Thank you. Welcome to Students Incorporated,
a podcast exploring the topics of business, education,
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Join me weekly as my team and I produce content
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Episodes include student conversations, interviews
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from the International Community School of Bangkok.
Hello, I'm Mr. Jason, and I'll be your host today.
I'm joined by co -host Premi and Chania. Happy
Leap Day, by the way. It's February 29th, 2024
today, and you guessed it. This episode is all
about the topic of leap year. Maybe you are someone
who has never thought about this topic before.
Well, be prepared to learn and laugh as we've
invited several guests to join the show and have
a lively, fun, and educational discussion about
the obscure topic of leap year. But before we
get into our first guest segment, let's hear
our quote of the day and get some headline news.
Our quote of the day comes from Divya Singh.
Let this year help in your heart and give you
one more day to live and enjoy life with loved
ones. May this leap year bring you joy, peace,
and love in abundance. Let it be a reminder to
cherish every moment with those you hold dear.
That's our quote of the day. Here are some interesting
news items related to Leap Year. First, we start
with an interesting cultural event associated
with the Leap Year date, February 29th. This
interesting tradition states that women may propose
marriage to men on this day. This tradition goes
back many centuries with many different variations
depending on the country. One such variation
of this tradition, thought to be more of a legend,
comes from Ireland. In this Irish leap year legend,
it's said St. Bridget struck a deal with St.
Patrick, which allowed women to propose to men
every four years. This practice was meant to
balance the traditional roles of men and women
in a similar way that leap year balances the
calendar. Our second piece of leap year news
happened in 1940 on February 29th. On this day,
Hattie McDaniel became the first African American
to win an Oscar. She was awarded the Best Supporting
Actress for her role as Miami in Gone with the
Wind. This was a landmark event in the history
of cinema and the progress towards racial equality
in the United States. Our final new piece comes
from Athens, Greece. The first modern Olympic
Games started in a leap year. And that year was
1896. Athens is the home place to the original
Olympic Games, which dates back to the 4th century
AD. The 1896 Olympic Games consisted of 43 events
across 9 sports, in which 241 athletes from 14
countries competed. So how do we know 1896 was
the leap year? Well, other than looking it up
online, there's actually a formula you can use,
and it's quite easy. To determine if 1896 is
a leap year, we can use the formula rule that
a year is a leap year if the year is divisible
by 4. But there's an exception for years that
are divisible by 100. These are the only leap
years if they are also divisible by 400. Let's
apply this rule to the year 1896. 1896 is divided
by 4 equals to 474. So 1896 is divisible by 4.
This means that 1896 followed the criteria for
being divisible by four, making it a leap year.
And that's our Leap Year News for this episode.
Our next Leap Year News segment will be four
years from now. In this first segment, we welcome
Mr. Jonathan. Word on the street is that Mr.
Jonathan has a great sense of humor and is good
with trivia. Well, in this first segment, we'll
give that a test with some leap year trivia,
and we'll probably have a few laughs, except
with a twist. We'll ask the questions when you
least expect them. We hope you're prepared, Mr.
Jonathan. In between these random trivia questions,
we'll give you funny and interesting facts to
prompt discussion. So to get us started, Premi
will introduce our first piece of trivia about
leap year. Thanks so much for coming on the show,
Mr. Jonathan. Could you please introduce yourself
and tell us a little bit about what you do? Yeah,
my pleasure. Thanks for the invitation. I've
been anxiously looking forward to joining you
guys. I am a high school Bible teacher. I get
the privilege of teaching JCHL, Judeo -Christian
Literature and History, which is a fancy way
to say Bible. And I really enjoy that. I'm also
a regular speaker at our church and a husband
and a father. We'd love to hear your personal
thoughts about leap year. Is it a topic you've
thought about much? I think leap year is one
of those things that even though we know it's
coming, always kind of catches me off guard somehow.
Like, oh, it's a leap year. And a few years ago,
I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole to
look at like why the leap year happened and where
it came from. And that was kind of fun. I won't
say that it dominates my thought, but it has
been a source of interest at certain points in
my past. Okay, moving on, we have our first trivia
question for you. What percentage of the world's
population is born on leap year day? I'll give
you a hint. It's under 5%. What do you think?
The world's population, under 5%. I'm going to
say 1 .6. The answer is actually less than 0
.1%. Wow. I was way off on that one. Yeah. So
we did some calculations and here's what we found.
If we apply that percentage to the current population
of the world, which is around 8 billion people,
that means that there are about 8 million people
on Earth that share a leap day birthday. Wow.
