2020 is a Leap Year.  It takes Earth about 365 days and 6 hours to orbit the sun. Those extra six hours create a problem for our Gregorian calendar (named after Pope Gregory XIII and introduced in 1582) which is only 365 days long.  In order to keep step with the celestial clock we need to add a full day to the calendar every four years. That is: 4 x 6 hours = 24 hours = leap day!

Leap day is tacked on to February because February was the last month of the Roman calendar from which ours evolved; March, the harbinger of spring, was the first. Moreover, leap day causes holidays to leap forward from the previous year by two days, not just one – for example, Christmas goes from a Monday to a Wednesday. That’s how leap year got its name.

There is one tiny caveat. The solar year is not really 365 days and 6 hours long – more precisely it’s 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 43 seconds long–and even that is an approximation!  It means we occasionally need to skip a leap year in order to keep our calendar in sync with the heavens. So here is the formula scientists have worked out to make sure it happens: a leap year occurs in years divisible by four but not those divisible by 100–except for those divisible by 400.

Astronomy, math and timekeeping aside, the extra day has real-world ramifications. With the odds being 1 in 1,461, there are approximately five million people in the world who were born on February 29^th and have to deal with the confusion it entails.  For example, state identification won’t list their actual birthday. Most states assign March 1st as the birth date of people born on Feb. 29; in other cases, it’s Feb. 28th.  Some people born on Leap Day –  known as Leapers or Leaplings– only celebrate their birthday every four years.

Some cultures have traditions and customs based on the extra day flouting convention with playful abandon. In heterosexual relationships, for instance, it’s customary for men to propose marriage; but in fifth-century Ireland, legend has it that St. Patrick blessed a law (supposedly at the importuning of St. Brigid of Kildare) that reversed the custom – but only on leap days. The tradition further says that if a man refuses a woman’s proposal on Leap Day, he is to pay a fine or compensate her for the slight.  The customary gift is twelve pairs of gloves so the woman doesn’t have to show off her engagement-ring-less finger. So single men had better stock up on women’s gloves, single women should get ready to pop the question, and babies born on Feb. 29 can count on always being younger than their friends.

Here are a few more Leap Year traditions:  in Scotland, it’s considered unlucky to be born on Feb. 29; in Greece, it’s considered bad luck for a couple to marry during a leap year and especially on Leap Day; in some German villages, boys plant a small tree in the backyard of girls they have a crush on and during leap year, it’s the girls’ turn to plant the tree.

What a difference a day makes:  in one day a mayfly will live its entire life; the world’s population will grow by 208,000; 40,000 trees will be cut down to make paper bags and another 27,000 to make toilet paper; over one million tons of plastic will be produced and 22 metric tons of plastic will be dumped into the ocean; and one billion gallons of water will tumble over Niagara Falls.

Within your own body 50 trillion cells will die and be replaced; your heart will beat about 100,000 times; your blood will travel 168,000,000 miles and your kidneys will filter 3,000 pints of blood; a single blood cell will make more than 4,300 full circuits of your body; you will take approximately 20,000 breaths, inhale more than 2600 gallons of air and release about 17 oz of flatulence and lose 1.2 pints of sweat; 100,000 taste buds in your mouth will be replaced and three pints of saliva will be produced; your hair will grow by 0.01715 inches and you will lose from 40 to 100 strands.  You will speak about 48,000 words and take approximately 8,000 steps; and you will spend an average of twelve minutes in the shower and twenty minutes on the toilet.

What else will you do with your extra day? Carpe diem is a Latin phrase meaning “seize the day.” The saying is used to encourage someone to make the most of the present rather than relying on the future. The phrase is part of the longer carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero, with the translation of “seize the day, put very little trust in tomorrow” or “don’t wait for tomorrow- do it today.”

It was used by the Roman poet Horace to express the idea that one should enjoy life while one can.  It encourages people to focus on the present, appreciate the value of every moment in life, and avoid postponing things unnecessarily.  Take full advantage of life’s opportunities whenever and wherever they present themselves to live life to its full potential.

In modern English, the expression “YOLO”, meaning “you only live once”, expresses a similar sentiment. In the 1989 American film Dead Poets Society, English teacher John Keating, played by Robin Williams, famously says: “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” Later, this line was voted as one of the greatest movie quotes by the American Film Institute.

So Happy Leap Day!  Whatever you do -Make it Great!