Leap with Us

Did you realize your month was about to get one day longer? Yes, indeed! Leap Year is officially Monday, February 29, 2016. How exciting to have 366 days in a year instead of 365!

Have you ever wondered why there is a leap year and why is it stuck to the end of February every four years? The below Fun Facts information was found on Old Farmer’s Almanac.

Why add a leap day?: Leap days are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the Sun.

It takes the Earth approximately 365.242189 days – or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds – to circle once around the Sun. This called a tropical year. Without an extra day on February 29 nearly every four years, we would lose almost six hours every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days.

Hail Caesar: Julius Caesar introduced the first leap year around 46 B.C., but his Julian calendar had only one rule: Any year evenly divisible by four would be a leap year. That created too many leap years, but the math wasn't tweaked until Pope Gregory XIII introduced his Gregorian calendar more than 1,500 years later. There's a leap year every year that is divisible by four, except for years that are both divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400. The year 2000 was a leap year, but the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not. The added rule about centuries (versus just every four years) was an additional fix to make up for the fact that an extra day every four years is too much of a correction, according to ScienceWorld.

Leap months in other countries: A whole leap month is added to the Chinese calendar every three years. The leap month's place in the Chinese calendar varies from year to year, and 2015 was a leap year in the Chinese calendar.

A leap year in the Ethiopian calendar occurs when an extra day is added to the last month of the year every four years.

Leap year traditions: It's acceptable for a woman to propose to a man on Feb. 29. The custom has been attributed to St. Bridget, who is said to have complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for men to propose marriage. Patrick supposedly gave women one day to propose.

Leap year babies: People born on leap day are often called "leaplings" or "leapers." Most of them celebrate their birthday on Feb. 28 or March 1 on non-leap years.

Since the topic of leaping is prevalent this year, consider taking a “leap” with Educational Outfitters and Academic Outfitters – your local school uniform and dress code apparel provider. Not only does Educational Outfitters and Academic Outfitters take a sincere interest in your school’s uniform needs, each store is an individually owned and operated franchise – meaning, the owners are involved and truly care about each student and their community all while supporting local and global initiatives.