Calendar mysteries

How are we closer to the Sun during winter? 10 calendar surprises

Most of us think we know the calendar pretty well, and if we don’t, our phones are there to remind us of dates and events. But the way humans measure the passage of time hasn’t always been the same. From the origins of month names to the truth behind leap years, today we’re going to share 10 surprising facts you probably didn’t know about the calendar.

The probability of being born on February 29 is 1 in 1,461. Although birthdays on this date are rare, people born on it even have a name: leaplings. Leaplings officially get to celebrate their birthday on February 29 only once every four years, but what happens in the other years? While some people prefer not to jump to another month, March 1st is considered more astronomically accurate, as it comes directly after February 28.

The Earth’s orbit is elliptical, which means there are times when we are closer to the Sun and other times when we are farther away. In January, Earth is at its closest point to the Sun, known as "perihelion." You might wonder how we can be closer to the Sun during winter, but the seasons are caused by Earth’s tilt, not by our distance from the Sun. On the other hand, the month when we are farthest from the Sun is July, and this point in the orbit is called "aphelion."

Due to its particularly short duration, February is the only month that can lack a full moon. Lunar cycles are 29.5 days long, which means that, approximately every 19 years, February has all the lunar phases except the full moon. When this happens, both January and March have two full moons, with the second one being called a "Blue Moon"; and that's why, when we say "once in a blue moon," we're talking about something that happens very rarely. The next time this will happen will be in the year 2037.

Did you know that our calendar has a name? That’s right; most of the world uses the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in 1582 as a reform of the older system.

The main difference lies in how leap years are handled. The previous system, known as the Julian calendar, added a leap year every four years, assuming a year lasted exactly 365.25 days. However, a real solar year is slightly shorter. To fix this, the Gregorian calendar keeps leap years every four years with one exception: century years (like 1900) are not leap years unless they are divisible by 400 (such as 2000).

But before the Julian calendar, ancient Rome used an even older system with one key difference: it had only 10 months. This calendar began in March and ended in December, totaling just 304 days. What about the remaining days? They were considered a winter gap and simply weren’t counted. Around 700 BC, January and February were added to fill that gap, and these changes were later standardized under Julius Caesar’s reform in 45 BC, when he introduced the Julian calendar.

The names also come directly from life in ancient Rome, where months were named in honor of deities and important festivities. For example, March was named Martius after Mars, the god of war, because it marked the start of the military campaigning season. Aprilis, the Roman name for April, comes from the Latin verb aperire, meaning "to open," in reference to the arrival of spring. May was named Maius after Maia, the goddess of fertility and growth, and June was named Iunius in honor of Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage.

What about the rest of the months? From July through December, they were originally named after their position in the year. Since March was considered the first month, July was called Quintilis ("the fifth"), August was Sextilis ("the sixth"), September comes from septem, meaning "seven" in Latin, October from octo ("eight"), November from novem ("nine"), and December from decem ("ten").

Most of these names remained similar, with two exceptions: Quintilis was renamed Iulius to honor Julius Caesar after his death, and Sextilis became Augustus, in honor of Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor.

The days of the week are no exception to Roman tradition. Sunday was named dies Solis ("day of the Sun"), Monday was dies Lunae ("day of the Moon"), Tuesday was called dies Martis (day of Mars), Wednesday dies Mercurii (day of Mercury), Thursday dies Iovis (day of Jupiter), Friday dies Veneris (day of Venus), and finally, Saturday was dies Saturni (day of Saturn).

As you may have noticed, only Saturday retained its Roman root, while Sunday and Monday kept their meaning but were translated. What happened to the rest? They were influenced by Norse mythology, resulting in Tuesday being named for Tyr, a Norse god of war; Wednesday after Woden (Odin), the Norse interpretation of Mercury; Thursday from Thor, the god of thunder, replacing Jupiter; and Friday from Freya, a Norse goddess linked to the Roman Venus.

In the United States, Sunday is considered the start of the week. This tradition has religious and cultural roots, and it’s shared by many parts of the world, but not all of them. In fact, several other English-speaking countries do it differently: places like England, Australia, and parts of Canada consider Monday the first day of the week, with Sunday closing it out.

Right place, right time

Can lightning restore your sight? 10 incredibly lucky stories!

Image: Malvestida

Whether you swear by fate and never leave home without your lucky charm or think luck is just a matter of chance, one thing is certain: some people are just luckier than others. If you still have doubts, here are 10 unbelievable stories of incredibly lucky people!