That's cool. It's actually a lot when you think
about it like that, right? Yeah, 8 million is
a bigger number than I thought. Yeah, than 0
.1%. And I really whiffed on that percentage
though. No, you didn't. It was just like, you
were just off by like 1%. Not too bad, yeah.
That's a good way to think of it. That is. Okay,
now Mr. Jonathan, do you know of anyone who has
a birthday on leap year date, February 29th?
All right, so I confess that I cheated and looked
that up. And the coolest thing... that I found
was a fictional character that's born on leap
year. Here we go. Is it someone in the Lord of
the Rings? Superman. Oh, you thought Lord of
the Rings? That'd be fantastic. I'm going to
hear him bi -state it. Gimli. Gimli was born
on, no. Superman has a birthday of February 29th,
which I think is kind of a fun little tidbit,
right? Yeah, I would have thought. Well, I've
got the next question for discussion, and we'd
love to hear your thoughts. What's your take
on women traditionally proposing to men on February
29th? I think that that's actually a pretty fun
tradition. I don't know if you guys know or have
ever heard of something called a Sadie Hawkins
dance. So one of my favorite bands is a band
called Reliant K, and they've got a song called
Sadie Hawkins Dance. You should go check that
out. And a Sadie Hawkins dance flips a traditional
dance on its head. And so instead of the guys
asking the girls, it's the girls asking the guy.
And so February 29th, ladies proposing to their
their bows makes me kind of think like it's the
February. It's the Sadie Hawkins traditional
proposal. I think that's fun. That's a neat idea.
And the sad part, though, is if if it doesn't
happen to you. On February 29th, you can't say
there's always next year, right? So you have
to put it on a four -year span. That would be
a long time. A long time to wait. Okay, here's
another question for discussion. And it's kind
of a more serious question. Since a leap year
adds an extra day to our calendar every four
years, how would you propose we best use that
extra day? Maybe to benefit society or do something
good? Yeah, I think that that is a fun mind exercise.
I think it's a neat thing to think about. And
hopefully, if you've had me in class, you know
that I think it's important to plan and see what
are the steps I'm going to take. And that's a
good way to help success. It doesn't guarantee
success, but it helps success. And the psalmist
in Psalm 90. wrote a really interesting thing.
He said, teach us a prayer to God. Teach us to
number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
And I think on a day like February 29th, one
that only comes around every four years, it's
a unique kind of day. It's a day that's unexpected.
It's not something we really are. It doesn't
happen often enough for us to neglect its unique
nature. I think that's a great day for us to
maybe join the psalmist and say, God, teach us
to number our days so that I might get a heart
of wisdom. I mean, surely we should be thinking
that every day, but we can get stuck in a rut
of routine and forget how special it is that
we woke up this morning. But on February 29th,
we get a good reminder from the calendar at how
special our day is. Right, right. I totally agree.
Well, moving on, time for another trivia question.
Are you ready? Here it is. I hope so. I hope
I do better than the last one. Apart from leap
year or leap day, February 29th, what is another
day that people are least born on? I'll give
you a hint. It's a holiday that most people around
the world observe and or celebrate. Well, that
hint. Makes me think maybe Christmas is what
I'll go with. I'm going to say Christmas. The
answer is Christmas Day, December 25th. On this
day, there are 30 to 40 % fewer babies born.
Is that just because the doctors don't want to
work that day? Is that the reason? Possibly.
Maybe, maybe. We're going to get this baby born
on Christmas Eve. I'm not coming in tomorrow.
Okay, our next item is more of a fun fact. The
fun fact is that Mr. Jonathan will answer the
question of why do we have a leap year? Mr. Jonathan,
could you read our fun fact from NASA? Certainly.
Here's our fun fact from NASA. A regular year
consists of 365 days. A day is measured by how
long it takes the Earth to rotate around the
sun one cycle. However, according to NASA, and
they would know something about space, it takes
the Earth 365 days, 9 hours, and 6 minutes to
orbit the Sun. So it's not an exact 365 days.
If we convert that extra 9 hours and 6 minutes
to decimal, then the Earth takes about 365 .24
days to orbit the Sun. That extra .24 days might
seem insignificant, but over time, it adds up.
To ensure our calendar stays in sync with our
planet's journey around the sun, we have leap
years. Thank you so much for that. Here's another
trivia question for you. The Julian calendar
did not add an extra day in February during a
leap year. Instead, it represented a leap year
by repeating a day in February. Can you guess
which day in February was repeated? Your hint
is this. It was one of the days between February
20th and 28th. What do you think? Oh, see, your
hint took away my answer. I was going to guess
the Ides. No, that's in March. So between 20
and 28, I'm going to say that it repeated the
22nd because the number is already repeating.
