Leap Year and Other Early Spring Observances

The older I get the less exciting Leap Year becomes. Groundhog Day and Lincoln’s Birthday are more thrilling than Leap Year. Although, to those born on February 29, birthdays would be significant, wouldn’t they?

What exactly is a Leap Year? In it’s most basic description, under the Gregorian calendar, the normal 365-day year is called a Common Year. But once every four years, a 366-day Leap Year occurs in order to synchronize the calendar year with the solar year. Solar years are approximately 6 hours longer than 365 days. In the Americas, we have been observing Leap Year since 1752. The exceptions are years divisible by 100; but if the year is also divisible by 400 it would still be a leap year.

To which I say: boring, snoring! The only benefit I can reckon is an extra day. Oh! The things I could accomplish if that extra day were truly measurable. Because even with the added day, I still maintain my regular 5-day work week and 2-day weekend. My salary doesn’t increase by an extra day. I don’t automatically receive an extra day of paid vacation. The laundry still piles up in the usual increments. And I’m not aware of any Leap Year festivals.

The arrival of spring, however, is cause for celebration. The sun shifts to the northern hemisphere. Daylight becomes noticeably longer. Daffodils send up green shoots. The delightful aroma of corned beef and cabbage hangs around Irish pubs mid-March. And birdsong returns to the neighborhood.

I am lucky to reside in a latitude and longitude where the changing of the seasons can be observed and appreciated to such a degree.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years…” -Genesis 1:14

With the first day of spring, or Vernal Equinox, just around the corner, my senses reawaken with the Earth. I am observant of Lent, the Christian season leading up to Easter. My prayers have been more repentant as I endeavor to remain conscientious of my sin and how it relates to the suffering of others.

As well as the renewal brought on by the death of the Christ, leaving winter behind and emerging into the freshness of spring also reminds me of the great Exodus of the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, referred to as Passover.

More of a means to keep myself in check, rather than a means to boast, this season I aim to observe the light by shining my Jesus-light. I hope to open a line of conversation with that woman I frequently run into on the elevator. Pre-pay the restaurant tab of a single senior. Memorize the bible passage written above. Spend a couple hours in the spring woods reconnecting with God (check out the Overland Park Arboretum at http://www.opkansas.org/_Vis/Arboretum/index.cfm. Challenge my pre-teen stepson to an old fashioned board game. Offer to help at Michael and Chrissy’s farm (okay, I’m actually hoping to witness the birth of a foal). Volunteer a Saturday to spring clean my church, and another Saturday to serve in a food pantry.

What will you do to commemorate the great and the not so great spring holidays? However you celebrate, may God bless you to be a blessing. Shalom and selah.