The mysterious leap

Tomorrow, Feb. 29, is the extra day we receive on our calendars every four years.

This strange happening occurs because it takes our Earth 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds to complete one revolution around the sun. Early scholars rounded our “year” to 365 days. The leftover approximately 6 hours per year multiplied by four accounts for the extra day that is added every fourth year. Sadly, this isn’t even a perfect solution since the six hours were rounded up so once per century leap year needs to be skipped to balance things out. What a math cluster.

And why is the extra day added in February? This is good for those in the southern hemisphere but less good for those of us suffering through winter in the north. We can blame that on the Romans. After many disputes, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar that we all use today. Since February was the shortest month, it seemed a logical place to tack a day on.

In 1752, the Calendar (New Style) Act was implemented, moving the new year for the British from March 25 (Anglicans’ Feast of the Annunciation) to the more familiar Jan. 1 and formalizing the leap day to be referred to going forward as Feb. 29, which has since become the international standard.

For those born on Feb. 29, you have an interesting dilemma. You can say you’re only 1/4 as old as you really are, but you also only get to celebrate on your real birthday every four years. Apparently the chances of being born on Feb. 29 are 1 in 1461.

As for the leap, in a typical year if your birthday were to occur on a Monday one year, the next year it should occur on a Tuesday. However, the addition of an extra day during a leap year means that your birthday now “leaps” over a day.

And so it goes. Leap on.