WELLINGTON - Y2K problems may not just be electronic.
Single men need to be reminded that 2000 is a leap year, evoking an old tradition that women can do the proposing.
The origin of the custom is unclear. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable gives an unsourced saying that women can propose
and, if not accepted, can claim a silk gown.
It also refers to a 1288 act of the Scottish Parliament granting the right of "mayden ladye of both highe and loe estait" to "hae liberte to bespeke ye man she like."
The Carter Observatory says the leap year will defy the usual mathematical calculation that years exactly divisible by four are leap years, but those divisible by 100 are not.
But century years are still leap years if divisible by 400.
Confused? The reason is that a year is slightly longer than 365 days, requiring a four-yearly day-length adjustment.
Our Gregorian calendar finetunes by removing three leap-days every 400 years.
Observatory senior astronomer Brian Carter says the calendar is based on a cycle of 400 years comprising 146,097 days.
The number is exactly divisible by seven, so the calendar repeats itself after 400 years.
- NZPA
