by George Gazarek
This year is a leap year; it has 366 days, as opposed to the usual 365. Leap years have 29 days in February, not 28. Leap years are needed to keep our modern Gregorian calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun. It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days – or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds – to circle once around the Sun. This is called a tropical year.
However, the Gregorian calendar has only 365 days in a year, so if we didn’t add a day on February 29 nearly every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days!
In the Gregorian calendar three criteria must be taken into account to identify leap years:
– The year can be evenly divided by 4
– If the year can be evenly divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, unless
– The year is also evenly divisible by 400, then it is a leap year
Julius Caesar introduced leap years in the Roman empire over 2,000 years ago. But the Julian calendar had only one rule: any year evenly divisible by 4 would be a leap year. This led to way too many leap years, but didn’t get corrected until the introduction of the Gregorian calendar more than 1500 years later.
This year is also a Jewish leap year, which has 13 months and occurs 7 times in a 19-year cycle. An extra month, Adar I, is added after the month of Shevat and before the month of Adar in a leap year. Adar I begins at sunset on February 9, 2016. According to Jewish tradition, Adar is a lucky and happy month. A leap year is referred to in Hebrew as Shanah Me’uberet, or a pregnant year.
Adar I 14-15 (February 23-24, 2016) is known as Purim Katan (the small Purim) and would have been Purim if this were not a Jewish leap year. It’s customary to celebrate these days as a minor holiday. But, since this is a Jewish leap year, Purim (the big Purim) is Adar II 14-15 (March 24-25, 2016). I just might celebrate both Purims and double the fun! But of course, Sha’are Shalom will be celebrating Purim in late March this year. See Page 3.