It is a time which gives some women the opportunity to propose marriage, according to one tradition, while those whose birthday falls on a Leap Day, have an excuse to lie about their age.
February 29, which for the first time in 30 years falls on a Saturday, has been added for celestial reasons. It takes nearly six hours more than the 365 days of a typical year for the Earth to orbit the Sun.
So to make sure that over the centuries, the months do not drift into different seasons and those in the northern hemisphere are not celebrating Christmas in blazing sunshine, an extra day was given to February every four years.
It stems back to when Julius Caesar sought to copy the 365-day year of the Egyptians who were masters at knowing the relationship between the Earth and the Sun.
Caesar decreed a single 445-day-long “year of confusion” in 46 BC before ordering a 365.25 day year, which added a leap day every fourth year, according to National Geographic.
The system was perfected by the introduction of the Gregorian calendar under Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, although it sparked suspicions among some, including Protestants who thought it was a ruse to push them towards Catholicism, according to the Religious News Service.
But complicating matters is that there is no leap year if it is divisible by 100—giving those born on February 29 in the last century an opportunity to list an even younger age.
However the idea of an extra day every four years irks the Johns Hopkins University economist Steve Hanke, who has proposed scrapping the current system in favor of having 31 days every third month, giving us 364 days each year, no leap days and every five to six year, an entire extra week.
“Leap years are unnecessary, they only cause logistical headaches, The best kind of calendar is not one that is terribly accurate, but rather, one that is the most practical for the modern person,” he tweeted.
He told The Baltimore Sun, “How much needless work do institutions, such as companies and universities, put into arranging their calendars for every coming year? From now on, they could do it once, and it is done forevermore.”
The chances of being a “leaper,” are 1 in 1,461, and there are around 200,000 of these celebrating their birthday in the United States on Saturday as well as around five million worldwide, according to Medical Daily.Com
So for the time being, those born on Leap Day can enjoy being part of an exclusive club. As Shane Billings told Newsweek, “When I was younger, February 29 felt like a cosmic little window would open up, and somehow I might be imbued with luck or special power. Now I think it feels special simply because it’s so rare.”