Image: Philip Myrtorp

Sometimes luck isn't about being in the right place but about not being in the wrong one. That was certainly the case for Maarten de Jonge, a Dutch cyclist who escaped death on two separate occasions.

Several years ago, two Malaysia Airlines flights were involved in tragic accidents: one was shot down near Ukraine, and the other mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific. Maarten de Jonge had tickets for both flights but made last-minute changes to his plans, choosing not to board. That's following your instinct!

Image: Alois Komenda

Selak, famously known as "the luckiest man in the world," didn't just cheat death once or twice; he miraculously survived seven close encounters with death!

This Croatian man survived a train derailment, a plane crash, a bus accident, two car explosions (wow!), and even got hit by a bus! And that's not all. Once, while driving, he swerved to avoid a truck, but his car skidded off the road. He was ejected from the vehicle, landing safely in a tree. His car? It fell 300 feet off a cliff. We still can't decide if Selak was the luckiest man alive or the unluckiest!

Image: Michał Mancewicz

If you're skeptical about luck, just wait until you hear what happened to Edwin E. Robinson in 1980. A retired 62-year-old truck driver, Robinson had lost his sight and much of his hearing after an accident. But 9 years later, everything changed.

He was in his backyard as a storm raged when, suddenly, lightning struck him. If you think it was all bad for Edwin, just wait! When he came to, not only was he unharmed, but he had regained both his sight and hearing! What!?

Image: CHUTTERSNAP

Imagine winning a free car; just a dream, right? Well, for Heather Hoffman from Vancleave, Mississippi, it became a reality not once but twice!

The first time, Heather entered a sweepstakes where prizes included a grocery shopping spree or a car. Not expecting much, she participated. A few days later, she received the call: she had won the car! A couple of years later, while walking through a dealership with her husband, Heather entered a drawing for a new car by placing her name in a barrel. When she received the news on April Fool's Day, she thought it was a joke, but it wasn't; she had won again!

Image: dylan nolte

Winning the lottery may be all about luck, but some people deserve every bit of it. One of them is Virginia Bruschi from Pennsylvania!

Virginia had just bought her first lottery ticket when her sister called with urgent news: she needed to travel to California to treat her youngest child. Without hesitation, Virginia took unpaid leave from work and immediately flew out to California, where she spent a month helping her sister care for her two nephews while their little brother recovered. When she returned home, she found she had won the lottery!

Image: Mackenzie Marco

Speaking of the lottery, it seems the game has its favorites, and one of them is Joan R. Ginther, who won not once, not twice, but four times!

Between 1993 and 2010, she hit the jackpot four times, and these weren't small prizes: she accumulated a total of $20.4 million. Sounds incredible, right?

Image: Scott Webb

Often, luck strikes when you least expect it. And so it did for Barbara Liposchak and her husband. They were living in a tiny apartment, searching for their dream home. One afternoon, after visiting their daughter, they happened to stop at a garage sale. The sale was in a beautiful house that had all the features they had been looking for. "Too bad this place isn't for sale," they expressed, when the owner replied, "It is for sale, starting Monday." They couldn't believe it. But that wasn't all: Not only was the house close to their daughter's place, but it was also $40,000 underpriced!

Image: Matt Hardy

Harrison Okene faced both misfortune and fortune in the same event. In 2013, the ship on which this Nigerian cook was traveling sank. Although the vessel was submerged and fully covered by water, Okene managed to find refuge in an air pocket within the wreckage.

Amazingly, he survived for 60 hours and was eventually found by rescuers, who couldn't believe their eyes. He was the sole survivor of the tragedy and all thanks to an air pocket!

Image: Nils Nedel

Vesna Vulović, a Serbian flight attendant, survived an accident that specialists deemed "impossible to survive." In 1972, Vesna was on a plane that exploded. She fell from 33,000 feet without a parachute and miraculously survived! Despite multiple fractures and months in the hospital, her story is considered a miracle.

Image: averie woodard

In 2012, Norwegian Anders Helstrup was skydiving with the Oslo Parachute Club when something extraordinary occurred. As usual, he had a camera on his helmet, but when he reviewed the footage, he couldn't believe what he saw. As he was falling, something similar to a rock passed a few meters from him without hurting him. Upon investigation, they discovered it was a meteorite!