Monday, February 29, 2016

Leap day?

I've never understood why they call it 'Leap Year'.  

When a leap year occurs we add an extra day onto the month of Feb so there are 29 days instead of 28 days.  

But what does this have to do with leaping?  We're not leaping over a year, or even a day for that matter.  In fact, quite the opposite.  Rather than leaping over (skipping) a day, we're actually adding one.  

Wouldn't it make more sense to call it 'Add A Day', or 'Double Day', or 'Extra Day'?  I mean, almost anything would be better and more accurate than Leap Year.

And why is it necessary to add an extra day every four years?  Click here for the origin and history.

1 comment:

anne marie in philly said...

as bigga buncha crap as "daylight savings time". DON'T add a day and DON'T change the clocks!