That's what I'm going to go with. Nice answer.
However, you're wrong. The Julian calendar repeated
February 24th during a leap year. The Julian
calendar, thanks to the Romans, was widely used
up until the 15th century before the Gregorian
calendar was adopted by many European and Western
nations. Pope Gregory III represent. Another
fun fact about calendars in our research, we
found that there are actually many different
versions of calendars used around the world.
Other than the Gregorian calendar, there's also
a Chinese calendar, a Baha 'i calendar, a Bengali,
Indian, and Thai calendar. There's also a Hebrew
calendar and an Islamic calendar. And finally,
there was the Julian calendar, a Coptic calendar,
and an Ethiopian calendar. They all had different
ways in which they helped keep track of days
of the year, especially leap year. That's fascinating.
Yeah, who would have thought? There's a lot of
calendars in there. And okay, for our final trivia
question for you. It's a 50 % chance. It's a
true or false question. Oh, all right. Yeah,
you ready? Okay, here it is. In the context of
legality and law, does leap year legally exist?
No hints. No hints. See, I feel like that the
obvious answer is it exists, true. Better be
throwing you off. But is it a curveball? Is it?
And so I'm going to go with my first instinct,
and I'm going to say true, it exists. How do
we break this news? Oh, no. Well, thank you for
your answer, but the answer is false. It's okay.
You were one choice away. You were one choice
away this time. Legally, leave gear doesn't exist,
and the only issue with this would involve the
computation of time. For example, if someone
was imprisoned for a duration of years and days,
a leap year would be considered. Or if someone
turns a legal age on February 29th, for example,
an example would be a driver's license or voting
or legal drinking age. So leap year itself is
not legal, but it can cause legal issues for
some of the things I just mentioned. Yeah, I
was going to think like, you know, if you're
born on February 29th, if you're one of the 8
million people, are you in like a... like a purge
loophole, like you get to, like laws don't exist
on you. Yeah, like how does that work? I don't
have to pay for this because I was born on leap
year. All right. Last but not least, as we end
this first segment, what advice would you give
to our listeners about how to celebrate and enjoy
a leap year, especially knowing that it only
comes around once every four years? Yeah. Well,
I would point back to earlier and say, like,
I think it's important to ask God to help us.
be wise about our time here on earth, so help
us to number our days. But I think part of that
is recognizing that Jesus said that he came to
give us life and life more abundantly. He didn't
come to give us life that's boring or just a
bunch of rules and checklists. I believe that
Jesus was a magnetic personality, that people
wanted to be around him and had fun around him,
like he was a fun. So I would encourage us to
enjoy and celebrate leap year by enjoying that
day, having some time where we're laughing, having
some time where we're having good conversation,
having some time where we're having good food,
and asking God to help us to count our days and
number our days. so that we do that regularly
throughout our life. Thank you so much. Okay,
that was fun. And thank you, Mr. Jonathan, for
joining us in our first segment. Don't go away,
as we have two more guests joining us in the
studio right after this short PSA. One, two,
three, four. Hey, everyone. Happy Leap Year Day.
Make sure to enjoy the extra day this year. Go
spend time with your friends and family and do
what you enjoy. February 29th won't come around
for another four years, so make the most out
of it. Speaking of rare days or time shifts,
for our listeners based in the United States,
daylight savings is around the corner. On Sunday,
March 10th, clocks will spring forward one hour
from midnight to 1 a .m. There will be more light
in the evening and you might lose an hour of
sleep. And for the rest of the world, no worries.
No need to change your clock. We are back with
part two, and I'm joined by two new guests, Mr.
Fabrice and Mrs. Jackie. We'll be following our
same theme of leap year in this segment as well.
We'll also be keeping it lighthearted and fun.
Premi, go ahead and kick off our second segment.
Mrs. Jackie and Mr. Fabrice, thank you for coming
on to the show. To begin, can you please introduce
yourself and tell us a little bit about what
you do? Yeah, thank you for having us. I'm Ms.
Jackie, and I teach grade six science. So have
fun with those sixth graders every day. Hi, I
am Mr. Fabrice. I teach grade eight, social studies
and global issues. We talk about real life issues.
Okay, let's jump on to our first discussion question.
If you could create a special event or holiday
that falls on February 29th and is only celebrated
once every four years, what would it be? Mrs.
Jackie, why don't you start us off? All right.
