GROUNDHOG DAY / CANDLEMAS February 2, 2000
What’s special about this date?
In numeric form (02/02/2000), all of the digits are even numbers. The
LAST date for which this was true was August 28, 888 A.D. On the other
hand, Christian Europe (which was the only place the A.D. system was
then in use) was still using Roman numerals to represent dates, so they
did not have the concept of odd and even DIGITS. Arabic digits and
positional notation (e.g., writing the year as 2000) did not become
widepread in Europe until about the XIV-th century, so THIS IS THE
FIRST TIME EVER that all the digits of the date, as commonly written,
are even.
LEAP DAY February 29
Since 1582 when His Holiness Pope Gregory XIII of happy memory ordained
the calendar reform which bears his name, leap years are omitted in
every year ending in 00 (e.g., 1700, 1800, 1900), except years
divisible by 400 (e.g., 1600, 2000, 2400, etc.).
Thus this is only the second time in the Gregorian calendar (the
calendar used in international trade around the globe today) that a
century year has been a leap year.
NON-NUMERICAL TRIVIUM: Where are the bones of St. Valentine (whose
feast we observe on February 14th) now buried?
ANSWER: In Dublin, Ireland --- having been bestowed as a gift by a
medieval pope whose name and dates escape me.
Enjoy the month!
Peter Vajk
St. Joseph Notre Dame High School
1011 Chestnut Street
Alameda, CA 94501