So today is a special day: February 29th, the leap day.
There’s something that I really like about this day, because it stands out among any other day.
Now, it is just a name and a number.
Every other day can have a name and a number, and different calendars have different names and numbers.
But it’s so easy for us to get used to a certain day.
Like any other day, besides special ones, like maybe January 1st, you have your birthday, you’ll remember that day as a special date, and then maybe a holiday like December 25th: these have a special feeling to them.
But other than that, if you simply have a month and a day, it’s like well, that’s just another day.
It’s easy for it to just feel like an ordinary day.
I mean, February 28th, March 7th: unless it’s your birthday what is there really to find special about these days? Just the name itself, having this predictable month and this predictable number, it just makes the day feel like oh yeah, it’s just another day.
Almost like naming it that way makes it somehow normal.
And yet now we have a day that, just by its very name and number, just stands out as this is something different.
February 29th? What’s that? I mean, February is supposed to have 28 days.
29 is this special day.
And now the entire day, we can go through feeling like there is something different about today.
There’s something special about it, even though it makes me think well, of course, we could give any day any name we want.
We could name it, you know, Jumping Rabbit Day, and Crawling Snake Day, and Ribbiting Frog Day.
I don’t know.
I just made those up.
But you could really give any name you want and make your day somehow more special.
And I like this idea.
I like the idea of trying to find whatever it is about each day, and making it somehow more memorable, giving it a particular name, perhaps.
But even then, if it’s one of these normal days in the calendar, we could give it a name and say “Well, March 7th is Jumping Rabbit Day.” OK, that’s great, but then still, every year we get Jumping Rabbit Day.
There’s something even more special about February 29th, because it only comes once every four years.
And so it really brings out that feeling of this is once in a lifetime.
This is special.
This is something that is a rare event, having a day like this.
It’s not going to come around for another four full years.
And the joke when somebody is born on February 29th, you know, they’re at really 1/4 of the whatever age they’re at, because their birthday only comes around once every four years.
So even though it’s just a number, just a special number, it makes me think that really any day can have this feeling, and it brings out a feeling that we could have any day.
Because any day is a special day.
Any day can be something unique it’s possible for this to be any day.
It’s only because on this particular day we have this special number and name for it, and yet really, we could be doing this for any possible day.
So just like it’s good to break out of the clock sometime, and just forget about what time it is, to simply be in the moment, it can also be great to just step out of the calendar, and just not be part of this routine of months going by.
Just have a day that does not fit in, a day that stands out by itself.
I really like the idea of having this, and you know, it’s fun to imagine all the different ways we can change the calendar.
I’ve always enjoyed that in one of the ancient Egyptian calendars, they would have 12 months of 30 days, so it’s all very regular.
You know, and each 30 days would be like weeks of 10 days, so it’s like completely regular.
You have 36 weeks of 10 days, 12 months of 30 days, everything is completely regular.
But then wait a minute, that only gets you to 360 days.
What about the extra five days to get to 365? And then they would have a special 5 days that would not be part of any month, and it would be a special festival.
And all the normal things that would happen during regular months would not happen, because it’s not even part of any month at all.
And I love that idea, and it would be fun to find some ways to bring that in.
So I’d be curious to hear what do you feel about February 29th? Is there anything special that you do on this day? And are there any fun ways that you like to look at the calendar? Do you have any special names for any other days as well?
#leapday #february29th #specialday