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Time to take advantage
of year’s ‘lost’ day

Star-Bulletin

It's Leap Day, and that means all those born during a Leap Year have their once-every-four-years shot at celebrating their birthday on their birth date.

For those who don't know how this extra day phenomenon came about, we go to the Greenwich Royal Observatory for answers.

In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar used in the west until 1582. Each year contained 12 months and there were an average of 365.25 days in a year. This was achieved by having three years containing 365 days and one year containing 366 days. The discrepancy between the actual length of the year, 365.24219 days, and the adopted length, 365.25 days, may not seem important but over hundreds of years it adds up and seasons no longer keep up with the calendar.

Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582, instituted the Gregorian calendar, which has been used since. This makes the average length of the year 365.2425 days. Leap years are inserted every four years as under the Julian calendar except for years ending in 00 -- unless the year is divisible by 400. Thus 2000 is a leap year, and so was 1600, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not. The new discrepancy is so slight it will not have a serious effect for thousands of years.

Now with this one-day bounty, you'd think someone would go on a crusade to make Leap Day an every-four-years national holiday. It would be a perfect excuse for a no-strings-attached day off to spend as you wish -- no need for gifts, theme parties or obligations.

In reality, though, there isn't an extra day. The earth will still turn, you'll still be a day older. And those on salary are actually penalized. Although you're working an extra day, you won't get paid any more than usual.

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