Happy Leap Day! It only comes once every four years, and it is the most exciting day of the year for most people with lots of presents and gifts being exchanged, families and friends gathering together for delectable feasts, and parades throughout most major cities.
It is also an important day for retailers who count on the crowds of shoppers rushing out to buy Leap Day presents and Leap Day cards; and experts predict that it will be the most traffic congested day of the year with trains, buses, planes and highways packed with travellers going to spend this momentous day with friends or family.
Leap Day, it only comes once every four years on February 29th….and who really cares…
If a person was born on a Leap Day, it probably means something to them. They can actually celebrate their birthday on their birthday, which is nice. It doesn’t mean that they are not growing old at the same rate as everybody else, and it’s doubtful they have denied themselves birthday gifts or parties in between Leap Years, but it’s still nice for the Leaplings.
For the rest of us, who cares…. it’s just an extra day in the year, and the extra Leap Second that comes June 2012- forgetaboutit.
But the story of the Leap Day is a bit interesting, and if anything Leap Day gives an opportunity to look up at the sky and say, “Wow!” – because it’s from the stars and the planets that we get Leap Day.
Leap Days are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the stars. It takes the Earth about 365.2422 days to circle around the Sun once. But, the Gregorian calendar we use only has 365 days in a year, so we add a day on February 29, usually every 4 years, to adjust. If we didn’t, our calendar would be off by about 24 days every century.
But Leap Day is really just another day of work, school, errands, and all the other bits & pieces that make up the average day.
If you are looking to make Leap Day a bit more special, and the weather cooperates, take a look at how far you can see on a clear day. The answer is, you can see about 93 million miles to the sun — and on a clear night, you can see 2 million light years….pretty cool….Makes you want to say, “Wow!”