Leap Year is coming up this month and we started to think, what do we actually know about Leap Year? Well, for starters we know that it comes every four years at the end of February. But what makes this so significant and why does this happen only every four years? We did some research, and here are some things you may not have known about Leap Year:
- About 4.1 million people across the world are born on February 29 and the chance of a baby being born on leap year is one in 1,461.
- If you were born on Leap Year, you are referred to as “leaplings” or “leapers.”
- The Frog is a symbol associated with this day.
- We consider a year to be exactly 365 days, but it actually takes 365.24 days for the Earth to do a complete orbit around the sun. This extra 0.24 days adds up, which is why every 4 years we get an extra 24 hours in our calendar.
- But why is it in February? because the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus did not like the fact that the month August, named after him in the Julian calendar, only had 29 days and not the typical 30 or 31. Caesar Augustus didn’t like the fact that his month was the shortest, so he changed the calendar to make August have 31 days and February have 28 days, except for leap year.
- There is a campaign to have Leap Day a national Holiday, which would mean that banks would be closed and kids would be off from school. Would you want that to happen?
