365-day year.

For this reason, an intercalary month of varying length was added every two to three years. This completed the solar year, and kept the seasons in order.

In Roman times, the intercalary month became a way for the Roman Pontiffs to manipulate politics. The Pontiffs decided when the intercalary month would occur: Consuls who they favored where given an extra month in office. Those who they disliked found themselves out of office, even though an intercalary month was overdue.

The result was that in troubled times, the Roman Calendar gradually got out of hand, as people added or withdrew intercalary months for political reasons, and not to keep the seasons in order.

By the time Julius Caesar returned to Rome in 45 BC the abuse of this practice was so great that the Spring Equinox was falling in winter. This was creating disturbances and confusion throughout the Empire. To restore the calendar to its supposed original relation with the seasons, he extended the year of 45 BC to 445 days, adding the months of Unidecember and Duodecember… which became known as the Year of Confusion.

Julius Caesar, under the advice of Cleopatra's astrologer Sosiegenes, changed the Roman semi-lunar calendar to fit the Egyptian calendar. He adjusted the lengths of the months so that there were 365 days to a year with only one intercalary day required every four years. The year of 44 BC would start on January 1st, the first new moon after Winter Solstice. Caesar changed the name of the month Quintilis, which means 5, to Julius, or July. At this time in history temples were to be built to him as if he was a god.

One might think that since the new year began on January 1st, that the intercalary, or leap year day, would be on December 32. Though Caesar made radical changes to the calendar, he did not feel that he could move the time when the intercalations where made because they had become interwoven with the religious observances during the month of February.

On the Ides (or 15th) of February the festivals of Lupercalia where celebrated. These feasts were believed to honor the god Februus, the purifier. To celebrate the holy day, two male priests ran through the streets wearing only the skins of sacrificed animals, beating women with leather straps called februa in the belief that it would make them fertile. In order to make his calendar change of take over of the empire part of the religious observances he chose this day - the ancient precursor to Valentines day - to appear before the crowd for the first time in a purple toga and a gold wreath, the dress of the ancient kings of Rome. He then was inaugurated as Dictatus Perpetuus, or dictator for life. In a staged public appearance, his consul Mark Anthony offered him the Crown of Rome and the title of Rex or king, which Caesar turns down saying that Jupiter alone is the king of Rome - and the crowd cheered.

The crowds cheered, but the Senate realized that they had lost complete control of the calendar and Caesar had taken complete dictatorial power. They assassinated him exactly one month later, on the Ides of March.

Complete chaos and anarchy ensued until about 30 BC, when Augustus Caesar, son of Julius Caesar, after all the Senators and his father's consul Mark Anthony were dead, takes complete control of Rome. Augustus Caesar would declare himself and his father Gods, and to be with his father, placed his name in the calendar, August.

...And that is why we have leap year days on February 29, and why our calendar is as crooked and illogical as it is.

So if you want to give to Caesar what is Caesar's, why not start with his outdated calendar.

Take a Day-Out-of-Time this July 25!

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