By Pam Ness
This year is a Leap Year. That means that every four years, an extra day – February 29 – is added to the calendar, resulting in 366 days in that year. Why does this happen?
The normal Solar Year is the amount of time it takes for the Earth to orbit the sun one full time. Our Calendar Year is supposed to match up with the Solar Year, but the reality is it does not exactly line up. The Earth orbits the the Sun in approximately 365-¼ days, not 365 days. To accommodate for that extra quarter of a day, a single day is added to the month of February every four years, and so we have a Leap Year. Yet even this math is still not exactly perfect, due to the smallest of fractions, so every 400 years three leap days are removed from the calendar. This formula harkens back to the Roman Empire.
For the lucky Leap Day babies, they can always divide their birthdays on the planet by four. So at the ripe old age of 84, a person could technically be celebrating their 21st birthday! But what does a birthday usually look like of a person born in a Leap Year? Most people born on a Leap Day celebrate on February 28 during non-leap years, with March 1 a far less popular choice.
Fun facts about leap years:
- Being born on a Leap Day is rare — the chances of being born on a leap day are only 1 in 1,461.
- Workers who are paid their salaries on a monthly or annual basis work for ‘free’ on leap days, which are not included in those salary calculations. Do we hear a sick day coming on?!
- Folklore in Ireland, Scotland, Britain and Denmark declare that only women are allowed to propose to men on leap days.
- In Scotland, farmers believe that leap years are bad for crops and livestock.
- Throughout ancient history, astrologers believed that children born on leap days possessed unique personalities, talents, and even special powers.