February, and the wind is blowing, with gust up to 80mph, it’s weather that makes sitting in front of a fire with those you love the most a very attractive proposition. In the yard we are getting on with as many jobs as we can do inside as possible. Day boats are being maintained, soft furnishings created and also lots of number crunching (tedious at the time, but an important part of owning a business).
February is also known for love and Valentine’s Day, and every four years we have an extra day and call it a leap year. 2020 is a fourth year, so this year we have a leap year with 29 days in a February. What are behind these traditions? I thought I would do some research and once again the influence of the Romans is present.
The ancient Romans may be responsible for the name. How this one relates to sharing and caring love bewilders me, but it is sad that Emperor Claudius II executed two men — both named Valentine — on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D. Their martyrdom was honoured by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine's Day.
February 29 is a date that usually occurs every four years, and is called leap day. This day is added to the calendar in leap years as a corrective measure, because the Earth does not orbit the sun in precisely 365 days. Again there is direct influence from the Romans, general Julius Caesar introduced the first leap year over 2000 years ago. But the Julian calendar had only one rule: any year evenly divisible by four would be a leap year.
The Romans had many ships, used primarily for transporting goods across the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and sometimes I suspect amongst the cargo we would have found little love gifts for that someone special left behind whilst the Romans went on voyages.
Locally there are things that can be done on Valentines, in Norwich there is the first Love light festival https://www.lovelightnorwich.co.uk/whats-on/events/the-valentines-parade/, which definitely looks worth a look. Local artist Sarah Cannel is taking part in this as she prepares her lanterns for her own festival of light https://sarahcannell.com/creative-odyssey/. She is using a ship in her parade, and there will be more about this next month. Simon, Nate and I are going to help Sarah at the parade, and as a family make a magical valentines memory, huge thanks to Sarah for asking us, we feel honoured.
Boats themselves can be very romantic, and spending time on a boat as the sunsets is a really wonderful experience. Here at Hippersons we do Twilight self drive day boat hire from Mid May to the start of August on Thursday evenings. This year we are partnering with a local provider and will be offering hampers that can be added to the experience, to make it truly quality time with your loved ones. All bookable in advance on our website.