I thought a long time about this and I thought
if I could do this, I would create like laugh
or giggle day. I think that, yeah, just laughing
and having fun is super important to life. So
if we had a full day every four years, we just
got to laugh at ourselves and laugh at others
or with others or whatever would be super good
for our life. That's very good. You can see our
differences here. I thought of a day of eating
chocolate. I think we need to celebrate chocolate
a lot more where we could just sit for a whole
day and eat chocolate. No, that doesn't matter.
This would be a better day. Once every four years,
you can just glut. Chocolate. I might be with
you on that, Mr. Freeze. Chocolate. But I did
read somewhere that it says like, you're not
happy because you laugh, but... You laugh. That's
why you're happy. So laughing makes you happy.
So, you know, we should do that, too. I think
scientifically, it has an impact, right? Totally.
You're not happy because you laugh. No, no, no.
You don't laugh because you're happy. You're
happy because you laugh. Or we combine it and
we have chocolate and laugh day. Oh, my God.
That sounds like it. Yeah, I think that's what
we should do. We should totally do that. Okay,
if you had an extra day every four years, leave
day. completely free of obligations, how would
you spend it? Other than eating chocolate. Of
course. I'd probably, I guess this is where my
nerdy side comes out, watch Star Wars from beginning
to the end. Every single episode ever created
from six o 'clock in the morning till whatever.
Yeah. Or watch basketball, whichever. Those are
good things to do. I would do absolutely nothing.
PJs all day, favorite book, favorite show, favorite
snacks, hands down. I totally agree. I would
probably do the same thing as well. All right.
Well, let's move on to our next question. This
time it's pop culture question. Have either of
you seen the 2010 rom -com movie starring Amy
Adams and Matthew Goode titled Leap Year? If
so, do you remember what it was about? I've seen
it multiple times. Excellent rom -com. I'm sure
Mr. Fabrice loves it. Yeah, so it's about this
woman who finds out that on leap day that she
can propose to her longtime boyfriend. So she
sets out to do that and then gets on a grand
adventure of mishaps and falling in love with
another man. And yeah. Maybe I won't spoil the
ending, but it's a super great movie. What do
you think about it, Mr. Fabrice? Okay, so I'll
be honest. I have seen the title. I've never
watched it. And I thought about this, and I thought,
why? Honestly, it just looked and screamed like
a rom -com. And I just always like, oh, that
looks cool. No, no, not going to do it. I'm sorry.
It's just not me. I think I can still visualize
the poster. I think it's got like a weird poster,
like a color. I don't know. It's just not me.
Rom -coms. Not a fan. Next. According to IMDB,
the movie Leap Year is about a character named
Anna Brady, played by Amy Adams, who plans to
travel to Dublin, Ireland, to propose to her
boyfriend Jeremy on February 29th, Leap Day.
She does this because according to Irish tradition,
a man who receives a marriage proposal on a leap
day must accept it. You'll have to watch the
movie to find out what happened. Recommended
by Mrs. Jackie. 100%. Now, there seems to be
some... I see Mr. Producer shaking his head a
little bit here. But there seems to be some societal
traditions with a leap year. Like what the movie
Leap Year is about. There's an Irish tradition.
Are there any Leap Year traditions or superstitions
you've heard of or experienced? So I grew up
in the Caribbean, and my birthday's in February.
And Leap Year was always a weird thing. I think
one of the traditions might be wrong, but those
who were born in Leap Year, they would say you're
shorter than everyone else. Not sure why, but
completely. If someone's listening to me from
somewhere else, please don't sue me or anything
like that. But I believe that was one of those
weird superstitions we grew up with. And so you
always had to kind of have a birthday or else
you'd be short your whole life. It's like, I
don't know. I don't know of any real things.
I feel like I've always heard that there's a
lot to do with like relationships or romance
or marriage, like those types of superstitions.
But whether it's like. Good luck or bad luck
to marry on that day or something like that.
I don't know. That's all I've heard. I've never
experienced it. I would say there's nothing to
what you've just said, Mr. Fabrice. Absolutely
no data to support that claim whatsoever. All
right. Here's another fun question. How would
you explain leap year to someone that has never
heard of it before? Oh, all right. So at first
I thought, OK, we could. Just say it's some weird
extra day on the calendar that confuses everybody.
But actually, it is scientific, right, and why
we have this day. And it has to do with, like,
you know, the Earth's rotation going around the
sun and then helping keep, like, seasons in balance,
too. So if you want to know more about that,
you should, you know, research it because it
is kind of interesting. Yes, very scientific.
I thought of this, and honestly, I'd be like,
I tell them it's like this weird superstitious
day that if you happen to fall on that day, have
a birthday, you'll either be like have some magical
spirits or something like that or magical powers.
