My Unborn Ancestor!

My great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather was born on February 29, 1500. He would have been very lucky, if he was alive now. Not just because he would have become the eldest person in the world, but also because he would be the only one who has got no birthday. Funny, isn’t it? Now, at least a few of you may think that I am mad. I’m not. And what I speak can be the truth and the person whom I speak of can be your grandpa too.

On the 29^th of February in the year 1500, the whole world was following the Julian calendar. According to the Julian calendar, the day on which he was born was a valid date since it was a leap year. But according to the Gregorian calendar which came into existence in the late 16^th century regards the year 1500AD as a non-leap year. So, February 29 was an invalid date for that year according to the Gregorian calendar. My grandpa would have become so special for being a person who was not born theoretically. Unluckily, he is not alive now!

The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter gravissimas. The reformed calendar was adopted later that year by a handful of countries, with other countries adopting it over the following centuries. The motivation for the Gregorian reform was that the Julian calendar assumes that the time between vernal equinoxes is 365.25 days, when in fact it is presently almost exactly 11 minutes shorter. The error between these values accumulated at the rate of about three days every four centuries, resulting in the equinox occurring on March 11 (an accumulated error of about 10 days) and moving steadily earlier in the Julian calendar at the time of the Gregorian reform. Since the spring equinox was tied to the celebration of Easter, the Roman Catholic Church considered that this steady movement in the date of the equinox was undesirable.

“Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100; the centurial years that are exactly divisible by 400 are still leap years. For example, the year 1900 is not a leap year; the year 2000 is a leap.”

[Source: Wikipedia, The Online Encyclopedia]

 Let me come back to the topic, we were discussing. Since that grandpa of mine was not born, my ancestors after him were also not born. This indirectly implies that I was also not born. So, what you see shouldn’t be the real me and I would be some virtual creation that resembles human beings.

Funny, isn’t it? Well! I’m not anything virtual as I had just told. It’s like his birthday was shifted to a different day! My grandpa wouldn’t be able to celebrate his birthday on the real day as he was born. But the new calendar had conveniently set his birthday on March 10. How great it would have been, if I was able to say that I have a grandpa who had his birthday deleted from the calendar and that he has got a new day as his birthday.

Anyhow, for that lucky grandpa of mine who would be watching me typing this blog, sitting somewhere in the heights unreachable, I dedicate this blog to. And happy birthday in advance to him for his birthday this year!

And..
My dear grandpa,

            Sorry for being this late to post this about you. I had learned about your unfortunate fate just today. I had waited no moment to type and prepare this month’s blog post exclusively for you! So, please see that my university exam results will be really good this time when it comes by recommending God to make it fruitful. I will take this as a kind compliment to repay me for remembering you even after so many years after your death!