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Published 2:15 AM PST Monday, Feb. 02, 2004
Freaky February
The calendar's shortest month is long on special days -- and this year, it's really leaping
Bee Staff
...Feb. 29
Feeling crunched for time?
Relax, it's Bissextile Day, aka Leap Day -- which means that we get to tack 24 hours on to the end of this month.
Never mind that even with 29 days, February is still the shortest month of the year -- we won't question the bonus
minutes.
But before you start making plans, consider some facts about this extra day that comes around every four years.
The history of Leap Year is a bit complicated, but you should know this much: According to the
Honor Society
of Leap Year Day Babies ( www.leapzine.com
), the Earth actually takes 365.24219 days to travel around the
sun -- a fact that was royally goofing up the calendar. Thus, in 45 B.C., Julius Caesar declared Feb. 30 (at the
time, the final day of the year) as Leap Year Day and announced that from then on, the date would be skipped
every fourth year. Then, in A.D. 4, Emperor Caesar Augustus, deciding that he wanted a month in his honor,
pilfered a day from February so that his month could have 31 days.
Whew, who knew Leap Year was mired in politics?
These days, only one out of every 1,461 people is born on Feb. 29 -- currently, there are about 200,000 Leap
Day-ers in the United States.
For those born on the day, there's a dilemma: figuring out when to celebrate their birthday during the off years.
While most Leapers celebrate their birthday at some point during the month of February (after all, who wants
to wait until March to get those presents?), another sect known as "strict Februarians" insist on commemorating
the day as close as possible to the actual date -- i.e., the last day in February.
But enough of about the Leapers -- how can the rest of us use those extra 24 hours?
A few suggestions:
* Sleep: You're always complaining about how you never get enough rest -- now's the perfect time to catch up.
* Organize: When you're not griping about not getting enough sleep, you're grumbling about how there aren't
enough hours in the day to tackle your to-do list. Well, kiddo, this is it. Clean out your closet. Organize the
garage. Prepare your taxes -- hey, with an extra day this year, do you really have an excuse for waiting until
April 15 to tackle those IRS forms?
* Celebrate: This year, Leap Day falls on a Sunday, but that shouldn't stop you from observing the day with a
shindig. You could play leapfrog or the drinking game quarters. You know, quarters ... Leap Year comes
every four years ... work with us here. Or give out jumping beans as favors. Get it? Jumping beans? They leap
around? Oh, never mind. You've got both the excuse and the time to party -- what more do you want?
Bee staff writers Will Evans, Rachel Leibrock, Alison apRoberts and Bob Sylva contributed to this report.
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