In case you didn’t know yet, this year is a Leap Year. So this month we’ll get a whole extra day. Exciting right? Everyone knows about Leap Years, but not everyone knows the history behind this strange occurrence that happens every four years, provided the last two digits are divisible by four. Unless it’s a century year – then it must be divisible by four hundred.
Got all that?
This has been going on since Julius Caesar added leap years to get our Gregorian calendars to align correctly with our seasons. Basically it takes the earth 365-ish days for the earth to go around the sun and the “ish” part requires an extra day every so often to keep us on schedule.
Here are some fun facts and things to do on Leap day:
• Throughout history, February 29th has been known as a day women could propose to men (scandalous!).
• If you needed a little liquid courage, the day even has its own cocktail:
Recipe
1 dash lemon juice
2/3 gin (2 oz.)
1/6 Grand Marnier (1/2 oz.)
1/6 sweet vermouth (1/2 oz.)
Shake and serve!
• Those born on February 29th are referred to as leaplings.
• Some famous leaplings are Tony Robbins, Ja Rule, and Antonio Sabato Jr.
• If you’re a salaried worker and the day occurs on a week day, congrats you work for free that day!
• Leap years coincide with election years in the U.S.
So, sweet, we get an extra day this year, but that begs the question of what to do with all of this extra bonus time? The obvious answer is sleeping, but let’s get real, we all have kids and they are NOT going to let that happen. It is a Saturday, though, so we have that going for us.
What will you do with the extra day?