Because it's cool. Like everyone wants a birthday
on the 29th that you can just skip, right? It's
just like you skip this whole thing. Like this
whole day is just gone. It's beautiful. So I
would say it's like a magical day with like if
it happens, your birthday falls on that day,
you might have magical powers and you're just
like. super i don't know yeah no science but
like if you had magical power why would you not
want your birthday why would you want to skip
your birthday who does that you're super powered
you know like it's like one every four years
like you just appear and like and he's just like
super cool i don't know i i just would say it's
like a magical day anything you dream could happen
once every four years ah that's not scientific
at all I'm loving this. Okay. If our next question
is this, if you would have been born on February
29th, would you have celebrated your birthday
on February 28th or March 1st in the non -PPR?
And why? So I would be biased. You would. I am
born in February. So to me, February is the greatest
month in the world. So I would always celebrate
it on February. Not a question. March is just
not that good. It's so cool. Like, just think
about it. You're born in a day that doesn't exist.
Look at that. Right. It's just so cool. But I
would say February. February. It's a month of
love. I mean, why wouldn't you choose that month?
I would go with February as well for one reason,
because I would like it to be the same actual
month as my birthday would be in. But also my
mom's birthday is in March. So I would not want
to take away from her special month. Right. So
hashtag respect the parents. All right. One last
question for both of you. What are babies that
are born on Leap Day, February 29th, during a
leap year called? Any guesses? Leap frogs? I
don't know. Leap frog. That's my best guess.
Oh, man. I don't know. Leap babies? Skip the
day baby? I don't know. Skip the dishes? I don't
know. Skip the day. I don't know. The actual
answer to that, if a baby or if a baby is born
on leap day, they could be referred to as leaplings
or leapers or in Mrs. Jackie's case, leapfrogs.
So either way, I think it would be fun, fun to
have that as a name. I think we've covered this
topic quite thoroughly for this episode. Oh,
wait. I think we have one more thing left before
we close this segment out. We have a top 10 list
to share with you. So Mr. Fabrice and Mrs. Jackie,
will you do us the honors and read our top 10
list titled Top 10 Leap Day Events You've Probably
Never Heard Of. Ms. Jackie, go ahead and start
us off with number 10. Alright, number 10 is
in 45 BC, the first leap day is recognized by
the proclamation of Julius Caesar. The Roman
calendar, known as the Julian calendar, was used
up until around 1582, at which time the more
accurate Gregorian calendar was introduced. And
number 9 is in 1288, in leap day, Scotland's
Queen Margaret, the maid of Norway. died at age
seven, leaving no clear heir to the Scottish
throne, triggering a succession crisis. And coming
in at number eight is in 1692 on Leap Day, the
first warrants were issued for the arrest of
three women in the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts.
These three women were accused of witchcraft
and were put on trial. Number seven is in 1736
on Leap Day. Anne Leap, the founder of the Shaker
Movement in America, was born in Manchester,
UK. The Shaker Movement was a pacifist sect of
Christianity. And number six. In 1892, on Leap
Day, the famous newspaper character Sadie Hawkins
debuted in the comic strip Lil Abner by Al Capp.
The character became widely known for initiating
a Sadie Hawkins Day. where women could reverse
traditional gender roles and ask men out. And
coming in at number five is, in 1936, on Leap
Day, the Soviet government renamed the first
Leningrad Medical Institute to the Pavlov Institute,
two days after even Pavlov's debt preserved his
brain there. Number four is... In 1940 on Leap
Day, actress Hattie McDaniel became the first
African -American to win an Academy Award. She
won Best Supporting Actress for her role in the
classical film Gone with the Wind. And number
three is in 1964 on Leap Day, Princess Alexandra
of Kent gave birth to a leapling, a son. The
baby is believed to be the first royal baby in
history born on February 29th. Number two. In
1980 on Leap Day, Buddy Holly's famous black
glasses were found by a police officer over two
decades after the singer died in a plane crash
near Clear Lake, Iowa in 1959. And finally, number
one is, in 2012 on Leap Day, Davy Jones, lead
singer of the famous 1960s band The Monkees,
passed away at the age of 66. leaving a legacy
of beloved pop rock hits like Daydream Believer
and I'm a Believer. As we end this episode and
this Leap Day, make the most of the extra day
we get this year because they only come around
once every four years. And if you end up running
into a Leap Ling, wish them a happy birthday
today. As always, this podcast would not be possible
without the hard work and support of our international
student production team. All music and sound
effects are courtesy of Pixabay .com, a vibrant
community of creatives sharing copyright -free
images, videos, and music. And we are signing
off until next time. We are Students Incorporated,
because your voice matters.