Happy February 29th. Take a little time to enjoy it because it only comes around once every four years. In a leap year the month of February has an additional day bringing the total for the year to 366 days as opposed to every other ordinary year that has 365.

This all happens because the rotation of the earth actually takes a little longer than 365 days to completely circle the sun. In fact scientist have figured that it takes us 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds to complete a single rotation around the sun.

The ancient Egyptians are given credit as first discovering that the man made calendar and the solar year didn’t quite jive and the Romans were the first to assign the leap day to February 29th.

Julius Caesar is know as the “Father of the Leap Year.” When the Romans added an extra day to the calendar 2000 years ago it was added to their February which on the Roman calendar was the last moth of the year.

In Ireland it’s a tradition for the women propose to men on a leap year. And if the proposal is rejected the men are required to buy her 12 pairs of gloves to hide the missing engagement ring. ( I think that’s getting out of it pretty easy if you ask me 🙂 )

In Greece it is considered to be unlucky to marry during a leap year and the superstition encourages long engagements to keep the couple from setting into motion a series of unfortunate events.

The nick name “leaplings” has been given to those born in a leap year.The odds of being born on a leap year are 1 in 1,461 and approximenly 4 million people celebrate their birthdays on February 29th. Astrologers say that those born on a leap year are known to posses unusual talents linked to their zodiac sign of the Pisces and their February 29th birthday.

Happy Leap Year!